Education of the Deaf in America: K-12, post-secondary/graduate, and the variety of Deaf Education Programs

Question: What type of education was available to Deaf/Hard of Hearing students in the early years of America?

Answer: Sadly, very few options were available, until 1817 when the first School for the Deaf was founded in Hartford, CT—originally named The Connecticut Asylum (at Hartford) for the Education and Instruction of Deaf and Dumb Persons (now called American School for the Deaf [ASD]). Deaf children were spread all over the country, including the far-flung and isolated frontier lands. Once ASD opened, parents sent their Deaf children to ASD to finally get educated. (Many had "home signs" or gestures that had limited meaning to their families, but were by no means organized and systematic languages. At ASD, Laurent Clerc, a French teacher from Paris' School for the Deaf, taught using LSF...which the students quickly "butchered" and modified to match their idea of what was "American". Old ASL + LSF became "Modern ASL" in the mid-1800s!)

Education slowly rolled out across America as ASD graduates (high school diplomas only) made their way back home and westward, establishing schools for the Deaf and teaching/administering them. It wasn't until 1864 when Abraham Lincoln passed the Congressional Charter that founded Gallaudet College in D.C. that Deaf professionals and educators finally had a chance at obtaining post-secondary/higher degrees.

Question: What's the recent history of Deaf Education in America?

Answer: Prior to the passage of the Education for all Handicapped Children Act (EHA) 1975, many deaf children (usually from hearing parents who didn't know sign language, American Deaf Culture, or anyone from the Deaf Community) were sent to their state's "Residential School for the Deaf". The sign for this was INSTITUTE, like SCHOOL, but with I-CL handshapes.

Hearing parents knew that sending their children away (similar to a boarding school) wasn't the best option, but many local school districts in their home neighborhoods didn't have skilled staff or exceptional programs to deal with a "high-risk, low-incidence" category such as "deaf and hard of hearing" [DHH]. ("High risk", since deafness was sometimes accompanied by other health/medical issues, developmental delays, genetic defects, and multiple syndromes affecting language/cognition/ability to thrive. "Low incidence", because compared to the number of hearing/sighted "typical" children in any one school district, there were usually a small number of DHH students—sometimes 1, occasionally 2-3, rarely more than 10-15!)

Each state funded a "Residential School for the Deaf"/Institute, which had dormitories for the students to live in during the week. Somewhat-local students might be afforded the opportunity to go back home on the weekends, though it was usually up to parents to drive 1-4+ hours one way to get them on a Friday afternoon, then bring them back on Sunday evening! Many students lived there throughout the school year, just going home during major holidays - Winter Break, Spring Break, and 2-3 months for summer.

Larger states (CA, TX, NY) had to establish more than one, due to population and geographic size of the state. CA has had 3: CSDR (California School for the Deaf Riverside), CSDB (California School for the Deaf Berkeley), and CSDF (California School for the Deaf Fremont). Since the '70s, CSDB closed and all students from northern CA were transferred to CSDF...or offered to attend their local district DHH programs.

At one point in time, there were 3 catholic Schools for the Deaf (St. Rita School for the Deaf, Cincinnati, OH; St. John's School for the Deaf, St. Francis, WI; and St. Mary's School for the Deaf, Buffalo, NY). Now, only St. Rita School for the Deaf and St. Mary's School for the Deaf are left. These Catholic schools accepted students from outside of their states, even admitting international Deaf students, increasing their overall student numbers and contributing to their longevity.

The pros of attending a School for the Deaf was that ASL was usually the primary language of the students, Deaf Faculty, and Deaf Staff! Language and culture were passed down and shared with older students, who then passed cultural knowledge and know-how to younger students. Fluency in a first language (ASL) helped establish a strong experiential base for students who may have been language deprived for the first 5-7 years of their lives amongst all-hearing family members. Lived experience and wisdom ensured that American Deaf Culture and ASL would prosper and perpetuate into the future.

