Last night we had a successful Public Meeting on Deaf Education at the Sanderson Community Center. About 90 people were in attendance, including several parents of deaf children. Quite a few from the general Deaf community were present too, including two members from the UAD board. The lecture hall was almost full!
With assistance from Cheralyn Creer, member of the blind community and mother of a blind child, and Minnie Mae Wilding-Diaz, mother of three Deaf children, Jodi Kinner (mother of two Deaf children) did a wonderful job in presenting the issues with the current draft of the Utah Code that regulates USDB. There are two main concerns that were brought up and we need to make sure we give our opinions to the Utah State Office of Education during the Input Meeting on July 31 (from 7:00 - 9:00 p.m. in the Lecture Hall of the Sanderson Community Center).
Look up the information at this website: -http://utahdeafeducation.blogspot.com/ (Editor's note: this blog site). Leave messages (Editor's note: which means comments on this blog site) so that we continue to keep up our discussion about the new draft of the law and make sure USOE hears our voice (hands)!
Thanks Deaf Community!
Julio Diaz
Friday, July 18, 2008
Saturday, July 5, 2008
Part 5: USDB Five Points of Discussion
Discussion Issues Regarding Utah School for the Deaf
July 16, 2008 - 6 to 9 p.m.
Salt Lake City
Below you will find five points of discussion; these were adapted from the Five Points developed by the Blind Community for their own meeting. We will discuss them thoroughly at our meeting for parents and the Deaf community on Wednesday, July 16 to help prepare for our input session on July 31.
1. Those who meet the definition of deaf/hard of hearing and those who meet the definition of hearing impairment. This includes those with disabilities in addition to being deaf and hard of hearing.
2. Those with hearing loss (deaf and hard of hearing) birth through 21 years of age.
3. Those with functional hearing loss diagnosed by qualified professionals
4. Those who have a diagnosis that indicates a progressive hearing loss.
Note: Children who meet the definitions of deaf/hearing impairment listed above and who can benefit from linguistically, academically, communicatively, and socially are eligible for admission to USD even when they do not qualify for special education services under IDEA.
Early intervention
Instruction in academic core subjects
Adoption of the State Core Curriculum to fit the visual abilities of the students, whether they speak or sign.
Crucial content of the curriculum: Language, Reading, Writing, Deaf Culture, Speech Development and Aural Habilitation.
The State Board of Education must adopt Standards for Education of children who are deaf and/or hard of hearing and delineate USDB and LEA responsibilities for their education.
USD shall be responsible for ensuring maximum language and communication access of deaf and hard of hearing children both at USDB and mainstreamed in LEAs.
USDB must ensure that deaf and hard of hearing children receive a more intense education in their earlier education years
Every Child’s/Student’s placements must involve USD.
USD must implement and maintain a register of all students with hearing loss and track student placements and progress.
USD must provide a continuum of placement options.
Note: IDEA requires providing a full continuum of alternative educational placements, including special schools (deaf schools) for deaf and hard of hearing students.
The School for the Deaf should have a superintendent—not an assistant superintendent or other management position.
The superintendent should report directly to the State Board of Education through the State Superintendent of Public Instruction.
Note: Two superintendents equal in authority and access to the Board of Education could, through letters of agreement, share facilities and other mutually beneficial resources and staff.
July 16, 2008 - 6 to 9 p.m.
Salt Lake City
Below you will find five points of discussion; these were adapted from the Five Points developed by the Blind Community for their own meeting. We will discuss them thoroughly at our meeting for parents and the Deaf community on Wednesday, July 16 to help prepare for our input session on July 31.
Who should USD serve?
1. Those who meet the definition of deaf/hard of hearing and those who meet the definition of hearing impairment. This includes those with disabilities in addition to being deaf and hard of hearing.
2. Those with hearing loss (deaf and hard of hearing) birth through 21 years of age.
3. Those with functional hearing loss diagnosed by qualified professionals
4. Those who have a diagnosis that indicates a progressive hearing loss.
Note: Children who meet the definitions of deaf/hearing impairment listed above and who can benefit from linguistically, academically, communicatively, and socially are eligible for admission to USD even when they do not qualify for special education services under IDEA.
What services are needed by deaf and hard of hearing children?
Early intervention
Instruction in academic core subjects
Adoption of the State Core Curriculum to fit the visual abilities of the students, whether they speak or sign.
Crucial content of the curriculum: Language, Reading, Writing, Deaf Culture, Speech Development and Aural Habilitation.
What are the responsibilities of USDB and LEAs?
The State Board of Education must adopt Standards for Education of children who are deaf and/or hard of hearing and delineate USDB and LEA responsibilities for their education.
