Charter school for deaf sought

Monday, Feb. 1, 1999 | 11:07 a.m.

Dissatisfied with the way the public school system is educating their hearing-impaired children, a group of concerned parents met Saturday to begin laying the groundwork for creation of a charter school for the deaf in Las Vegas.

It is doubtful the charter application can be completed before the Feb. 15 deadline to open next fall, but the leaders of the movement are confident their plans will be in place before the deadline next year.

"We want to be No. 1 in the country in graduating hearing-impaired students who go on to college," Maureen Parente, who has a 9-year-old deaf grandson, said. "The the sad thing is, right now the kids are graduating at a third-grade reading level. With a charter school, we can change that."

More than 20 parents met at a private residence Saturday to form a committee that will find a location for the proposed school and complete the application, which will go to the Clark County School District and then be forwarded to the State Department of Education for approval.

They want to establish the Las Vegas Charter School for the Deaf, which will educate their children so they are on an equal footing with their hearing peers and which will give them the self-esteem they need to succeed in the hearing world.

The parents face many obstacles in their quest for a school for the deaf, not the least of which is the charter itself.

The Center for Education Reform, an independent, non-profit advocacy organization that wants to reform public school education, rated Nevada's new charter school laws, passed in 1997, as among the worst in the nation. Since the law passed, only one charter school has opened, in Washoe County.

The Nevada law requires the charter schools follow the same basic rules -- such as using unionized teachers -- as the public schools and gives the charter institutions no fiscal autonomy.

Finances are another hurdle.

"We haven't really tackled the funding yet," said Parente, who notes that Nevada and New Hampshire are the only two states in the nation that don't have a school for the deaf.

Organizers said the state will provide some of the funding, the same amount it now spends on each student who attends public school.

"The state spends $4,200 per student -- a little more for the handicapped," said Parente, who estimates the charter school will need about $9,800 per student.

She said until organizers determine how many students might attend the charter school, it is impossible to come up with a budget.

About 200 parents attended an informational meeting organizers sponsored a week ago.

School officials say there are 345 hearing-impaired students, ranging from preschool to grade 12, in the Clark County School District.

Those who want to start a charter school say the district is failing to adequately educate their children, often placing them in classrooms with hearing students, which results in those with hearing problems lagging behind their peers.

They also disagree with the district's approach to teaching communications -- The district teaches some children speaking techniques, others a form of signed English, and still others American Sign Language, which is the prominent language of the deaf community.

At least in the young grades, the protesting parents say, students should be taught only American Sign Language, so there is a common language among them.

They say their charter school would use American Sign Language as its basis of communication.

Ray Willis, school district spokesman, defended the techniques used in Clark County schools, and noted that hearing-impaired children are grouped together.

Hearing-impaired students attend classes created for their special needs at a handful of schools around the district: seven elementary schools, two middle schools and two high schools.

"The big thing now is mainstreaming and inclusion, depending on a student's individualized education plan," Willis said. "Where accommodations can be made, consideration is given to the least restrictive environment."

This could mean a regular classroom with hearing students, he said, or it could be a classroom for only the hearing impaired.

Willis said a team evaluates each child and his or her condition and determines what situation is best. The team, he said, includes the child's parents.

The district provides a wide variety of programs designed to meet the needs of the children, said Susan D'Aniello, district coordinator for hearing impairment and other "low incidence" disabilities.

"Some classrooms have adopted the philosophy of total communication (sign language and oral/aural), where students are taught to communicate in a typical hearing world," she said.

The students may attend a class full time or part time. Teachers may be assigned to a classroom, or if needed there are "itinerant" teachers who may travel to a school once a month, or more often.

She said the school provides sign language interpreters, aural interpreters and note takers for students.

She said the school tries to meet each student's needs, following federal guidelines.

"Federal laws for educating children with disabilities talk about meeting the individual needs of students, and they support the least restrictive environment," she said. "That is the goal, to provide the necessary accommodations and strategies."

Organizers of the charter school say the Clark County School District's system of teaching the hearing-impaired looks good on paper, but has not been effective for their children.

They believe the dissatisfaction is widespread, but they don't yet know how widespread.

Gallagher, mother of two deaf children, said the mainstreaming concept just doesn't work for the hearing-impaired.

"It is right in most cases of handicapped, but not for deaf children," she said. "You totally isolate the child if you put him in the mainstream."

Even though parents are on the teams that decide where the hearing-impaired child is going to be placed, mainstream or not, they don't feel they are being given enough say in what happens to their children.

"The parent knows what's best for the child," said Gena Marino.

Marino said her son David, 8, was "mainstreamed" when he entered the first grade. He's now in the third grade, but she said tests reveal he's progressed only six months in his reading level.

"The charter school may not be for every deaf child. Some parents are opposed to it," Marino said. "But we want an option."