Cons of some Schools for the Deaf were delayed/reduced focus on academics and worldly knowledge, thus failing to adequately prepare Deaf students to survive in a hearing world on par with their hearing counterparts. Remedial English, Sciences, and History were almost always required for Deaf students from Residential Schools for the Deaf, in order for them to qualify to begin their freshman/1st year of college.

Students at Gallaudet College were known to take at least "5 years" to earn a 4-year BA degree, with their first year being a "Bridge Program" year. This pre-freshman year was filled with remedial courses to get incoming Deaf students up to speed with traditional freshman collegiate-level course content. This also allowed incoming students to fill in the gaps in their academic knowledge before declaring a major and deciding on their futures.

Some students were adequately prepared and finished their BA degrees in 4 years, even going on to complete post-graduate upper-level degrees of study (at Gallaudet or other nearby D.C. universities).

Question: And now, what educational options are out there for Deaf children in America?

Answer: Many parents don't want to send their Deaf/HH children away to what amounts to "boarding school". Instead, they've used the disability/accessibility laws and other educational laws (state and federal!) to fight for keeping their children in their home districts, forcing their local school systems to create "Special Education: Deaf/HH Programs" to house their children! School systems have to hire Teachers of the Deaf (TODs), ASL-English Interpreters (both in the DHH classrooms and in General Education classrooms where DHH students join their hearing peers), Speech Language Pathologists (Speech Teachers), Audiologists, Occupational Therapists, School Psychologists (with experience and training working with DHH K-12 students), etc.

Many school districts found the costs to be overly exorbitant, causing parents to sue them and work their way through the local, state, and federal court circuits. Ultimately, school districts have typically lost, since even the court systems are sympathetic with parents who want to keep their children "local" and not sent away to boarding schools. Therefore, school districts have found ways to combine their programs at a few select schools: 1 elementary school, 1 middle school, and 1 high school are chosen to house the DHH program for each level of children. All the students in the district who qualify for DHH services are bussed to that 1 school for their entire time there. These three levels may be near to each other, or spread all across the district. Sometimes the school location might change from year to year, depending on many factors (including funding, # of students within that school's boundaries, placement of qualified teachers, etc.).

There are occasionally certain bastions around the country that still host and advocate for "oral only" educational programs. In these programs, the families (and thus the School Districts) employ Speech Language Pathologists, Lipreading "specialists", and Teachers who use only spoken English and written English to communicate with the deaf students. Students are not allowed to sign/gesture or otherwise attempt to communicate in any way that is not spoken or written English. They attempt to make use of their residual hearing by wearing powerful hearings aids or have cochlear implants (electronic devices surgically implanted into the cochlea, an organ within the inner ear, and also requiring an external magnetic/CPU processor device that's worn on the outside of the skull/near ventral-parietal lobe).

Teachers will make use of FM Loops (enclosed radio-wave loops surrounding the perimeter of the classroom connecting the teacher-worn microphone to the radio frequency-receiving portion of the students' hearing aids/cochlear implants.

Students who are mildly deaf/hard of hearing may succeed, though they may become more deaf as they get older, eventually losing much of their residual normal hearing. These students are seen by the "Oral-only" programs as "oral failures" if they cannot effectively read lips and communicate via clear spoken English. Many students get frustrated (teachers turning around and speaking, obscuring their mouths [with hands, mustaches, and now masks!], or even their inability to understand fellow students!) and are transferred to the signing Schools for the Deaf or local public school Deaf/HH signing Programs (again, labeled as "oral failures").

It's rare for students starting at Schools for the Deaf to transfer out to Oral-only programs, since the D/HH students are typically easily able to acquire fluency in ASL and socialization skills/peer-friendships. Academics follow logically, since the students already have a strong foundation in their L1 (first language, a visual-gestural language that is natural and normal for Deaf people to obtain!).

Question: And what about the quality of education now?

Answer: We're learning ASL...a bona fide language that has grammar, syntax, and a verified linguistic structure. It is it's own language and is not "based on English" or other spoken languages. It's most closely related to French Sign Language (LSF, ~40%-60%), but has since acquired signs and concepts from other signed languages in recent years.

