Miss-Delectable
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Deaf School, Public School Team Up
10-year-old Ricky Shafer is going to a new school and a new situation. He's part of a plan bringing together a public and charter school on the same campus.
This partnership lets students who are deaf and those who can hear learn together.
Ricky is 10-years-old, but reads at a 1st- or 2nd-grade level.
The way it was going, we'd be lucky to get him into high school after 8th grade let alone college. It wouldn't happen," says his father Rick Shafer.
His parents worried that part of the problem was that he was isolated in a school with only students like him. So they enrolled him in a charter school -- called Sequoia School for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing.
Sequoia opened a campus on the grounds of the Phoenix public school Richard E. Miller Elementary.
Children will spend part of the day socializing with hearing students nearby, taking classes together such as art, P.E. and reading.
"I want him to feel good about who he is being deaf and being in the hearing world too," his mother, Karen Anderson said.
"Because we share a campus with hearing students, we teach our students how to socialize, communicate," Dr. Angel Ramos, Sequoia's superintendent. "We really focus on language development, making sure that the students can read and write. When they graduate, they go onto college."
They hope that in both worlds, Ricky will learn faster. And the hearing students in the public school will have a chance to learn sign language.
10-year-old Ricky Shafer is going to a new school and a new situation. He's part of a plan bringing together a public and charter school on the same campus.
This partnership lets students who are deaf and those who can hear learn together.
Ricky is 10-years-old, but reads at a 1st- or 2nd-grade level.
The way it was going, we'd be lucky to get him into high school after 8th grade let alone college. It wouldn't happen," says his father Rick Shafer.
His parents worried that part of the problem was that he was isolated in a school with only students like him. So they enrolled him in a charter school -- called Sequoia School for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing.
Sequoia opened a campus on the grounds of the Phoenix public school Richard E. Miller Elementary.
Children will spend part of the day socializing with hearing students nearby, taking classes together such as art, P.E. and reading.
"I want him to feel good about who he is being deaf and being in the hearing world too," his mother, Karen Anderson said.
"Because we share a campus with hearing students, we teach our students how to socialize, communicate," Dr. Angel Ramos, Sequoia's superintendent. "We really focus on language development, making sure that the students can read and write. When they graduate, they go onto college."
They hope that in both worlds, Ricky will learn faster. And the hearing students in the public school will have a chance to learn sign language.