NDEP - National Deaf Education Project

Link: NDEP - National Deaf Education Project.

The debate over deaf education has continued for decades and yet one thing remains unchanged--many of our children continue to leave school unprepared, without the communication, language, or literacy skills necessary for an individual to become a productive and happy adult. We know the statistics all too well-- 3rd grading reading skills, deficiencies in many academic subjects and yet as Marc Marschark has recently written, "There is general agreement that such difficulties are not direct consequences of hearing loss."

Even with the advent of newborn hearing screening, early identification of hearing loss, and new technologies, our children continue to face a limited future. Why is this? While communication and language are at the heart of everything we do as humans and without them there can be no cognitive, academic, social, emotional and literacy growth, American law and educational policy do not recognize this fundamental truth, and indeed, often work against it.