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Proposed bill of rights highlights concerns of Maine's deaf students
Maggie Hoyt can't hear, so sign language interpreters in her classes at Portland High School help the 16-year-old sophomore understand what her teachers are saying.
Teachers trained in working with the deaf also assist her and 11 other deaf or partially deaf students at the school. In addition, the school offers American Sign Language classes for hearing students -- providing a way for deaf and hearing classmates to communicate with each other.
But it's unusual that deaf and partially deaf students in Maine get such a range of services in their public schools, according to advocates. Often, a deaf student may be the only hearing-impaired child in a school and is socially isolated, unable to talk directly to hearing classmates.
Also, most deaf and partially deaf students need more help in the classroom than just having an interpreter sign what the teacher is saying. Lack of hearing can cause delays in language development, so hearing-impaired students frequently lag behind hearing students in such basic skills as reading and writing unless they get special assistance.
Such concerns are why the Maine Educational Center for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing is proposing that the state establish a Deaf and Hard of Hearing Children's Educational Bill of Rights. The proposed legislation, sponsored by Maine's House Speaker Glenn Cummings, D-Portland, will be considered by the 123rd Legislature when it convenes this month.
The bill is designed to ensure that hearing-impaired students have optimal access to something without which learning is not possible: communication. The language of the bill is still in the process of being written. However, the bill is expected to strongly advocate for including an expert in deaf education in meetings at which teachers, administrators and parents determine a student's learning needs.
It also will recommend other measures, such as providing students with deaf and partially deaf role models, and helping them be fully involved in school activities, ranging from recess to athletics.
The bill's fiscal impact has not yet been determined, but the head of the state-run Maine Educational Center for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing said additional costs to schools districts should be minimal.
A draft of the proposed legislation says that if Maine enacts such a bill, it will join Arkansas, California, Colorado, Louisiana, Montana, New Mexico, Rhode Island and South Dakota in passing measures to afford deaf and partially deaf students the same quality of education that hearing students receive.
Maggie, an Edgecomb resident who has attended public schools with hearing students all her life, thinks a bill of rights for deaf students is a good idea. "It shows that we're just the same as hearing students and we need to have equal rights," she said, speaking in ASL through an interpreter.
Maine has a school for deaf and partially deaf students: the Governor Baxter School for the Deaf on Mackworth Island in Falmouth. The school is part of the Maine Educational Center for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing.
About 60 students receive services directly at the island campus. However, most of Maine's deaf and partially deaf students -- more than 600 youngsters throughout the state -- attend hearing schools in their home communities and receive outreach services from the center.
It is in those schools where educational services for hearing-impaired students often are lacking, said Jim Gemmell, communications director for the Maine Educational Center for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing and the Governor Baxter School for the Deaf. The legislation is designed to draw attention to that fact, he said.
"This is a bill that would raise awareness," Gemmell said. "Often the thinking is that if an interpreter is provided, that will take care of all a child's communication needs. This is not the case."
A draft summary of the bill states that it's critical that Maine work to ensure that deaf and partially deaf students have quality communication throughout the school day. It also says that deaf and partially deaf students need teachers and other staff who understand "the unique nature of deafness" and student peers with whom they can freely communicate.
Larry Taub, superintendent of the Maine Educational Center for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing and the Governor Baxter School for the Deaf, said he proposed having Maine adopt a bill of rights to not only raise awareness in school districts but also to help families of hearing-impaired children realize what their needs and rights are.
"I, as a deaf individual, want to ensure that the needs of children who are deaf and hard of hearing are advocated for since they cannot advocate for themselves yet," Taub said in a written statement. He said the bill of rights will "arm (parents) with all the necessary information they need in order to effectively advocate and make informed decisions based on the individual needs of their children."
An existing federal law -- the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act -- governs the services schools provide for students with special-education needs. However, Gemmell said the federal law doesn't go far enough.
For example, he said, the federal law doesn't specify, as the Maine legislation would, that someone who is a specialist in deaf education should evaluate a deaf or partially deaf child. Those evaluations are being done now by special-education teachers who usually are generalists and don't know much about the specific needs of the deaf, Taub and Gemmell said.
Cummings, who is a former chairman of the Legislature's Education Committee, said that having such a specialist involved "could have a significant impact on some of the educational decisions that are made."
