To the editors:

As families connected to the Deaf and Hard of Hearing (DHH) consortium program, we applaud the Beachcomber’s coverage of the administration’s recent re-evaluation of this program.   Both your report and the accompanying editorial displayed thoughtful consideration of the importance of the program to DHH students and to the community at large.  We are particularly grateful to the leadership of the Beachwood ASL Club as well as other hearing students for their courage and eloquence in speaking out in support of this program.   We have no doubt that your comments were both heard and considered carefully by the Beachwood Schools administration, and we are grateful for their decision, announced by Dr. Markwardt at the December 3 Board of Education Meeting, to continue the program in its current form.

The continued success of the ASL Club’s annual holiday party demonstrates that the DHH program is recognized and valued by the regional deaf community.   However, in our experience, the program is not widely known to those who have the most immediate need for it, parents of young children with hearing loss.  As one step in disseminating this information, we have established a website, http://www.deaf-ed.com, to describe both the range of local educational choices for DHH children and our own positive experiences with the Beachwood program.  The site also includes an essay by Dr. Pamela Luft of the Special Education Program at Kent State University.  In her comments, Dr. Luft provides an academic perspective on the specific challenges of educating DHH children, as well as her assessment of the considerable success of the Beachwood program in meeting these needs.  Dr. Luft’s generous contribution to this site is an example of the type of community support that is required to maintain a regional resource such as the consortium DHH program.  Nevertheless, the ultimate success of such efforts will likely depend on the supportive involvement of the Beachwood Schools administration as well.  In this regard, we are pleased to note the recent updates to their own website that provide increased visibility for the DHH program (http://www.beachwoodschools.org/DHH.aspx).  We hope that this will prove to be a first step by the administration in developing a more proactive approach to promoting the program.  We look forward to the opportunity to work with them and with other parent groups, hearing and speech professionals, and administrators across the consortium districts to enhance the future of this outstanding resource in deaf education.

Sincerely,

Kenneth Bain, Beachwood

Jennifer and Robert Rowles, Beachwood

Jennifer Rubio Thatcher, Beachwood

Kristen and Joshua Lovinger, Cleveland Hts.

Laurie and Richard Silver, Shaker Hts.

This letter is a response to our article Administration Consders Closing D/HH Program, published in October.