Because many hearing parents don't have the time, talent, or ability to learn ASL fluently, they have decided that some of the Manually Coded English (MCE) systems are more appropriate for their child to receive instruction in, on a daily basis. Therefore, teachers and interpreters are supposed to only sign in, for example, "SEE1 or SEE2", both created systems that have no native users, but are based on substitution systems between ASL and English. Sometimes the individual signing systems don't care whether or not the chosen sign is conceptually accurate, makes sense, or is an actual ASL sign that native users know!

Deaf students are also being taught and signed to in manually coded systems that no other Deaf adults know or use regularly. Thus, when these Deaf students grow up and graduate, they are sorely disappointed that they've never signed "ASL", have never been fluent in an actual signed language, and will have to work doubly hard in college (and in the real world) to interact with and create a space for themselves in the American Deaf Community...which uses and values ASL above all other modes of communication!

(Think of Signed English or any other MCE as a code, like Braille or Morse Code. People know these systems and recognize them as mere substitutions for written English. The rules and grammar of English must be followed when using Braille or Morse, for other English-fluent speakers/readers to also understand Braille/Morse...but these systems can easily be coded for any other written language. ASL isn't a "code" for any other language. It's a full-fledge language in and of itself. Think about asking: "What does English stand for in Russian?" It doesn't. They're separate bona fide languages, period! And it's ridiculous to assume otherwise.)

And it's not the fault of parents, who are told that "Manually Coded English Systems are easier for you to learn, and then communicate with your own child!"...though such systems may or may not be easy for Deaf children to acquire.

That said, there has been a relatively recent influx of Deaf professionals from all walks of life. There are Deaf Lawyers, Doctors, Dentists, Nurses, Psychologists, Psychiatrists, Pharmacologists, etc. There are those who are Deaf and Blind and also working in many professional fields, thanks to the increase and training of skilled Tactile ASL-English Interpreters! And Deaf people can even be Interpreters, working with International Deaf immigrants, children with little-to-no formal language, mental health/medical situations where d/Deaf may be mentally altered and communicate in atypical ways (or cannot be understood by hearing interpreters where ASL is their 2nd language).

Deaf are Professors, Researchers, Construction Workers, Entrepreneurs, Actors, Musicians, Rappers, Tradespeople, Independent Contractors, Realtors, Travel Agents, Motocross Champions, Athletes, and in every other field out there! They are only held back by the quality and training of their interpreters and teachers.

Question: What and where are some other famous Deaf Schools/Programs for the Deaf?

Answer: You already know about Gallaudet University in Washington, D.C. There's also NTID, the National Technical Institute for the Deaf, in Rochester, NY, on Rochester Institute of Technology's (RIT) campus.

In California, CSU Northridge (CSUN) has a large Deaf student population due to its Deaf Studies BA with 5 different specializations/foci, including Educational Interpreting and Deaf Cultural studies. (Click on Academic Programs in the top ribbon under the header pictures for information about the 5 Major options.)

Texas has SWCID - Southwest Collegiate Institute on Deafness, a program out of Howard College in Big Spring, TX (about 490 miles east of Dallas). It's a 2-year AA Paraprofessional and Technical College providing technical/workforce, remedial, and continuing education.

There are many other schools and educational opportunities out there for Deaf/HH students, but the above are the main 4, drawing large populations of Deaf/HH students who settle down and start families, making the locales "Deaf Community hubs" for more access and acceptance of ASL and Deaf people in the neighborhoods. More Deaf = more access (Deaf-friendly businesses/services) and more interpreters!

American School for the Deaf (ASD), Hartford, CT [website] [Class]

St. John's School for the Deaf, St. Francis, WI [website]

St. Mary's School for the Deaf, Buffalo, NY [website]

St. Rita School for the Deaf, Cincinnati, OH [website]

The History of Deaf Education in America - Wikipedia [website] [Book]