Superintendent's FORUM

August 2009
Dear Parents and Guardians:  

NJSD has been a busy place this summer.  Approximately 125 students are participating in this summer’s school programs.  We are also preparing for the opening of school, which is September 8th for students.  Below, I have highlighted several significant changes.  Your child’s principal and the director of residential services will inform you of other changes that have occurred in the school’s program.

ELMS Playground - This summer, we are relocating and upgrading the elementary playground, so that it is near the ELMS building.  The new and improved playground will have a rubberized surface and several enhancements for the children.  We are also installing a wheelchair ramp so that the playground is easily accessible for all of our children.  I want to express my sincere appreciation to the Katzenbach Parent Staff Education Foundation for their fundraising efforts, which provided needed financial support for the playground improvements

Academic Bowl - I am pleased to announce that NJSD has been selected to host the 2010 Mid-Atlantic Regional Academic Bowl from March 18th through the 21st. Established by Gallaudet University in 1997; the Academic Bowl allows teams of high school students to compete against each other, answering questions on a wide variety of subjects.  The first and second place winners from each of the five regions will compete in the National Academic Bowl at Gallaudet University in late April.

My retirement - At the end of the summer I will be retiring and returning to my home in Phoenix.  I have enjoyed my six years here.  The New Jersey School for the Deaf is a State Treasure and, as such, needs to be nurtured.  It is the place where Deaf children discover who they are and what is possible.  This is the place where families meet successful Deaf people and dare, for the first time, to dream big for their children.

These are difficult economic times, and the school has faced tough challenges in recent years.  While there are likely to be more obstacles ahead, I am confident that the school will overcome each of them. 

I am pleased to announce the Department of Education has appointed an experienced and qualified person, Mr. Ronald Goodwin, to serve as the school’s interim superintendent.  Mr. Goodwin begins his tenure August 31st.

I hope you enjoy the remainder of your summer and I wish each of you the very best for this coming school year.

Sincerely,

Dennis P Russell, Superintendent

 The National Deaf Education Project has developed a communication and language-driven statement of principle, which has served as the foundation for deaf education reform efforts in several states. In his keynote address, Lawrence Siegel, who currently holds the prestigious Powrie V. Doctor Chair at Gallaudet University, stressed that communication and language are foundational and central to all human experience. What it is we know about a child’s communication and language should serve as the starting point for discussions about the child’s educational programs, but it is not. In federal special education law[1], the starting points are least restrictive placement and FAPE.[2] Communication and language are simply items on a long agenda for the IEP team. The only right that exists under the law is the right to “consider” each student’s unique needs. If there is disagreement, the law provides for an adversarial resolution process, at best. It is more likely that questions related to a student’s communication and language needs will be treated as questions of methodology, left to the discretion of the local school and not open for discussion.

Educators know that communication and language are foundational to a child’s education. The disconnect between the starting points in special education law and the education of deaf children has been the target of grass roots educational reform efforts for many years. Nationally, there was the report of the President’s Commission on the Education of the Deaf and later, the Guidelines developed by the National Association of State Directors of Special Education. States have made their own attempts to address education reform. Here in New Jersey, we have seen the adoption of standards for educational interpreters and teachers of the deaf. At the least, these standards have raised the bar so that schools and programs will employ teachers of the deaf and educational interpreters who are properly trained to provide the services identified in each student’s IEP. Is this enough?

A number of states, most notably Colorado and New Mexico, are engaged in efforts to reform deaf education so that it is communication and language based. These states have brought together parents, educators, and policymakers to review their state’s practices and recommend changes. The premise is simple; namely, that access to communication and language is human rights issue and needs to be treated as such. Since 1993, six states have adopted a Deaf Child’s Educational Bill of Rights; another seven other states are currently in the process of doing so. In these states, deaf and hard of hearing children are guaranteed access to role models and peer groups where there can be a full and uninhibited communicative interaction. The New Mexico Bill of Rights states, Given the central importance of communication to all human beings, the purpose of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Children's Educational Bill of Rights is to encourage the development of a communication-driven and language-driven educational delivery system in New Mexico for children who are Deaf or Hard of Hearing.

 In Colorado, the Department of Education has developed a Communication Plan, based upon their Bill of Rights. The parent fact sheet states,

 An outcome of the Deaf Child's Bill of Rights is that your child's IEP (Individual Education Plan) will be directly affected by this law in the form of a "Communication Plan". The Communication Plan is the document referred to in the rules that contains an action plan that the IEP team (especially parents) has created to address specific areas of a student's social and emotional development.

All too often, IEPs do not thoroughly address, if at all, these critical areas of growth for a child who is deaf or hard of hearing. The Communication Plan creates a mechanism for having conversations and taking action where gaps are identified in these areas. And the Communication Plan will serve as a quality control monitor, making sure that a more comprehensive, qualitative view is taken of each child's experience in school.

 In addition to establishing the importance of communication and language as the foundation of education programs, states engaged in reform movements are examining accountability plans. The information that we gather about student performance must be credible so that it can assist us to make decisions about education programming. If we are serious about leaving no child behind, then comprehensive communication and language must begin at birth, so that deaf children arrive at school “ready to learn.” Once in school, nothing less than a year’s growth in a year’s time should be an acceptable outcome.

There is much work to do, both on the campus and across the state, if we are to provide the kind of programs that New Jersey’s deaf students deserve.