Deaf/Hard-of-Hearing Students

What You Need to Know About Providing Services

A student with a hearing loss is registering at your school. What do you need to do?

If the student was already receiving D/HH services, accept those services and begin the 30-day process of determining which services to continue and what, if any, additional services are needed.
If the student was not already receiving D/HH services, conduct a Full Individual Evaluation (FIE).
Contact a certified Teacher of the Deaf/Hard-of-Hearing (TODHH). By law, a TODHH must be a member of the evaluation team for any student with hearing loss.
To locate the Regional Day School Program for the Deaf that serves your local education agency, use the Regional Day School Program for the Deaf Locator.
Contact a certified Educational Audiologist to determine the student's listening and amplification needs.
For assistance finding a TODHH and an Educational Audiologist in your area, please contact Anne Darr or Twyla Loftin.

Regional Day School Program for the Deaf Locator

This resource will help find the RDSPD that serves a specific school district or the school districts in an RDSPD Shared Services Arrangement.

Optimizing Outcomes for Students who are D/HH

Educational service guidelines created by the National Association of State Directors of Special Education, Inc. (NASDSE)

TEA Technical Assistance: Child Find & Evaluation

This guidance document is intended for use by Texas educators who support the implementation of services for students with, or who are suspected of having, a disability.

34 Code of Federal Regulations § 300.111 Child Find

34 Code of Federal Regulations § 300.111 Child find.
(a) General.
(1) The State must have in effect policies and procedures to ensure that—
(i) All children with disabilities residing in the State, including children with disabilities who are homeless children or are wards of the State, and children with disabilities attending private schools, regardless of the severity of their disability, and who are in need of special education and related services, are identified, located, and evaluated; and
. . .
Last Amended: 71 FR 46764, Aug. 14, 2006
Entered: May 28, 2009

TX Health/Human Services: DHH Parent Advisor Services

Services for Children and Families, Ages 0-3

Services are available through Early Childhood Intervention (ECI) for families of children, ages 0-3, who are deaf/hard-of-hearing.

To locate the ECI program in your area, use the ECI Program Locator.

To locate the Regional Day School Program for the Deaf that serves your local education agency, use the Regional Day School Program for the Deaf Locator.

Legal Requirements

The Legal Framework can be accessed through Education Service Center Region 18. It is a primary source of information regarding services for D/HH students.

Required Elements of the FIE

Otological Evaluation: Signed by a licensed otolaryngologist (ENT)*
Audiological Evaluation: Signed by a licensed audiologist
Communication Evaluation: Completed by the TODHH, Speech/Language Pathologist, Educational Diagnostician, and any additional member of the evaluation team with applicable information regarding the student's communication needs

*If securing a signed Otological Evaluation delays the FIE process, please reference the Texas Otological Report regarding how to gather the necessary documentation in order to provide services as quickly as possible.

Why Involve the Teacher of the D/HH?

Evaluating Functional Performance

Hearing loss is an ACCESS issue. It creates barriers to learning in the typical classroom environment and impacts social interactions. This invisible barrier is why it is necessary to consider functional performance in the classroom across situations.

Success for Children with Hearing Loss

The FIE should include data regarding the student's functional performance in addition to academic performance.

Federal law §34 CFR Sec. 300.304(c) states that evaluations:

(1)(ii) Are provided and administered in the child’s native language or other mode of communication and in the form most likely to yield accurate information on what the child knows and can do academically, developmentally, and functionally.

(4) The child is assessed in all areas related to the suspected disability.

Assessment: Resources for Identifying DHH Student Needs

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Present Level of Academic Achievement and Functional Performance (PLAAFP)

IDEA requires the IEP to include a statement of the child’s present level of academic and FUNCTIONAL performance. Below is a portion of the explanation from the Parent Center Hub website:

The “present levels” statement is intended to comprehensively describe a child’s abilities, performance, strengths, and needs. It is based on, and arises out of, all the information and data previously collected and known about the child, most especially the full and individual evaluation of the child that must be conducted in accordance with IDEA’s evaluation/eligibility provisions of §300.301 through 300.311. A well-written present level will describe:

the child’s strengths and weaknesses,
what helps the child learn,
what limits or interferes with the child's learning,
objective data from current evaluations of the child, and
how the child’s disability affects his or her ability to be involved and progress in the general curriculum.

A fully developed, well-written “present level” is the foundation upon which the rest of the IEP can be developed to specify appropriate goals, services, supports, accommodations, and placement for the child.

Functional performance. With respect to the meaning of “functional performance,” the Department of Education points to how the term is generally understood as referring to “skills or activities that are not considered academic or related to a child’s academic achievement.” This term “is often used in the context of routine activities of everyday living.”

All of these types of skills are important to consider when writing the child’s “present levels” statement, asking questions such as:

Where does the child stand in terms of functional performance?
How does the child’s disability affect functional performance?
How does the child's functional performance affect his or her involvement and progress in the general education curriculum?

For students who are deaf/hard of hearing, their disability often impacts social skills, self-advocacy skills, and other functional skills that are imperative for them to truly access the curriculum. The expanded core curriculum addresses those skills.

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Expanded Core Curriculum (ECC) for Students Who are Deaf/Hard-of-Hearing

ECC - D/HH

“…students who are deaf or hard-of-hearing have specialized needs not covered in the general education curriculum. Hearing loss adds a dimension to learning that often requires explicit teaching, such as information gained through incidental learning. It has been estimated that for persons without hearing loss, 80% of information learned is acquired incidentally. No effort is required. Any type of hearing loss interrupts this automatic path to gain information. This incidental information must be delivered directly to students who are deaf or hard of hearing. Most teachers without specialized training related to hearing loss do not have the expertise to address the unique needs of students who are deaf or hard of hearing. Therefore, IFSP and IEP team collaboration with educational audiologists and teachers of students who are deaf or hard of hearing is necessary in addressing academic and social instruction and the assessment of these areas (Denzin & Luckner, 1998). In order to close this information gap, the Expanded Core Curriculum for Students who are Deaf or Hard of Hearing (ECC-DHH) was developed.”

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Additional Tools for Evaluation

Functional Listening Evaluation

Evaluations of Students Who Are D/HH

Informal Assessments for Parents, Students, Teachers

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Specially Designed Instruction

Specially Designed Instruction: A Resource for Teachers

(3) Specially designed instruction means adapting, as appropriate, to the needs of an eligible child under this part, the content, methodology, or delivery of instruction—

(i) To address the unique needs of the child that result from the child’s disability; and

(ii) To ensure access of the child to the general curriculum, so that the child can meet the educational standards within the jurisdiction of the public agency that apply to all children. [§300.39(b)(3)]

Texas Education Code Section TEC§29.302(a) states “that it is essential for the well-being and growth of students who are deaf or hard of hearing that educational programs recognize the unique nature of deafness and the hard-of-hearing condition and ensure that all students who are deaf or hard of hearing have appropriate, ongoing, and fully accessible educational opportunities."