The ACLU of Delaware wants an investigation into systemic discrimination against deaf and hard-of-hearing youth, but several in the hearing impaired community oppose it.
The ACLU’s complaint calls for the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights to investigate the Delaware Department of Education's (DDOE) lack of access to Listening and Spoken Language (LSL) services and over-referrals to Delaware School for the Deaf.
Backlash from the deaf and hard-of-hearing community (DHH) centers on the ACLU’s referral to LSL therapy as the “gold standard” when teaching communication skills to hearing impaired children.
LSL therapy teaches a child to use the hearing provided by a hearing aid or a cochlear implant for understanding speech and learning to talk, but director of Connecticut-based advocacy organization Language First Kim Ofori-Sanzo explains this approach is not effective for all children.
“More recent evidence is showing that actually, if you give a deaf or hard-of-hearing child a signed language, in addition to [LSL], that can help fill in those gaps of what they’re not hearing, what they’re missing through their ears and help them acquire a complete language," she says.
Ofori-Sanzo says while Language First does not oppose LSL therapy entirely, the ACLU's language surrounding it discredits other teaching methods for DHH children.
In their open letter to the ACLU, Language First says: "Mainstream and LSL settings are not the only educational placements where DHH children can receive meaningful, individualized education. It is vital that DHH children receive education that is individualized to them; not an automatic placement in a mainstream or LSL environment with the assumption that this must be least restrictive."
Members of the DHH community are also concerned with the ACLU's statement that the DDOE is over-referring hearing-impaired students to the Delaware School for the Deaf (DSD).
The complaint states: "The number of children enrolled at DSD is estimated at 40% of the total population of Delaware children birth-to-21 who have deafness or hearing impairment. Comparatively, the nationwide placement of these children in similarly restrictive and segregated schools is only approximately 9%."
Ofori-Sanzo says this data can be misleading without context.
"Each state is different in how they allow deaf students to transfer to their school for the deaf... To compare the national average to Delaware's average is not an apples to apples comparison because you're comparing potentially some states where it's super easy to [enroll a student in the school for the deaf] and other states where it's incredibly difficult to do that," she explains.
The ACLU complaint also states: "That so many Delaware children with hearing loss are placed at DSD, the most restrictive setting, as compared to children with hearing loss nationwide, is compelling evidence demonstrating a systemic error in placing these students appropriately and indicates that many students are being wrongfully deprived of the provision of services in their least restrictive environments."
In response, Ofori-Sanzo says, "Schools for the deaf could very well be the least restrictive environment for deaf and hard-of-hearing kids because they offer direct communication access to peers, direct communication access to teachers, they have peers and adults who are like them — deaf kids get to see other people who are like them."
A digital petition with over 19,000 signatures is currently circulating requesting that the ACLU retract its complaint.
When asked for comment on the complaint, Delaware DOE said: "The mission of the Delaware Department of Education is to empower every learner with the highest quality education through shared leadership, innovative practices and exemplary service. That includes support for students to receive services in the least restrictive environment. DDOE is aware of the complaint and the community opposition to it. DDOE will respond to the complaint through the U.S. Department of Education’s process."
The ACLU of Delaware released a statement Tuesday clarifying it is not opposed to teaching American Sign Language and will begin discussing the concerns raised with members of the deaf and hard-of-hearing community.
When asked for comment, ACLU-DE Legal Director Dwayne Bensing said: "ACLU-DE is grateful for the outpouring of feedback we’ve received after making our complaint public, and the opportunity it has given us to engage with more members of the deaf and hard of hearing community as we navigate our next steps to ensure that our advocacy centers the lived experiences of those community members.
"We want to emphasize that at the very core of our complaint is a concern that Delaware has not fulfilled its obligation to ensure that all students are given the individualized assessment and access to resources that they are legally owed - not only for students with mild to moderate hearing loss, but also for students for whom access to Delaware's School for the Deaf is not viable yet no other resources are made available.
"Upon receiving outreach from families in Delaware who have fought to access any accommodations in the state for their children who are hard of hearing, we filed our complaint to illuminate the systemic barriers to accommodation access for these children in Delaware. There is no one size fits all treatment for deaf and hard of hearing individuals, and Delaware cannot act as if there is.
"Federal law requires that all students be given appropriate accommodations and educational placement, and we have received ample evidence supporting the notion that Delaware has not been upholding their responsibility to evaluate every child’s case and needs individually. When we tried to investigate these placement processes within the Delaware Department of Education, we were met with a lack of transparency, which ultimately led us to ask the federal Office for Civil Rights to assist us in this investigation."
