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This letter from the President of the Illinois School for the Deaf Alumni Association is for all who support important schools, programs and services such as schools for the Deaf, not only ISD alumni. Your state's school could face the same threat.  Preserve and cherish schools for the Deaf!

Hello to Alumnus of ISD and others...

Many people, including me, were shocked when we opened the emails in our computers or from reading the newspaper last Tuesday when the State of Illinois announcing the plans to close or eliminating many services, including ISD (Illinois School for the Deaf), ISVI (Illinois School for the Visually Impaired) and others...as they have over 7 billion to trim from the annual fiscal year budget. As the President of ISD Alumni Association, I find it very disappointed and sad whenever there is a planned action like that. The mere words "closing" caused a lot of ripples among the deaf community statewide and nationwide since many of us were educated at our beloved alma mater; and many of us are employees of ISD and at other places as solid self-supporting citizens. In short, we must keep on fighting in order to keep these schools open ever since it was founded in 1839. We have had thousands and thousands of alumnus who were educated in our alma mater for the last 170 years.

Illinois Senator Deanna Demuzio and Rep. Tom Watson gave a rousing speeches today at the rally in which they are both working together to avert the planned cutbacks. Both of them are urging all of us to keep on making telephone calls, sending out e-mails, writing letters to all of our representatives and senators of Illinois urging them to support the House Bill 184, which will raise our income tax rate from 3% to 5%. By doing this, we could avert the closing because they can get about 5 billion from us taxpayers, leaving just 2 billion shortfall.

I strongly suggest you to call on your area representative and senators to pass the bill and to inform them that you are the product of ISD as alumni.

The next step planned is a rally at the state capitol in Springfield, IL on Tuesday, June 23rd at 12 noon. I am hoping that this rally will be a really big demonstration like we did in the year 1988.

Thanks, Melvin Long,
ISDAA President

Dr. William Ellerbee, Jr, Deputy State Superintendent of the California Department of Education (CDE), recently granted an interview to the Deaf Bilingual Coalition on the topic of the importance of residential schools for the Deaf. We caught up with Dr. Ellerbee last week after graduation ceremonies at the California School for the Deaf, Fremont.

Says Dr. Ellerbee: "Every time I visit the schools for the deaf, both here in Fremont and in Riverside, I'm reminded of the dedicated staff and wonderful learning opportunities for our deaf and hard-of-hearing students. There is no question in my mind that our schools for the deaf are definitely needed. Without them, many of the students who graduated today here at CSD Fremont may not have seen their graduation come to fruition."

Much has been in the news in recent times about a few states which have debated whether to close their state schools for the Deaf due to shortfalls in the state budget, though the specter of such possible closures has been exaggerated in the press and the only permanent school closures have been in Nebraska (1998), Wyoming (2001) and one of three schools for the Deaf in North Carolina (2001).

Dr. Ellerbee commented about those closures: "When that happens, I shudder to think how terrible that is. How will the students who attended those schools receive a quality education? Will they be prepared for the real world? While dollars may be saved by closing the schools, a state inevitably limits the learning opportunities and choices for their deaf and hard of hearing students. This is terrible! Here in California, State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell is doing everything possible to ensure we don't lose our schools for the deaf in California. There have not been any overt efforts to close our schools for the deaf, and we can't let that happen here in California. Our economy is bad, and revenue is low, and we know there are budget cuts that are going to take place. We have already seen large budget cuts to our schools for the deaf during the past few years, and there will be more cuts during the new school year. We need to join hands and make sure everyone understands the importance and need of the schools for the deaf in our state. We must work together to ensure as much money as possible is budgeted for our two schools in 2009-10. Our deaf and hard-of-hearing students deserve the best and the opportunity to grow and learn like everyone else. They can't do it without the resources."

The Deaf Bilingual Coalition applauds Superintendent O'Connell, Deputy Superintendent Ellerbee and all the staff members of the California Department of Education who have done so much in support of California's schools for the Deaf and in support of Deaf education generally.

This is Part I of III of a series of DBC videos which focus on the topic of Early Hearing Detection and Intervention (EHDI). The mission of EHDI is explained in this video series, and also the experiences and perspectives of DBC members are shared, discussing how the participation of the Deaf community makes a positive impact for change to improve the system. In Part I of the series, a thorough explanation about EHDI’s mission, procedures and goals will be shared.

For more information about CDC and EHDI, please go to http://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/ehdi/ehdi.htm.

A parent of two Deaf children with cochlear implants shares her view about the value of the bilingual approach, including participating in the Shared Reading Project (SRP). The mother also shares how she noticed a tremendous improvement in her daughter's academic skills when she has a teacher who is Deaf and is fluent in ASL. She advocates for the type of bilingual instruction that allowed her daughter to advance two grade levels ahead of the normal grade level for her age.