Iowa School for the Deaf could become regional center

Radio Iowa: Iowa School for the Deaf could become regional center

Iowa’s special school for the deaf at Council Bluffs is expecting about 110 students when pre-kindergarten through high school classes begin next Monday. That includes some students from Nebraska because that state has closed its special school and is taking advantage of the close proximity of Iowa’s school on the western border.

Iowa Board of Regents member, Robert Downer, says enrolling Nebraska’s deaf children may be just the beginning. Downer says there are serious discussions with one other state to do something similar with the possibility of another state being added. Downer says Iowa's school could become a hub of learning for several states.

Downer says it's possible the Council Bluffs school could be something of a regional center for deaf education. School for the Deaf Superintendent, Jeanne Prickett says even after adding the Nebraska students, the school is operating at about two-thirds capacity and could accommodate 50 more students.

Oh that's a GREAT idea! I do think that with situtions where a kid is near the border of a state with a good deaf school, they should be able to have the option of going to the good deaf school. Also then the cost of the deaf school could be broken up by the states.

That's a good idea, hoping that the parents send their deaf children to a school in another state and the other state agrees to pay for it.

Also maybe a good idea might be to relocate the Departments for the dhh to the various and sundry schools for the deaf.

I agree. Now we just need to encourage the parents.

Regional schools for the deaf sounds good, probably is effective in many ways.

Perhaps, elsewhere in the US could soon model after Iowa School for the Deaf. They should probably change to neutral names for the schools serving students from multiple states.