Taub said the extra cost associated with including such an expert would be "minimal in terms of current practices as far as special-education processes are concerned."
Gemmell said the bill will be largely advisory in this time of tight state and local school budgets. He said that there will be "few if any mandates in the bill because at this point in time, it was unrealistic." Instead, he said, the bill "serves as a starting point to address the very special needs of deaf and hard of hearing kids in our state."
Some schools in Maine already are doing some of what the proposed legislation advocates.
For example, when Maggie Hoyt was younger, she attended Edgecomb Eddy Elementary School and had a very positive experience there, said Maggie's mother, Susie Stephenson of Edgecomb. Maggie was the only deaf student in the tiny school of about 80 students, but the school hired both an interpreter for her and a teacher for the deaf.
The hearing students in school learned ASL so they and Maggie could communicate freely without an adult to interpret. "We used it as a second language instead of German or French or Spanish," said Stephenson, who used to teach at the school.
Joanne Krawic, principal of the elementary school, said the expense of hiring a specialized teacher for one student was at times challenging for the school district, but she said hearing students gained from the experience. "We have kids who really benefited from being in school with Maggie," she said. "They're still interested in signing now."
And Stephenson said Maggie fit in well socially. "She had a lot of friends," she said.
When Maggie attended Wiscasset Middle School, she blossomed as an athlete, playing basketball and soccer, her mother said. Maggie said schools should ensure that deaf and partially deaf students get a chance to be involved with sports and after-school clubs for the social opportunities they offer.
She now attends Portland High School, but is actually a student at Governor Baxter School for the Deaf. Ever since Baxter closed its tiny high school in 2003, its students in grades 9 through 12 have attended Portland High School.
The two schools forged a special agreement in which the deaf students attend mainstream classes but get the support services they need. And Baxter provides an ASL teacher so hearing students can learn a new language and be able to communicate with their deaf classmates.
At Portland High School, Maggie receives much of the kind of educational support envisioned in the proposed bill of rights legislation. However, she has a suggestion for making the school experience even better for deaf and partially deaf students.
She said that although hearing students study ASL, they don't always use that language outside the classroom. "My suggestion is to have hearing kids be brave and have a conversation with deaf or hard of hearing kids in school," Maggie said.
Maggie Hoyt can't hear, so sign language interpreters in her classes at Portland High School help the 16-year-old sophomore understand what her teachers are saying.
Teachers trained in working with the deaf also assist her and 11 other deaf or partially deaf students at the school. In addition, the school offers American Sign Language classes for hearing students -- providing a way for deaf and hearing classmates to communicate with each other.
But it's unusual that deaf and partially deaf students in Maine get such a range of services in their public schools, according to advocates. Often, a deaf student may be the only hearing-impaired child in a school and is socially isolated, unable to talk directly to hearing classmates.
Also, most deaf and partially deaf students need more help in the classroom than just having an interpreter sign what the teacher is saying. Lack of hearing can cause delays in language development, so hearing-impaired students frequently lag behind hearing students in such basic skills as reading and writing unless they get special assistance.
Such concerns are why the Maine Educational Center for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing is proposing that the state establish a Deaf and Hard of Hearing Children's Educational Bill of Rights. The proposed legislation, sponsored by Maine's House Speaker Glenn Cummings, D-Portland, will be considered by the 123rd Legislature when it convenes this month.
The bill is designed to ensure that hearing-impaired students have optimal access to something without which learning is not possible: communication. The language of the bill is still in the process of being written. However, the bill is expected to strongly advocate for including an expert in deaf education in meetings at which teachers, administrators and parents determine a student's learning needs.
It also will recommend other measures, such as providing students with deaf and partially deaf role models, and helping them be fully involved in school activities, ranging from recess to athletics.
The bill's fiscal impact has not yet been determined, but the head of the state-run Maine Educational Center for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing said additional costs to schools districts should be minimal.
A draft of the proposed legislation says that if Maine enacts such a bill, it will join Arkansas, California, Colorado, Louisiana, Montana, New Mexico, Rhode Island and South Dakota in passing measures to afford deaf and partially deaf students the same quality of education that hearing students receive.
Maggie, an Edgecomb resident who has attended public schools with hearing students all her life, thinks a bill of rights for deaf students is a good idea. "It shows that we're just the same as hearing students and we need to have equal rights," she said, speaking in ASL through an interpreter.
