RECOMMONDATIONS FOR THE DEAF AND HARD OF HEARING

Final Project Paper and Memo:

Recommendations for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Program

Budget for 2020-2021

 Elizabeth Tallent

EA 8840 

April 20, 2020

Deaf and Hard of Hearing Teacher Proposal Memo 

To: Patrick Watson, Superintendent of Bloomfield Hills Schools

From: Elizabeth Tallent, Deaf and Hard of Hearing Teacher, BHHS

Re: Recommendation for adding a third teacher to the high school DHH staff and two full
time speech language pathologists to work in conjunction with DHH teachers

The purpose of this memorandum is to make a formal recommendation for implementing an

additional certified DHH teacher at Bloomfield Hills High School and to provide two full time speech

therapists to cover only DHH students from kindergarten to 12th grade. Every Deaf child is different

according to their levels of hearing loss, their home life and mode of communication, and given this

diversity of need, it is imperative that there are certified teachers collaborating with speech therapist to

meet these needs.

Since 1965, Bloomfield Hills Schools has housed a DHH centered program for the Deaf and

Hard Hearing. This program gives Deaf students the access to their culture and language, American

Sign Language, both socially and academically. The current trend to close centered programs and

provide services in district is detrimental to students who are Deaf and Hard of Hearing, cutting them

off from the social and academic growth that is achieved through interaction with certified DHH

teachers and other Deaf peers.

Bloomfield has graduated many successful Deaf students, who have continued their education

and are living fruitful lives. Sean Forbes, a Bloomfield graduate, is a successful musician and

businessperson. Moreover, this year one of our seniors has been speaking at many events about his

success as one of the captains of the football team and his recent acceptance to Gallaudet University.
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These triumphs are the result of the opportunities Bloomfield provides in a program that focusses on

the educational needs of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing.

Proposal

I would like to express my appreciation for allowing me to share my observations regarding the

needs of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing centered program based in Bloomfield Hills Schools. The

current state of affairs for special education, and especially for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing (DHH)

students, has squeezed budgets tighter and tighter. Increased budget reform may be in the future for

Michigan schools, but until that time it is important to support programs servicing DHH students, a

specialized population of learners. The outcome of this proposal will focus on providing adequate

student learning by illustrating the importance of providing three DHH teachers at Bloomfield Hills

High School and an additional full time speech language pathologist solely for DHH students in the

district.

For so long special educators have worked with ever increasing paperwork and added

responsibilities, instead of focusing more solely at the job at hand, teaching and preparing students for

their futures. High school teachers especially find it difficult to balance the Michigan Merit curriculum

requirements while planning and implementing IEPs, managing students in the mainstream, and

teaching multiple subjects and grade levels. Governor Whitmer spoke about the issues of funding

Michigan students in her state-of-the-state address when she said,

All Michigan students should have the opportunity to go to properly funded schools. The one

size fits all approach doesn’t work. Any teacher can tell you, every student has potential, but

their needs are often different. … Equitable funding is essential to meeting the needs of our at
RECOMMONDATIONS FOR THE DEAF AND HARD OF HEARING

risk students and students with special needs. (Governor Addresses Education in her State of the

State, 2020, para 4).

Deaf and Hard of Hearing children are a special population of students with special educational

needs. Bloomfield Hills School District has proudly taught DHH students for over 50 years, including

students with a mild to a profound hearing loss. In prior years, Bloomfield accommodated students in

an oral program, and profoundly Deaf students were taught using American Sign Language (ASL).

Financial cuts to the program eliminated the oral program and combined all students together using a

Total Communication model. This model is challenging because the teacher must be adept at switching

between speaking and signing ASL to accommodate the various learning needs of all students in one

classroom. In addition, students have varying levels of language acquisition, some need remedial

language support, and these students are grouped with students with higher language acquisition.

Differentiating between students with such a wide gap sacrifices the learning needs of either the lower

or the higher learner.

