English as a Second Language (ESL) for deaf children using American Sign Language (ASL)

DATE:	May 2001
TO:	District Administrators Bilingual/ESL Program Administrators Special Education Program Administrators
FROM:	Mike J. Thompson, Assistant Superintendent Division for Learning Support: Equity and Advocacy
SUBJECT:	English as a Second Language (ESL) Program Services for Children of Parents Who Are Deaf and Use American Sign Language (ASL)

For more information, contact:

Tim Boals, Consultant Bilingual/ESL Program timothy.boals@dpi.wi.gov 608-266-5469

Carol Schweitzer, Consultant Special Education carol.schweitzer@dpi.wi.gov 608-266-7097

Background:

This memo is provided in response to several calls to the DPI from parents, teachers and other professional staff who have concerns and questions about the needs of children with normal hearing whose home language is American Sign Language.

• Parents’ concerns often come from the lack of recognition by educational personnel of the language of the home (American Sign Language) and its implications on their child’s/children’s ability to demonstrate academic English proficiency in speaking, listening, reading, and writing.
• Educators’ concerns (including ESL and special education staff) are often due to a lack of awareness of ASL as a language rather than a disability or a "code" used to communicate. This may have an impact on the child’s learning, in the same ways that other languages of the home do.

Issues:

• The federal government, as well as Wisconsin’s legislature, recognize ASL as an official language (language other than English).
• ASL is often not recognized as the language of the child by educational personnel including those teaching in the mainstream or those from either an ESL perspective or special education perspective.
• Children of deaf parents are frequently denied the services of local ESL programs because the district’s policies, practices, or teachers assume they do not qualify for services.
• To qualify for ESL services:
  1. There must be a language other than English used in the home, and
  2. The child must demonstrate limited-English proficiency. Proficiency is usually measured on an English language assessment instrument such as the Language Assessment Scales, or the Woodcock-Muñoz, in any of the four skill areas of listening, speaking, reading or writing.
• When the child is part of a special education evaluation, often the home language of the child, when ASL, is not considered and assessments are not conducted in the child’s home language. Special education evaluations and IEP teams often miss key language components that have an impact on the child’s learning needs.
• Limited-English proficient students often demonstrate social English skills but not academic English skills. Researchers find that academic English proficiency is essential to academic success.
• Children of deaf parents often come to school with social English skills, but poorly developed academic English.
• Local educators need to be aware that children whose parents use ASL often are learning English, particularly academic English, as a second language.
• The educational needs of the child may include assistance in learning English much like other limited-English proficient children at intermediate stages of English language acquisition. These children could benefit from high quality, content-based ESL support.

Based on relevant legal authority and the needs of these children, the Department of Public Instruction recommends that:

• Local policies and procedures should not deny ESL services to children of deaf parents who demonstrate limited proficiency in English as a result of growing up in a home environment where spoken English is not the primary language.
• If children of deaf parents are referred to special education, they need to be appropriately evaluated for special education services in their home language.
• Coordination among ESL, special education (or any other support program), and the mainstream is essential for effective services when students have multiple needs.

MJT:ts

Relevant Legal Authority:

Chapter 115.95, Wisconsin Statutes, Bilingual-Bicultural Education

(1) The legislature finds that: (a) There are pupils in this state who enter elementary and secondary school with limited or nonexistent English speaking ability due to the use of another language in their family or in their daily, nonschool environment….

(b) Classes conducted in English do not always provide adequate instruction for children whose English language abilites are limited or nonexistent.

115.955 Definitions, Wis. Stats.

(7) "Limited-English proficient pupil" means a pupil whose ability to use the English language is limited because of the use of non-English language in his or her family or in his or her daily nonschool surroundings, and who has difficulty, as defined by rule by the state superintendent, in performing ordinary classwork in English as a result of such limited English language ability.

115.96 Establishment of programs, Wis. Stats.

(4) … A bilingual-bicultural education program established under this subchapter shall provide all of the following: (a) instruction in reading, writing and speaking the English language. (b) Through the use of the native language of the limited-English proficient pupil, instruction in the subjects necessary to permit the pupil to progress effectively through the educational system.

34 CFR 300.532 Evaluation procedures

(a)(1)(ii) Tests and other evaluation materials used to assess a child … are provided and administered in the child’s native language or mode of communication unless it is clearly not feasible to do so.

34 CFR 300.346 Development, review and revision of the IEP

(a)(2)(ii) Considerations of special factors. The IEP team also shall - In the case of a child with limited-English proficiency, consider the language needs for the child as those needs related to the child’s IEP.

For questions about this information, contact Carol M. Schweitzer (608) 266-7097

Last updated on 2/22/2008 1:25:09 PM