USD shall be responsible for ensuring maximum language and communication access of deaf and hard of hearing children both at USDB and mainstreamed in LEAs.
USDB must ensure that deaf and hard of hearing children receive a more intense education in their earlier education years
Every Child’s/Student’s placements must involve USD.
USD must implement and maintain a register of all students with hearing loss and track student placements and progress.
USD must provide a continuum of placement options.
Note: IDEA requires providing a full continuum of alternative educational placements, including special schools (deaf schools) for deaf and hard of hearing students.
What Governing and administrative structure should be in place?
The School for the Deaf should have a superintendent—not an assistant superintendent or other management position.
The superintendent should report directly to the State Board of Education through the State Superintendent of Public Instruction.
Note: Two superintendents equal in authority and access to the Board of Education could, through letters of agreement, share facilities and other mutually beneficial resources and staff.
The superintendent must have university training from an accredited program in the education of the deaf/hard of hearing and have relevant administrative experience.
Because the cost of appropriate education of children who are deaf or hard of hearing impaired is significantly higher, on average, no per child formula funding can be used.
How should services be funded?
Because the cost of appropriate education of children who are deaf or hard of hearing impaired is significantly higher, on average, no per child formula funding can be used.
Part 4: USDB Structure
USDB Structure
Because of costs of creating two separate agencies and administrative related issues, it is recommended that USDB remain one agency with the following administrative structure:
One Superintendent with demonstrated administrative expertise and an understanding of special education law who serve as the CEO of the USDB, with
- An Assistant Superintendent over the School for the Deaf who has expertise in deaf education; and
- An Assistant Superintendent over the School for the Blind who has expertise in blind education and an understanding of the need of educating deafblind students.
However, it is preferred that the School for the Deaf has a superintendent—not an assistant superintendent or other management position.
Why?
• Less layers in the USDB administrative system
• Less favoritism of one program over another – impossible to remain neutral over two or three philosophical programs
• Job would be less overwhelming - a better job would be done
• Allow the Program Administrators (Principals) more authority to run their program/school based on their expertise
The superintendent should report directly to the State Board of Education through the State Superintendent of Public Instruction.
We ask for your support for structuring two USDB superintendents into the system: one for The Utah School for the Deaf and one for The Utah School for the Blind. Two superintendents, each equal in authority and access to the Board of Education.
Part 3: USDB Admission Process
USDB Admission Process: Who should USDB serve?
During the process of revising the Utah Code regulating USDB, the Writing Committee (including Utah State Office of Education) originally planned to amend the California Admission Process to our proposal. However during one of the meetings of the Legislative Task Force, a concern was discussed about who could be admitted to USDB.
Do we want primarily deaf and blind and deaf-blind students to attend USDB? Or do we want USDB to mainly serve students with multi-disabilities? Right now, the primarily deaf/blind/deaf-blind students are often mainstreamed while the multi-disabled students are served at USDB campuses or buildings. Because of old eligibility requirements, USDB has limit resource/service for deaf & hard of hearing students without additional disabilities. CA’s Admission law can provide schooling for all deaf children through primarily deaf education.
We tried to incorporate the language that is found in the California Code for CSD and CSB to focus USDB service towards students who were primarily deaf and blind, but due to disagreements in the USDB Legislative Task Force, we reached a compromise regarding the language in our proposal. Instead of putting our admission goals into law, the compromised proposal states that USDB “may” develop policies and guidelines regarding admission requirements; this is not as strong as the California code. See the proposed Admission section below:
Section 7 USDB Entrance Policies and Procedures
(1) Under the direction of the Board, the USDB Superintendent, in conjunction with the Utah School for the Deaf and the Utah School for the Blind, may establish policies and procedures that IEP and Section 504 teams are to consider in making placement recommendations at USDB. http://www.uad.org/DeafEd/utah_code/usdblegrec.pdf
Information on Section 7 (above) and the Admission Process for the California School for the Deaf and the California School for the Blind can be found in the UAD website for those of you who want to read the law for yourself. Refer to the UAD website link www.UAD.org and enter Utah Code, you will find California Code. http://www.uad.org/DeafEd/utah_code/Calif%20admission.pdf
We ask for your support for incorporating the California Code regarding admission into our proposed revision of the Utah Code for USDB and replacing “USDB Entrance Policies and Procedures” with “Admission law.” It will define better who USDB is and help us go back to what USDB used to be more than 30 years ago.