This language gap is due in part because Deaf children have been denied knowledge in

exchange for learning to speak. When Deaf children reach middle school, many times parents realize

that learning to speak did not help their Deaf child acquire language, and their reading and writing

skills are far below their hearing peers. “How has this come to pass? Historically many deaf children

were not exposed to any form of sign language until after elementary school. The advice that parents

were given by well-meaning doctors, other clinicians, and teachers was that deaf children would never

learn to speak if they were allowed to sign” (Weisel, 1998, p. 12). Over the past 20 years, Deaf

educators have noted the benefits of ASL in not only teaching language and linguistics, but also in

teaching content and curriculum at the same time. “Cummins later reviewed research on English

literacy among Deaf ASL-English bilingual children and concluded that ASL supports English literacy
RECOMMONDATIONS FOR THE DEAF AND HARD OF HEARING

(Cummins, 2006). In short, improving competence in both ASL and English compliments each other

and increases proficiency in both languages as they share a common underlying proficiency” (Phillips,

2017, p. 7). Deaf students are unlike other special education students. Language delays and the loss of

incidental learning (how we learn about the world) must be considered as special learning needs of

Deaf students. These needs are often misunderstood.

For example, in the school year 2018-2019, a new counselor was not hired to replace the retired

DHH counselor because the recently hired special education director felt that Deaf students could use

the counselors provided by the school. Unfortunately, the high school counselors were not able to

communicate with the students and there were not readily available educational interpreters to translate

their needs. Scheduling and dealing with trauma and social emotional problems and various other

counseling duties fell on the DHH teachers. Finally, during 2019-2020 school year a counselor

proficient in sign language was hired to handle the needs of the Deaf students in the program from

elementary to high school. For many years, Bloomfield’s DHH program was a shining example in the

world of Deaf education. The high school provided teachers certified in math, history, and English.

Yet, in the last five years, the DHH high school staff has shrunk from three teachers to two, which

greatly affects the ability to maintain Bloomfield Hills School’s educational standards.

According to the DHH supervisor, monies for the DHH program that come from the state are

passed on to the Oakland ISD and in turn, are distributed to the program. There are approximately 65

students in the DHH program from pre-K to 12th grade. The per-pupil rate and a base tuition from each

district dictate the allocation of services and programs. For example, the program allows for one

teacher and one aide per seven students, one supervisor and one secretary per 70 students. The DHH

supervisor is also the supervisor for other centered program special education staff (ARP and FRP),

which means his salary is divided between the two programs.

The proposed DHH budget is approximately 4.2 million dollars. This includes classroom aides,

salaries, benefits, purchased services, supplies and materials, capital outlay and other expenses. “The

top priority of this budget is certified staff to meet the needs of the students,” said the DHH supervisor.

This follows Bloomfield’s second strategic goal to provide all students with what they need to reach

their full potential. Yet, the high school only has two teachers to fulfill the graduation requirements of

about 15 students. “Budget constraints are determined by the number of students in the program, the

more students in the program, the more money there is to support education. As the number of students

has decreased, the budget has decreased but the needs remain the same,” said the DHH supervisor.

Decreasing numbers should not influence the quantity or the quality of education offered to

Deaf and Hard of Hearing students. Bloomfield Hills Schools Deaf and Hard of Hearing centered

program has been a beacon of light for the Deaf community. Since 1965, Bloomfield has taught Deaf

students from pre-K to 12th grade servicing students with moderate to profound hearing loss. All

teachers are proficient in American Sign Language and a Total Communication philosophy is

appropriate to address the varying language needs of the DHH students.

After reviewing the data, I strongly recommend the DHH counselor work only with middle

school and high school students, with the majority of the focus on high school. The DHH psychologist

can work with the elementary students. High school students must fulfill many requirements for

graduation and need a counselor to help them transition, especially during specific times in the year

(specifically in the fall and spring). It is also critical for students’ mental health to have a certified

counselor proficient in ASL readily available. “Michigan ranked 47th in the number of K-12 students

per counselor, at 729 students per counselor in 2014, according to the American School Counselor

Association” (Grand et al., 2019, para. 9). It is imperative now that we change the outcome of our
RECOMMONDATIONS FOR THE DEAF AND HARD OF HEARING

students by giving them the emotional help they need to feel safe and secure in the classroom. Students

who especially face traumatic events need a counselor consistently.

