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About Me
- Aslpride
- Yucaipa, California, United States
- Support and use ASL! I am from deaf family and graduated at California School for the Deaf, Riverside in 1995. I have deaf parent, one deaf brother and several deaf uncles, aunts and cousins. I have a wonderful wife with three awesome kids. My first two kids are boys. They are tough, but compassion toward our daughter. Graduated with B.S. Degree in Information Systems Security. YLC Alumni '94
11 comments:
Thank you on the behalf for all parents and deaf children for bravely opening your soul as a parent of a deaf child. We need to fight harder to improve the system of deaf education in America, not just in southern California. As an educator for 25 years, I saw the same things you are undergoing in the three basic deaf education scenarios of residential schools, public schools, and day programs.
In fact, parents, both deaf and hearing, have consulted me in what they should do. They are wading in the mismash of the deaf education system. Ultimately, I told them the same thing I now will tell you.
The most important "school" a deaf child has is in the home with signing (and others) parents. Far more critical than any schools your son enrolls in. Your son is very fortunate to have a parent (even more as a deaf signing person) like you. My advice to you is this:
FOLLOW THE DEAF CHILD. Go through the stages in the life of your son with decisions made with the best ability, judgement, and spirit of yours. Bark loudly as it is within your rights as a parent of a "disabled" child. As in most children, they eventually turn out fine.
PERSEVERE and enjoy every moment with your precious son.
Sigh. Your story is every parent's nightmare. I'm sorry this occurs and it's unfortunate for all. But like C. Katz says above, your son is lucky to have you in his corner - to advocate, to fight for his rights, to educate the system, to love him and look out for his best interests. My only other input is to remind you that there is so much more to a child than just school. While a child's schooling is important, his education continues in many areas - home life, social life, nature, spirit... Love the WHOLE child and relax in the knowledge that he will inevitably grow wiser regardless of his challenges. It's LIFE's gift.
~ LaRonda
oh boy. if, as a deaf parent, you are already stuck in this quagmire, this means many hearing parents face the same situation. CSDR needs to be made aware of the 'non-cooperative mentality of the public education system. How many deaf students are stuck in limbo as a result of this failed communication system? CDS-R needs to be unduly aggressive to address this issue, hopefully without stepping on public school education's foot.
This isn't clear. Did they provide interpreters for your son in the hearing classes? If not, why not?
If this vlog doesn't get CSD-R's attention, I suggest you get an advocate. My second suggestion is not to sign papers again without a representative to explore all the options for your son. If this happens to you again or someone else.. explore the possibility of having the parent's signature revoked based on the lack of representation for the parent and/or student. I am aware of contracts voided as a result of no legal counsel elsewhere.
Hi, ASLpride,
yes, I knew a family that decided not to place the girl in the hearing school with special ed program at all, because they knew once they placed their kid there, they will have problem to take the kid out of the special ed class, if they change their mind. So, that girl went to deaf school all her life.
Another family struggled to get the kids transferred to deaf school, but their local special ed program refused to let them go. They even ended up attending the COURT! The family won, but they had to go the court every year. The family ended up moving out of the state.
Special ed. programs are not a good place to start with. I am sure a lot of deaf people like you are not even aware of side effects of the transferring out of special ed. program.
I am sorry you had to experience this. I hope you find someone who can help you with this. deafk
I appreciate for your feedback, as I need it. I understand that I have rights, but if no one willing to communicate then nothing will be done for my son. However, as you mention and I did received some email from CSDR community. All of you did strong encourage me to request for IEP meeting and request transfer to CSDR. I promise you; I will not sign it again until they meet my wish for my son's better education. It will be nice to have someone from CSDR to back up for me.
I want to thank Tar for his comments from deafvideo.tv. As other suggest me to ask for another IEP meeting. If nothing happen, I will do what you suggest. Again, if nothing happen, I will do what deafk suggest. I hope the school district understand the consequences.
Bottom line, I want to do the best for my son's education and your feedback is valuable to us.
Thank you,
Aslpride
Thank you for sharing your experiences with us, all. First of all, your son is Hard of Hearing ~ he's in middle of 2 worlds, schools, and education needs. He can hear, speak and sign in ASL - he gets 100% language access in ASL, while he gets less than 100% in spoken language (English).
