We don't know her ASL needs or levels. But some kids go to Deaf school and have
zero ASL.
Anyway, as far as her placement goes -- it is norm for DS to be mainstreamed most of the day, provided they are met in terms of emotional and social needs. Interaction with typical children is a damned good thing for a lot of kids with 'special needs'.
I hate having 15 IEPs in my class and trying to meet
everyone's needs and having 10 AHD a-holes and juggle it all while trying to retain a degree of actual academics while addressing the rest of the class that, you know, wants to learn.
But your DS child may not be, oh, talking in depth about the framers of the constitution, but that doesn't mean he/she can't grasp the concepts of natural rights or human conflict.
Like I said...we don't know about this kid...but being deaf is -10 right now. There's already a speech/language issue, a cognitive disability and specific educational needs. *sigh* If the child had some kind of HA before, it's possible she has a degree of English already.
Edit: If this girl signs, even if it's bad sign, and she's at a certain age/language level, then it's a serious disservice to not admit her. FJ has a point. In a 'typical' DS case, the LRE is mainstreamed most of the time or part of the day. It is extremely beneficial for the child.
If that can be transferred to a Deaf school for this child, then yes, that is the reasonable LRE environment. It could just be that the school doesn't want to deal with it. They presumably have SPED resources. I donno. It could be a matter of language, but I still argue that for her social development, she does need to be 'with her peers'. If her respective peers are hearing and do not know ASL or have any understanding of deafness, that's only going to make an unfortunate situation worse.
I thought deaf ed was about educating deaf children.