Maine has a school for deaf and partially deaf students: the Governor Baxter School for the Deaf on Mackworth Island in Falmouth. The school is part of the Maine Educational Center for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing.
About 60 students receive services directly at the island campus. However, most of Maine's deaf and partially deaf students -- more than 600 youngsters throughout the state -- attend hearing schools in their home communities and receive outreach services from the center.
It is in those schools where educational services for hearing-impaired students often are lacking, said Jim Gemmell, communications director for the Maine Educational Center for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing and the Governor Baxter School for the Deaf. The legislation is designed to draw attention to that fact, he said.
"This is a bill that would raise awareness," Gemmell said. "Often the thinking is that if an interpreter is provided, that will take care of all a child's communication needs. This is not the case."
A draft summary of the bill states that it's critical that Maine work to ensure that deaf and partially deaf students have quality communication throughout the school day. It also says that deaf and partially deaf students need teachers and other staff who understand "the unique nature of deafness" and student peers with whom they can freely communicate.
Larry Taub, superintendent of the Maine Educational Center for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing and the Governor Baxter School for the Deaf, said he proposed having Maine adopt a bill of rights to not only raise awareness in school districts but also to help families of hearing-impaired children realize what their needs and rights are.
"I, as a deaf individual, want to ensure that the needs of children who are deaf and hard of hearing are advocated for since they cannot advocate for themselves yet," Taub said in a written statement. He said the bill of rights will "arm (parents) with all the necessary information they need in order to effectively advocate and make informed decisions based on the individual needs of their children."
An existing federal law -- the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act -- governs the services schools provide for students with special-education needs. However, Gemmell said the federal law doesn't go far enough.
For example, he said, the federal law doesn't specify, as the Maine legislation would, that someone who is a specialist in deaf education should evaluate a deaf or partially deaf child. Those evaluations are being done now by special-education teachers who usually are generalists and don't know much about the specific needs of the deaf, Taub and Gemmell said.
Cummings, who is a former chairman of the Legislature's Education Committee, said that having such a specialist involved "could have a significant impact on some of the educational decisions that are made."
Taub said the extra cost associated with including such an expert would be "minimal in terms of current practices as far as special-education processes are concerned."
Gemmell said the bill will be largely advisory in this time of tight state and local school budgets. He said that there will be "few if any mandates in the bill because at this point in time, it was unrealistic." Instead, he said, the bill "serves as a starting point to address the very special needs of deaf and hard of hearing kids in our state."
Some schools in Maine already are doing some of what the proposed legislation advocates.
For example, when Maggie Hoyt was younger, she attended Edgecomb Eddy Elementary School and had a very positive experience there, said Maggie's mother, Susie Stephenson of Edgecomb. Maggie was the only deaf student in the tiny school of about 80 students, but the school hired both an interpreter for her and a teacher for the deaf.
The hearing students in school learned ASL so they and Maggie could communicate freely without an adult to interpret. "We used it as a second language instead of German or French or Spanish," said Stephenson, who used to teach at the school.
Joanne Krawic, principal of the elementary school, said the expense of hiring a specialized teacher for one student was at times challenging for the school district, but she said hearing students gained from the experience. "We have kids who really benefited from being in school with Maggie," she said. "They're still interested in signing now."
And Stephenson said Maggie fit in well socially. "She had a lot of friends," she said.
When Maggie attended Wiscasset Middle School, she blossomed as an athlete, playing basketball and soccer, her mother said. Maggie said schools should ensure that deaf and partially deaf students get a chance to be involved with sports and after-school clubs for the social opportunities they offer.
She now attends Portland High School, but is actually a student at Governor Baxter School for the Deaf. Ever since Baxter closed its tiny high school in 2003, its students in grades 9 through 12 have attended Portland High School.
The two schools forged a special agreement in which the deaf students attend mainstream classes but get the support services they need. And Baxter provides an ASL teacher so hearing students can learn a new language and be able to communicate with their deaf classmates.
At Portland High School, Maggie receives much of the kind of educational support envisioned in the proposed bill of rights legislation. However, she has a suggestion for making the school experience even better for deaf and partially deaf students.
She said that although hearing students study ASL, they don't always use that language outside the classroom. "My suggestion is to have hearing kids be brave and have a conversation with deaf or hard of hearing kids in school," Maggie said.