Parents suing due to changes in DHH program in Oregon
Fox 12 Oregon reported that some students and parents in Salem are filing a lawsuit over some major changes to the Salem-Keizer Public Schools’ deaf and hard of hearing program. I also received an email from concerned community members about this. I will explain what’s going on.
The DHH program serves families who live in Marion, Polk, or Yamhill counties, which covers areas south of Portland and around Salem. The program brings DHH students into one central location at the Crossler Middle School or the Sprague High School. The program had been in operation for over 40 years and it provided a space for mainstreamed DHH students to be together and get the services they needed.
The Oregon School for the Deaf is in Salem. According to the email I received, some students and their families feel that the DHH program is a better fit for them.
So, the families who attended the Salem-Keizer DHH program received a letter at the end of March that the program would be closed. The local school district said it wanted for the DHH students to go to their neighborhood schools instead of providing a center site.
The email I received said the changes mean “students will not have a center site” and will lose “full-time support and the important interactions with their peers as a part of a D/HH cohort…”
Families responded by writing letters imploring the program to remain open. These efforts apparently did not work, so now at least two families have resorted to filing lawsuits with the Oregon Department of Education. The parents said the changes would negatively impact their education.
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The Salem-Keizer Public Schools told Fox 12 that for students who are currently in the program at the middle or high schools will have the option to continue there through graduation, but for other students, they will get services at their local schools. The statement did not explain whether current students would have the same level of support they’ve had in the past.
One of the attorneys representing the families said they are concerned that with the change in the DHH program, the teachers for the deaf, speech therapists, and audiologists will now be distributed throughout the region rather than all being in one place.
The Hands and Voices of Oregon organization wrote a public post on social media saying it is concerned because “the wellbeing of DHH children not only depends on access to their education, but also on having a community of peers. Isolation of DHH students can dramatically affect their performance in academics and social development…”
So this is what's going on. The link to the article is in the transcript.