Video: Parents want hearing school to get state funding - Main Line Suburban Life - Main Line Media News
Olivia Lampley of Wayne was born with a moderate to profound hearing loss, which was not discovered until she was 2 years old.
But today the 6-year-old dances to the beat at dance recitals, sings along with starlet Miley Cyrus and isn’t afraid to talk or listen to anyone she meets.
Olivia is heading to Beaumont Elementary School in Devon in September to learn alongside her hearing peers. She received an oral and auditory education at the Clarke School for Hearing and Speech in Bryn Mawr.
But children after the age of 3 who need financial support from the state cannot get it for the Clarke School because it is not on the state’s list of 40 or so Approved Private Schools (APS).
Parents at the school have launched a campaign to get the school APS status, stating that with only one state-supported oral and auditory school (the DePaul School for Hearing in Pittsburgh), parents in the eastern part of the state are not being supplied a viable choice, said Treacy Henry, regional development director for the Clarke School.
Henry, who raises money for children to attend the school, says that there is nothing wrong with American Sign Language, but that parents should have a choice. They say the state, by not adding the Clarke School to its funded Approved Private School list, is denying that choice.
According to Henry, officials from the Department of Education have stated that the current APS list will not be changed. Parents have sought and gained support from a number of state legislators, including State Sen. Daylin Leach (D-17).
In fact, a meeting between school representatives, parents and Department of Education representatives took place in Leach’s office. As Leach relays it, the group could not get answers as to why the school would not be considered for APS status.
Legislation has since been drafted naming Clarke an APS that will be attached to upcoming education bills.
But there is a new secretary of education and “we’re hoping the administration makes that not necessary,” Leach said of the legislation.
A Department of Education spokesperson said that the department is not currently taking any applications for APS status and that adding any schools to the list would dilute the budgeted line-item funds for the other schools.
There is no proposal to increase the allocated funding for the 2010-11 year, according to spokesperson Steve Weitzman, who added that the decision has nothing to do with the merits of the Clarke School.
But according to Henry, making Clarke an APS would save taxpayers money. She says that the required financial aid (for lifelong translators, for example) of a person who uses sign language is much higher than one who learns to speak.
This is not to say that those who use the oral and auditory method do not require some assistance; Olivia will get some supplemental speech and auditory sessions and her teachers need to undergo some training at Beaumont.
Olivia’s mother, Michelle Lampley, said her family moved to the area from South Carolina specifically for the Clarke School’s resources.
When she was born, Olivia could only hear a sound as loud as a jet engine. Missing her first two years of hearing required “remarkable” catching up, her mother said.
They moved here when Olivia was 3 years old and “she could hardly be understood. It was a dire situation.”
Now, “for her to be in a kindergarten class with her peers, I feel it’s a huge milestone.”
The field of deaf education has been revolutionized by standardized newborn screening, amplifier-technology advances (hearing aids and cochlear implants for example) and improved early-intervention services, Henry said.
The Clarke School in Bryn Mawr is one of five Clarke Schools, the first established in 1867 in Northampton, Mass.
The school provides services for children with moderate to profound hearing loss from birth through preschool using the auditory/oral model.
The building is designed for the acoustic needs of its students by using items like foam, soft wood and cork flooring to reduce background noise. The curriculum includes an intense language focus and speech therapy.
The tuition-based preschool program is $12,500 per year, but it costs about $40,000 per year to educate one child, Henry said.
If the school achieved APS status, she said she predicts it could receive $30,000 per child per year in state funding.
For children from birth to 3 years old, early-intervention services for the hard of hearing are funded through the Department of Public Welfare.
Once a child turns 3, it is determined whether he or she goes on to a “mainstream” facility or continues with preschool for special needs. At that point, the funding goes through the Pennsylvania Department of Education through the counties to individual school districts.
At that point, state funding is not applicable to all schools including Clarke.
So if a family needs taxpayer funding and wants a child to speak and hear, Pittsburgh is the only option, Henry said.
“Parents want an option on both sides of the state,” she said. “Our parents believe that parents should have the ability to choose the educational model for their deaf or hard-of-hearing child.”
Katy Friedland of Philadelphia is one of the Clarke School parents who are working on the campaign.
Her 3-year-old son, Julian, attends the school.
She said the choice to use spoken language is a “basic human right” and that the current model for funding is problematic.
“I’m not saying that [sign language] is not a great choice for parents; I’m saying parents should have a choice,” Friedland said. “Julian might learn sign language, but he also might learn Hebrew because that’s a culture we’re a part of.”
Michelle Lampley and her husband are both hearing. In fact, according to Henry, a vast majority of hard-of-hearing children are born to those with no history of deafness.
Lampley said they never considered teaching Olivia sign language.
“Maybe she’ll be the president of the United States. Maybe she’ll be a great opera singer. As a parent I want her to have every option available to her,” she said. “What would she say to me if I didn’t choose this option for her?”
