Deaf Children Have Diverse School Needs

By Louis E. Abbate, EdD and Marc Marschark, PhD

Published in The Republican - Sunday, October 2, 2011

As our nation grapples with the reality of diminished resources to accommodate services for our most vulnerable fellow citizens, there is a subtle yet steady debate about whether states should continue to support schools for the deaf.

Should deaf children be educated at a separate school for the deaf or should they, instead, attend “mainstream” public schools along with hearing students?

Since the Willie Ross School utilizes both approaches—the use of sign and spoken language in a learning environment that is exclusively for deaf children on its Longmeadow campus, and a mainstreaming approach at its partnership campus embedded in the East Longmeadow public school system—the school’s experience can offer a meaningful perspective.

At the center of this debate is an article written by Professor Perry A. Zirkel concerning legal requirements with regard to educating deaf children. In brief, he emphasized that under the law deaf children are no different from any others classified as having a disability and that there must be a continuum of alternative placements so that individual children can be educated in the "Least Restrictive Environment (LRE)." LRE means that to the greatest extent appropriate, disabled children should be educated with their non-disabled peers. ?At the Willie Ross School for the Deaf, the belief is in broadening the definition of the LRE to the Most Enabling Environment (MEE) where a child’s placement in an educational setting should be based on an understanding that no child should be barred from receiving the special educational services that could help him or her succeed. 

As we consider continuing to sustain schools for the deaf, there are some important factors to consider. First, deaf children are the only individuals who may be considered both legally disabled and part of a linguistic-cultural minority. So they may not be "different under the law" but they are different from the other categories of disability recognized by the U.S. government. Second, unlike many children with disabilities, we know from a variety of studies that at least for educational purposes, "deaf children are not hearing children who can't hear." Research has demonstrated various cognitive differences between deaf and hearing children – separate from language differences – that affect how and what they learn.

Third, the question should not be whether states need schools for the deaf, but whether deaf and hard-of-hearing children need schools for the deaf. The legal mandate for alternative placements would seem to necessitate a setting akin to a school for the deaf, whether or not it is run by the state and whether or not sign language is the language of instruction. Placement, however, must be based on comprehensive evaluation by qualified individuals, such as school psychologists who can communicate effectively with deaf children, and not a matter of expedience.

There has never been a study showing that learning sign language interferes with deaf children's learning to speak. Nor has anyone shown that using speech and sign (as most schools for the deaf do) negatively affects either language development or achievement.

According to all available research, after more than a quarter century of mainstream education, the reading abilities of deaf and hard-of-hearing 18-year-olds have increased only slightly (from 50% of them reading above and below the third grade level to 50% above and below the fourth grade level). Clearly, mainstream education is not a panacea. Having said that, there are many individual students from Willie Ross who have excelled at the partnership campus in the East Longmeadow School system. There, mainstreaming is considered a service and provided on an incremental basis.

Mainstream education, by necessity, is designed for the majority of children who are relatively similar to most others. There is much to be said for educating children with special needs in regular classrooms, but placing them in those classrooms does not eliminate those special needs. If we want deaf children to succeed in school and employment, we have to provide them with the "free and appropriate education" that is their legal and moral right.

Ignoring the diversity among children and channeling them into placements of convenience might feel efficient to some, but there is no evidence that it pays off economically or academically. Our commitment must be to provide our children with what works, not what is easiest.

Louis E. Abbate, EdD is President and CEO of
Willie Ross School for the Deaf,
Longmeadow Massachusetts

Marc Marschark, PhD is a Professor and Director of the Center for Educaton Research Partnerships at the National Technical Institute for the Deaf, Rochester, New York.