CSD-R needs to be much more involved in your son's education as you have repeated asking..
My daughter is HH.. I am going to face a big decision for her placement this fall for her Kindergarten. Right now, she is progressing in great preschool which is SimCom (I know, I know.. it's forbidden in our Deaf communiy.. I know it's not true language, I know it's not right tool, and etc..) However, I am watching her very close and am very aware that she truly benefits from this approach only because she can hear some.
For Deaf schools, it's 100% ASL and English in literacy. Spoken English only in speech time.. I'm not so sure how my daughter will fare w/o auditory stimuli. She doesnt keep attentive to ASL alone - she pays better attention to both ASL and sounds (voicing, etc.)
Guess I will do my Vlog on this topic soon. Thanks for inspiring me to do the Vlog soon.. Hang in there.
Go with you parent guts. Hope CSDR will improve their outreach program - their involvement in other child's educational progress who are not CSDR students.
Have a blessed Thanksgiving!
My parents were the best any deaf child could have. They were highly focused on ensuring that I get the best possible education. However, they had to absolutely fight beyond what society consider to be proper for me.
They had to fight to get interpreters. They had to fight to ensure that I get advanced in the proper field. They had to fight tooth and nail against inertia of ignorant people to open doors for me to succeed. They have succeeded.
You are doing the exact same thing here. Your goal is your child to get the best possible education, far beyond what anyone would expect from a deaf child. Yes, you said he is hard of hearing -- but to me, that is just as Deaf as anyone with total hearing loss would be. The options are plentiful, yet must be hard-fought for.
Have faith, and keep up the great work. You have my support.
(Please note: While I was raised in a Total Communication world, I am not saying whether or not it's right for your child -- only you know what is right for your child.)
You can request for another IEP at any time. OK, in the next IEP meeting, bring your attorney and inform the school that you will be represented by the attorney. Both CSDR and the school district will listen to your attorney. Try some pro bono attorney. You can google for a pro bono attorney who will need some hours of community services for a tax write-off.
I went through a similar experience that you are going through right now. When I found out that my son had mild/moderate hearing loss (45 dB), I asked to enroll him at Rochester School for the Deaf's preschool program. I went to an IEP meeting in my local hometown (Greece, NY), with a representative from RSD. By then, my son had excellent auditory skills, due to being born hearing. Anyway, when I asked for him to attend RSD, my request was rejected immediately and the people (from BOCES #2 and school district) sitting on the round table started telling me what was best for my son. There was no interpreter, despite I did request for one and was approved.... they did not contact the interpreting agency. It was awful... the meeting dragged on for three hours and I was 8 months pregnant. Finally, at the end they said they'd OK my request to place my son at RSD IF I provided a note from his primary doctor saying that my son had a progressive hearing loss, which I did. One thing that upset me was their demand that if one slot in "universal" pre-K program opened up, I was to pull out him from RSD to enroll in the "universal" pre-K program. I immediately got advices from several people and I heeded their advice... by moving out of Greece, NY to East Rochester, NY where BOCES #1 was more accepting of parents' requests.
Also, the challenge is to meet the child's needs. My now-profoundly deaf son is still a strong auditory learner and does well in mainstreaming, better than at ISD and he is actively involved in an afterschool activity, 5th grade choir and does very well with FM system. Not all deaf children are same. My daughter is more of a visual learner and does very well at ISD.
IEP meetings... I was surprised to hear about CSDR's failure to provide a representative and I hope that this v/blog would result an action from CSDR :o). Due process... no one wants to go through this stage and I am sure your request will be approved eventually.
Carl,
Your suggest on pro bono. I found one near my town and I will contact them tomorrow to see if anyone can be my attorney for next meeting.
To other commenter, thank you for sharing your experience and suggestion. I appreciate it.
That is great that you found pro bono attorney that Carl suggested, I agreed with him. That way they will do it right away to get what you want to do best for your son's education. Good luck! Hope things goes so well for you and your son.
If it is not working it out, then move to Indiana, ISD have a best education.
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