Since the top priority of the budget, according to the special education supervisor, is to hire

certified staff, it is further recommended to hire an additional high school DHH teacher. The 2019-

2020 budget indicates that $110, 138.86 was spent on purchased services. A majority of this money

was used to hire outside agency interpreters to covers classes for DHH students, mostly at the high

school level. Currently there are 14 interpreters employed to cover classes for students K-12. It is

because there are only two DHH high school teachers that there are glitches in the schedule and not

enough interpreters to cover DHH student’s electives, meetings and special events. If there were three

DHH teachers, it would be easier to schedule electives and other events because there would be more

options to schedule core classes around students’ mainstream classes. This would allow more flexibility

with the interpreter schedule and alleviate the need to hire outside agency interpreters in order to be

compliant in servicing DHH students in the school setting. Also, an additional teacher could provide

special instruction for students, work with the 10th grade personal project, and navigate issues with

students when they struggle with mainstream classes.

Speech therapists working collaboratively on language goals with DHH teachers should be a

priority of the district. Currently there are two speech therapists to cover DHH students from pre-K to

12th grade. One speech therapists is full time and the other is part time. It would be beneficial to the

language develop of DHH students to have the part time speech therapist become full time. Teachers

can focus on teaching content while speech therapists can provide speech therapy and language support

as written collaboratively in students’ IEPs. There have been numerous times when speech therapists

had to cancel sessions and reschedule with students due to conflicts with state required IEP meetings

and due to travel time from school to school. This influences the ability to provide productive and
RECOMMONDATIONS FOR THE DEAF AND HARD OF HEARING

consistent services to all students. With two full speech therapists, and an additional DHH teacher,

there would be more time to collaborate with teachers during speech services and to facilitate IEPs.

This model of collaboration has proven successful in reinforcing reading comprehension and boost

organizational writing skills. However, there is inconsistency due to conflicts in schedules and

excessive caseloads. Since part of the budget covers a speech therapists half time, there is $280,000.00

for outgoing transfers that is money in the existing budget that should be partially allocated to cover an

additional full time speech therapist for best practices in teaching Deaf students. It is important to

properly schedule and not overload speech therapists with high caseloads. According to Hess and

Osberg money can be saved through proper scheduling and auxiliary services should “…balance

caseloads more fairly” (p. 258). This aligns with Bloomfield’s second strategic goals to provide all

students with what they need to reach their full potential.

Bloomfield needs to continue to be the shining example and do what is right for DHH students.

Restraints in the funding exists, and although the district strategic goal is to establish a culture of trust

by empowering the voices of all employees, a detailed budget of expenditures was not provided to aid

these recommendations. Expenditures were “…separated out into broad catch-all categories like

’instruction’ and ’administration,’ or even broad program types (e.g., special education)” (Roza, 2008,

p.2). What is the role staff play in making decisions regarding staffing and support services?

Bloomfield’s strategic goal is to establish trust, so there should be a clear understanding of how the

DHH budget dollars are allocated. When is seems “…clear that many district staff members were not

aware of their role in allocation decisions, and they did not realize that alternatives existed for how

resources could have been deployed” (Roza, 2008, p. 14). Alternatively, suggestions that are offered by

staff are not collaborative and are arbitrarily turned down or ignored.
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The DHH staff are dedicated to the education of Deaf students. Some staff are even Bloomfield

graduates from the DHH program. Every year the program dwindles as teachers retire, new teachers are

not rehired because of the decreasing student numbers. There are suggestions to move the program in a

different direction. Hiring a paraprofessional has been suggested, yet paras are not teachers and “…

often having a paraprofessional decreased the instruction a student received from the classroom

teacher…So the students with the greatest needs got the least attention from the teacher certified in the

subject matter” (Hess & Osberg, p.257). Deaf students, even those successful in the mainstream, need

support for learning, in their culture and in their language. Their world is a world of isolation; their

educational needs should give them access to ASL through social communication and direct instruction

in a centered program. This is vital for this unique population with special needs and a dedicated staff

already in place; the district should continue the good work that was begun more than 50 years ago. As

Governor Whitmer said in her State of the State address, “’…like so many Michigan educators…

teaching is more than a career. It’s a calling. I want to send a message to all the devoted educators

across Michigan: You’re not failing us. We have been failing you’” (2020, para 4). Bloomfield Hills

DHH program serves the Deaf population across Oakland County and should be preserved and allow to

flourish with certified DHH teachers for years to come. Deaf students deserve to have a school where

they can celebrate and feel supported in their culture and language, so they can receive an adequate and

equitable education.
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References