During the process of revising the Utah Code regulating USDB, the Writing Committee (including Utah State Office of Education) originally planned to amend the California Admission Process to our proposal. However during one of the meetings of the Legislative Task Force, a concern was discussed about who could be admitted to USDB.
Do we want primarily deaf and blind and deaf-blind students to attend USDB? Or do we want USDB to mainly serve students with multi-disabilities? Right now, the primarily deaf/blind/deaf-blind students are often mainstreamed while the multi-disabled students are served at USDB campuses or buildings. Because of old eligibility requirements, USDB has limit resource/service for deaf & hard of hearing students without additional disabilities. CA’s Admission law can provide schooling for all deaf children through primarily deaf education.
We tried to incorporate the language that is found in the California Code for CSD and CSB to focus USDB service towards students who were primarily deaf and blind, but due to disagreements in the USDB Legislative Task Force, we reached a compromise regarding the language in our proposal. Instead of putting our admission goals into law, the compromised proposal states that USDB “may” develop policies and guidelines regarding admission requirements; this is not as strong as the California code. See the proposed Admission section below:
Section 7 USDB Entrance Policies and Procedures
(1) Under the direction of the Board, the USDB Superintendent, in conjunction with the Utah School for the Deaf and the Utah School for the Blind, may establish policies and procedures that IEP and Section 504 teams are to consider in making placement recommendations at USDB. http://www.uad.org/DeafEd/utah_code/usdblegrec.pdf
Information on Section 7 (above) and the Admission Process for the California School for the Deaf and the California School for the Blind can be found in the UAD website for those of you who want to read the law for yourself. Refer to the UAD website link www.UAD.org and enter Utah Code, you will find California Code. http://www.uad.org/DeafEd/utah_code/Calif%20admission.pdf
We ask for your support for incorporating the California Code regarding admission into our proposed revision of the Utah Code for USDB and replacing “USDB Entrance Policies and Procedures” with “Admission law.” It will define better who USDB is and help us go back to what USDB used to be more than 30 years ago.
Part 2: USDB Update on Eligibility Protocol
USDB: Update on Eligibility Protocol
For many years, because of the Utah Code that regulated Utah Schools for the Deaf and the Blind (USDB), USDB served only students who were qualified for special education under IDEA. This Code directly impacts the ability of USDB to provide services to all deaf, blind and deaf-blind students because it requires all USDB students to have IEP goals set up. That means when students achieve academically on grade-level, they were no longer qualified for special education. They are thus automatically moved out of the USDB/JMS system and placed in a mainstream setting at their local school districts, out of USDB’s jurisdiction.
During this transition in placement, aspects of students’ language, communication and social needs were often overlooked and not always addressed in the mainstream setting. Families moved out of the state to other school districts to obtain better school placement choices.
On February 6, 2008, a group of concerned legislators sent a letter to the Utah State Board of Education (USBE) regarding the eligibility of students to be served by USDB. On February 28, 2008, the Institutional Council (IC) voted unanimously to allow deaf, blind and deaf-blind students who achieve grade level standards to remain at USDB. Upon IC’s approval, Karl Wilson, liaison to USDB from Utah State Office of Education, responded to Utah State Legislature’s letter concerning USDB in the USBE meeting on March 7, 2008. He requested that USBE allow students who are achieving at or above grade-level to continue to be served by USDB until the USDB Legislative Task Force develops language for a permanent revision to the Utah Code for the 2009 legislative session.
Language that revises the eligibility requirements would mean that a wider variety of grade-level students, thus raising academic expectations overall.
Part 1: USDB Legislative Meetings
USDB Legislative Recommendations Meetings
“Public Meeting for Deaf Community and Parents.” We will have a meeting on Wednesday, July 16th from 6:00 to 9:00 PM at the Sanderson Community Center. It’ll help us understand what is behind the new state statute (i.e. eligibility, structure and placement) for USDB. That way, we can prepare to make written comments and/or presentations for our own Public Input Session with USOE on July 31.We will discuss the five points.
“Public Input Sessions: Utah State Office of Education Utah Schools for the Deaf and the Blind Legislative Recommendations.” The dates and times for the USDB Public Input Sessions have been updated. Ours is on Thursday, July 31 from 7:00 to 9:00 PM at the Sanderson Community Center. Please mark it on your calendar! The meeting will be a great opportunity to make comments about the legislative recommendations for the new state statute for USDB.
If you are unable to attend either of the meetings, there is opportunity to send in written comments on the statue. Written comments may be FAXED to 801-538-7991 Att. Karl Wilson or mailed by August 7 to: Karl Wilson Utah State Office of Education 250 East 500 South P.O. Box 144200, Salt Lake City, Utah 84114-4200
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