The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act (IDEIA) have significant implications for students with and without disabilities. Despite extensive research, journal articles, editorials, media coverage, and litigation, deaf and hard of hearing students with additional disabilities continue to be…

The authors present a positive outlook for deaf and hard of hearing children in meeting the high expectations set before them. Like all children, deaf and hard of hearing children thrive in environments that support and promote healthy ways of thinking. When individuals have healthy ways of thinking, they have what researchers call a "growth…

Early in 1992, Ruth Heitin embarked upon her career as a private special education consultant. As a special education advocate, she serves as an independent specialist, offering a second opinion on educational issues. In general, this type of advocate works for parents, either directly or through a nonprofit group, but their real clients are…

Self-advocacy occurs when deaf or hard of hearing individuals explain to hearing teachers, classmates, bosses, and officemates the nature of their hearing loss, their language skills, and the accommodations they require in order to effectively do their work, participate in conversations, and get involved in other activities. Self-advocacy may be…

The United States is more accessible to deaf and hard of hearing individuals and people with disabilities today than it was 50, 20, or even 10 years ago. A variety of laws ensures equality in the treatment of deaf and hard of hearing people. Communication barriers have been addressed, and wider opportunities are available in education, employment,…

As educators working with high school students, the author's face questions such as: (1)" How can students become better self-advocates?" (2) "Are students sufficiently prepared for life after graduation?" (3) "How can students become more motivated in planning their future?" (4) "What can be done to…

Child First is a national campaign to ensure that deaf children have their right to language recognized and fulfilled regardless of which educational method is specified in the Individualized Education Program (IEP). Whether the child's family embraces American Sign Language (ASL), speech reading, a system of signs that encodes English, or a…

The process of developing and implementing a 504 plan is different from that of implementing an Individualized Education Plan (IEP). This author has been a teacher of deaf and hard of hearing students under the Special Education Department in Prince William County Schools for 11 years. She had never had a student referred to the team that handles…

Since the early 1990s, when the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved cochlear implants for deaf and hard of hearing children, the number of children who have cochlear implants has increased in mainstream settings. Recent research suggests that these students, like their deaf and hard of hearing peers without implants who use sign language,…

The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) has always had "individual" as part of its spirit and its letter. However, as a parent and an advocate who has attended many Individualized Education Program (IEP) meetings, Janet DesGeorges has discovered that getting to "individual" can sometimes be a challenge,…

In this issue of "Odyssey," Joanne Corwin describes New Mexico's statewide partnership among several agencies for the provision of early intervention services to infants and children who are deaf or hard of hearing and their families (Effective Partnering of State Agencies to Achieve Early Hearing Detection and Intervention Benchmarks, p. 20). A…

Parents of children who are deaf and who have disabilities often face barriers in ensuring that their children receive the services they need. Some of these barriers include lack of awareness about deafness-disability constellations, shortages of professionals knowledgeable about how deaf children learn or the impact of the disability on deaf…

When administrators, teachers, and other professionals join parents in developing meaningful goals for deaf and hard of hearing students, it is exciting, rewarding, and fun; it is also considerable work. However, the result is critical. These goals can be the key to success for deaf and hard of hearing students, especially when delineated in each…

When the author learned that her daughter, Selah, had autism, she and her husband were shaken to the core and were terrified of what lay ahead of them. Selah's autism has redefined many things for them. In this article, the author describes her journey through autism with her deaf child.