The Parents' Guide to Cochlear Implants

8. School Placement Issues

97 SCHOOL PLACEMENT ISSUES School Placement Issues Chapter 8 The education of deaf children has long been a topic of great controversy. The basic argument revolves around how a deaf child should be educated: orally or using a form of manual communication . These options were outlined in the previous chapter from the perspective of a family making a communication choice after the initial identification of hearing loss. Oftentimes, schools and programs for deaf children align themselves with particular philosophies. Professionals in the field of deaf education have,within their lifetime,seen movement from one end of the communication continuum to the other. Proponents of each philosophy have touted the success of its stars and have urged adoption of that strategy for all deaf children. It is now generally accepted that there is no one way that all deaf children should communicate and that a host of factors contribute to the parents’ decision about a communication mode for their individual child. The first decision that parents have to make for their deaf child is to select a communication modality. Unfortunately, this important decision must be made as soon as possible so that the parents can begin the natural process of communicating with their child. For parents of a very young, newly identified deaf child, the next decision, the decision of where the deaf child is to be educated does not present itself until somewhat later. As the child approaches the age of three and reaches the end of eligibility for Early Intervention services, the parent is offered educational options from which to choose. Today’s choices vary significantly and have grown out of both social and legislative 98 CHAPTER 8 movements. A closer look at how events and circumstances of the past have shaped current educational placement options may prove helpful. A Historical Perspective on Educational Placement Choice Before the passage of the landmark legislation known as Public Law (PL) 94-142 (the Education for All Handicapped Children Act, now known as IDEA—Individuals with Disabilities Education Act) in 1975, the question of where a deaf child was to be educated was rarely asked. Prior to that legislation, parents essentially had two options—a day or residential school for deaf children, either publicly or privately run, or public school. It should be noted that, prior to 1975, public school services were often reserved for only high-achieving, orally educated deaf students . At that time, there were virtually no support systems in place for students with special needs in regular school programs. Those children who were successful in class received no services through the school and relied upon parental or private outside help. After the passage of PL 94-142, however, services for all children with learning differences improved markedly. For deaf children,this resulted in an increased number of educational placements in the public schools and in regional day programs. Regional Schools for Deaf Children Regional schools or programs for deaf children were generally formed when a number of communities joined together to develop services for students with hearing loss. Each participating community contributed to the pool of monies used to finance the program. Deaf children from various towns traveled to a central location where education and support services were 99 SCHOOL PLACEMENT ISSUES clustered.A regional program could be housed in a stand-alone facility or could operate in a section of a neighborhood school. Educational services for deaf children were centralized for a number of reasons. First,since the occurrence of deafness in the general population is relatively low,an individual town might not have enough children to form a class. Bringing children from several communities together enabled school districts to create a critical mass from which class-sized groups could be organized to provide appropriate instruction. Regionalization of programs also allowed for the sharing of instructional costs and the expense of related support required by deaf children. These included audiology, speech, language, and interpreter services as well as amplification equipment. One of the negative aspects associated with these regionalized programs for deaf children was the travel time required for many of the students. In heavily congested areas, traffic volume was a problem; in rural areas, sheer distance to the center accounted for the long travel time. Day Classes for Deaf Children When individual communities had a sufficient number of students to make a class of their own, day classes for deaf children were established and housed...