2205

RIGHTS OF STUDENTS WHO ARE
DEAF, HARD-OF-HEARING, OR DEAF-BLIND
POLICY



The Board of Education is committed to providing quality educational opportunities for all students with disabilities, including those who are deaf, hard-of-hearing, and deaf-blind. This commitment includes ensuring instructional programming that safeguards the following rights for students who are deaf, hard-of-hearing, and deaf-blind:

1. The right to qualified teachers, interpreters, support services staff, and resource personnel who can communicate effectively with the child using the child’s own mode of communication, be it (a) a signed system based on English Code; (b) American Sign Language; (c) an oral system; or (d) a simultaneous communication system as determined with appropriate diagnostic information, consideration of the student’s learning style, and collaboration with the student’s educational planning team, including parents and guardians;


2. The right to associate with peers, including age, cognitive, and language appropriate peers;


3. The right to exposure to adult role models who are deaf, hard-of-hearing, or deaf-blind;


4. The right to have American Sign Language as one of the academic subjects in their educational curriculum when the child’s identified primary language is considered to be American Sign Language;


5. The right to appropriate screening and assessment of hearing and vision capabilities and communication and language needs at the earliest possible age, and to continuing screening services throughout the child’s educational experience;


6. The right to early intervention to facilitate the acquisition of a solid language base or bases to be developed at the earliest possible age;


7. The right to their parents’ or guardians’ full, informed participation in their educational planning;


8. The right to individual consideration for free and appropriate public education across a full spectrum of educational programs;


9. The right to placement that is best suited to the child’s individual needs including but not limited to social, emotional, cultural needs, age, hearing loss, visual acuity, academic level, mode of communication, style of learning, and motivational and family support;


10. The right to equal access to all academic programs in their educational settings and supplemented with necessary and appropriate support services; and


11. The right to equal access to all school-supported non-academic extracurricular and athletic programs supplemented with necessary and appropriate support services.

Approved: 1/22/98