By Carter Moelk
KU Statehouse Reporting
TOPEKA – Legislators and proponents of a bill that seeks to create language assessments for children who are deaf or hard of hearing expressed outrage Tuesday that the students are routinely neglected in language education.
Senate Bill 444 would establish an annual language assessment, which would be administered by the Kansas Commission for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing.
However, lawmakers Tuesday focused their attentions on data from the Kansas State Department of Education which, though limited, show that deaf students graduating from high school can read and understand language at a third-grade level, on average.
“If we’ve had data proving there was this major of a problem, I’m very concerned as to why we’ve waited this long to act,” Sen. Dennis Pyle, R- Hiawatha, said at a meeting of the Senate Committee on Education.
Sen. Molly Baumgardner, R-Louisburg, agreed with Pyle and heavily criticized members of the Kansas State Board of Education and the Special Education Advisory Council for not acknowledging the problem sooner.
Ken Willard of the Kansas State Board of Education told lawmakers board members also are outraged. He said the board wasn’t aware of the problem until this bill was created.
“In the 14 years I’ve been here, this issue has never been brought to the attention of the board,” Willard said.
Supporters of the bill urged legislators to bridge the gap between age and literacy levels in children who are deaf or hard of hearing.
“Children with language delays have issues for the rest of their lives,” said Ann Cooper, president of the Kansas Association of the Deaf. “We need a system that tracks data and gives statistics on this problem.”
Scott Plumber, father of three deaf children and a deaf man himself, testified that he sees language deprivation problems occurring in students at his children’s schools.
“Language deprivation is a major problem,” Plumber said. “We need state assessments and monitoring to make sure children’s needs are being met.”
All proponents on the bill agreed that the language assessment would finally give the state the accurate numbers it needs to track the problem of illiteracy among deaf and hard of hearing children.
“It’s time for change in the lives of our deaf children,” said Sandra Kelly, executive director at the Deaf Cultural Center. “This language assessment is a game changer for education.”
Edited by Maddy Mikinski