Annual Survey of Hearing Impaired Children and Youth: 1989-90 School Year

Annual Survey of Hearing Impaired Children and Youth: ___________________1989-90 School Year___________________ Arthur N. Schildroth and Sue A. Hotto The summary data reported in the following tables represent information reported to the 1989-90 Annual Survey of Hearing Impaired Children and Youth, conducted by the Center for Assessment and Demographic Studies (CADS) at Gallaudet University's Research Institute. In Table 1, these 1989-90 data are compared with data from the 1984-85 Annual Survey to indicate possible trends within the recent educational environment of hearing impaired children and youth. In Tables 2 through 6, the data are for 1989-90 only. CADS has been conducting its national Annual Survey since 1968. Its purpose is to provide educators, legislators, and researchers with information about the numbers and characteristics of hearing impaired children in order to improve educational services to these children. Data collected by the survey include demographic, audiological, and educationally related information about the students and program information about the schools they attend. Special studies using the Annual Survey as a sampling framework have been conducted by CADS in a variety of areas: achievement testing, communication, genetics, transition into postsecondary careers. Two books have resulted from Annual Survey data collection activities, Deaf Children in America (1986) and Deaf Students and the School-to-Work Transition (1989). CADS has collaborated with the Texas Education Agency in conducting a special Texas State Survey of Hearing Impaired Children and Youth for the past 15 years. The states of Louisiana and Nebraska have also had special data collection projects in conjunction with the Annual Survey. A very large majority of the children reported to the Annual Survey are receiving primary or secondary special educational services in local public schools or in special residential or day schools. Data are also collected from private schools enrolling hearing impaired students, although the numbers are small. Since the survey is completely voluntary, the data reported to the survey do not include all hearing impaired students receiving special educational services across the United States. If the "child count" figures reported by the states to the federal government each year accurately reflect the total number of "hard of hearing and deaf' students receiving special educational services in the United States, then the Annual Survey figures represent approximately 60% of these hearing impaired children and youth. (Due to certain differences in definitions and age categories, an exact comparison of Annual Survey and "child count" data is not possible.) Coverage of residential schools by the Annual Survey has been more complete than for local schools, due largely to program dispersion and site changes at the local level. The tables below represent summary data from this survey, compiled for the benefit of Annals readers. Several comments apply to these tables. 1. The Annual Survey data reported in the tables are independent of the Annals survey, which resulted in the listing of schools and programs in this issue and in the program and services summary following that listing. Annual Survey data are confidential, i.e., the information Vol. 136, Na 2 AAD/REFERENCE 1991 155 Educational Programs for Deaf Students reported to the Annual Survey is never linked with individual schools or programs in the reports and research articles published by CADS. 2. In comparing the 1985 and 1990 survey data in Table 1, only those variables have been included for which wording and context of the questions on the survey forms were the same or equivalent for both years. In a few cases there were slight changes in wording or in context which may affect the comparisons to some small degree. 3. Age has been calculated as of December 31 for each student. 4. Hispanics may be of any race. 5. Degree of hearing loss has been calculated in terms of a better-ear average (BEA), i.e., by averaging the pure-tone thresholds for the speech range (500, 1000, and 2000 Hz) in the better ear. The "profound" category is a BEA greater than 90 dB, "severe" is a BEA between 71 and 90 dB, and "less-than-severe" a BEA of less than 71 dB. For approximately 6,000 children and youth CADS accepted a school estimate of student hearing...