School in DC...

[Jen]

Hi All-
I am not sure if any of the members here are located in the Metro area but I couldn't keep this info all to myself...
My husband and I just took our little boy to tour a school called Kendall Demonstration Elementary School (KDES) in Washington DC. It's on Galludet University campus and it is FREE!!! Federally funded. We will be enrolling our son James at the end of August. It is awesome!! The public school system in our County (Charles) is horribly undereducated with severe disabilities or handicaps etc. My son was diagnosed at birth with his Bilateral HL. My son is an in between so to speak. He has severe hl so he doesn't fit into the Deaf world but has bad enough hearing that he doesn't fit into the hearing world. I hope that he doesn't encounter difficulties because of this. Something that echo's in my head is the deaf educator for the public school system said to me "James needs to learn how to listen". I was baffeled at this statement...My son who can't hear, well much, she wants him to learn how to listen. Right then I realized that he needed an enviroment that understood HL. Repetion and visual, this is what he needs along with learning ASL. KDES is very visual. This school has many different children who have cochlear implants, hearing aids, or completely Deaf. They teach in ASL and provide ASL assistance to children to better their signing skills and they also provide speech therapy. They have signing classes for parents and they also have a reading program parents can sign up for. The reading program provides someone to come to your home twice a week so that you can learn how to read in ASL. They have a toddler bouncing gym for inclimate weather, large playground that requires someone to punch a code/ card to get in, a green house, art room, and soooo much more. This school goes from birth-15 (8th grade). They also have a high school on the campus then of corse Galludett University. I just wanted to share this information it was too good to keep to myself. I was told that there are many people who relocate just to put their children into this school. There are very few students in each class so the children get much more interaction with the teachers. Well...that is all just wanted to put that out there. Take care and Happy Easter!
Jen

[Lucky Day]

I visited the Kendall school in January. It is really awesome. Their birth through pre-k programs are so amazing. We are planning to move up to DC for the access to deaf culture.

I grew up in Fairfax county and we are hoping to move there and attend a TC program at Mantua Elementary. What impressed me most about the program at Mantua was that it is a large TC program in a very successful hearing public school. So there is a large range of options, from self contained, to mainstreamed with an interpreter. And our hearing children can be involved in the program to be English models, and to keep up their sign language.

We are in the same boat with hearing loss. Our son is not totally deaf, but relying only on oral would not be as effective.

I'm so glad you've found Kendall. Good luck! I hope to meet you when we move up there next year!