| Austine School for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing | |
|---|---|
 Holton Hall of the Austine School | |
| Location | |
 | |
| Information | |
| Type | Private |
| Established | 1904 |
| Closed | 2014 |
| Grades | Pre-K–12 |
| Color(s) | Green and White |
| Mascot | Arrows |
The Austine School for the Deaf, now closed, in Brattleboro, Vermont, was an independent, coeducational day and residential school for deaf and hard-of-hearing children age four to eighteen from New England and New York.
In the late 1800s, U.S. Army Colonel William Austine retired to Brattleboro, Vermont. [1] In his will, the Colonel specified a sum of $50,000 to establish a hospital for the treatment of strangers or local residents with extraordinary circumstances. Complying with this wish and under trusteeship, five prominent local citizens incorporated the Austine Institution in 1904. After debate, the Vermont Attorney General, who was also the administrator of the Colonel's will, prevailed with his suggestion to open a school for deaf and blind students. Support was gained from the Vermont General Assembly to purchase a 200-acre (0.81 km2) farm. In the fall of 1912 the Austine School opened with 16 students.
In 1914, Alexander Graham Bell delivered Austine School's first commencement address. [2] During the late 1950s and early 60s, the school experienced expansive growth. A new elementary school was added followed by a new high school wing. Soon after, the high school boys' and girls' dormitories were completed. In 1970, the construction of Vermont Hall upgraded the dormitories for the younger children and added administrative offices, a modern kitchen, dining room and health facility.
On April 11, 2014, The Vermont Center for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing (VCDHH) Board of Directors voted to close both the Williams Center and the Austine School for the Deaf. [3] The organization had continued financial issues due to declining enrollment over the years. In January 2016, Winston Prouty Center was approved by the US Bankruptcy Court to purchase the former Austine School campus. [4]
In 1975 the Education for All Handicapped Children Act was passed. This legislation greatly impacted how persons with special needs are educated. As public schools began struggling to accommodate deaf and hard-of-hearing students in mainstream classrooms, Austine School leadership increasingly realized that their education expertise and guidance could be invaluable in helping school systems and families achieve their education goals. Thus the Vermont Center was created to provide statewide, location-based support for deaf education through a consulting network. Programs the Austine School had founded over the years to meet the needs of the deaf community beyond the classroom were grouped under the Vermont Center.
With mainstreaming underway, the Austine School recognized a marked increase in the percentage of its students who face multiple physical and education challenges. In response, The William Center was created as a separate school licensed by the Department for Children and Families and housed on the Austine Campus as a residential facility for emotionally disturbed deaf children.
The Austine School was led by principal Anne Potter and offered residential and day student programs. The elementary school program used a combination of the Montessori Method, the State of Vermont Framework of Standards and Learning Opportunities (VFSLO) and the VCDHH curriculum to develop within students a solid foundation of knowledge, communication proficiency, critical thinking and conflict resolution skills, as well as a level of maturity to transition into middle school and beyond. The middle and high school continued to focus on the whole student and adhere to curricula based on the VFSLO. Core classes were English, Reading, Math, Science, Social Studies, Art, Health, Keyboarding and Physical Education. Electives were provided.
Austine provided specialized classes for students with multiple disabilities or special learning needs. Each student was encouraged to explore and discover the art of both independent and collaborative learning. Additional opportunities were made available through a career exploration class, a business education class, work-based learning, vocational assessment and transition planning. High school students participated in Austine's innovative supported onsite learning program at Brattleboro Union High School and could apply to the Southeast Vermont Career Education Center in Brattleboro for courses that developed specific employment skills in 16 fields.
Striving to prepare students for entry to college and career by making learning relevant to everyday life, the school provided a challenging academic program tailored to meet the individual needs of each student. The ultimate goal for every Austine student was to experience a happy, healthy and successful adulthood.
Austine's idyllic campus provided opportunities for a rich student life, ranging from onsite ropes courses, hiking and swimming, and varsity sports (the Austine Arrows), to participation in Deaf Academic Bowl at Gallaudet University.
Austine has a vibrant alumni community, many of whom chose to stay in Brattleboro after graduation.
From its establishment, the Austine school was intended to be run by the oral method of teaching: "It is to be a pure oral school, and the trustees hope to make it a first-class school in every respect". [5] This implies that only spoken and written English were used in the classroom by instructors and students. It appears this was the policy until the mid-1960s, when the high school was established. According to the Austine News (1965), sign language was allowed in the high school:
"Simultaneous communication was determined as the basic communication method in the high school area. This method employs the media of speech, speechreading (lipreading), amplification through group or individual hearing aids, writing, dramatics, pantomime, finger-spelling and the language of signs. This means that students with little residual hearing can see the manual symbols on the hands; those who are proficient lipreaders can follow oral conversation clues; those who have a usable residue of hearing can follow auditory clues. All conversation is given at a normal rate of speed. The simultaneous method reduces the need for numerous repetitions and augments our traditionally strong program in speech, lipreading, and auditory training. [6] "
At this time sign language was actively discouraged in the elementary school and preschool programs. However, the high school program was such a success, sign language instruction quickly spread throughout all the programs and by 1971 the entire school was encouraging the use of sign language. In 1990, Austine officially adopted the Bilingual-Bicultural Approach. [7]
Gallaudet University is a private federally chartered university in Washington, D.C., for the education of the deaf and hard of hearing. It was founded in 1864 as a grammar school for both deaf and blind children. It was the first school for the advanced education of the deaf and hard of hearing in the world and remains the only higher education institution in which all programs and services are specifically designed to accommodate deaf and hard of hearing students. Hearing students are admitted to the graduate school and a small number are also admitted as undergraduates each year. The university was named after Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet, a notable figure in the advancement of deaf education.
Signing Exact English is a system of manual communication that strives to be an exact representation of English language vocabulary and grammar. It is one of a number of such systems in use in English-speaking countries. It is related to Seeing Essential English (SEE-I), a manual sign system created in 1945, based on the morphemes of English words. SEE-II models much of its sign vocabulary from American Sign Language (ASL), but modifies the handshapes used in ASL in order to use the handshape of the first letter of the corresponding English word.
Oralism is the education of deaf students through oral language by using lip reading, speech, and mimicking the mouth shapes and breathing patterns of speech. Oralism came into popular use in the United States around the late 1860s. In 1867, the Clarke School for the Deaf in Northampton, Massachusetts, was the first school to start teaching in this manner. Oralism and its contrast, manualism, manifest differently in deaf education and are a source of controversy for involved communities. Oralism should not be confused with Listening and Spoken Language, a technique for teaching deaf children that emphasizes the child's perception of auditory signals from hearing aids or cochlear implants.
Manualism is a method of education of deaf students using sign language within the classroom. Manualism arose in the late 18th century with the advent of free public schools for the deaf in Europe. These teaching methods were brought over to the United States where the first school for the deaf was established in 1817. Today manualism methods are used in conjunction with oralism methods in the majority of American deaf schools.
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Manually coded languages (MCLs) are a family of gestural communication methods which include gestural spelling as well as constructed languages which directly interpolate the grammar and syntax of oral languages in a gestural-visual form—that is, signed versions of oral languages. Unlike the sign languages that have evolved naturally in deaf communities, these manual codes are the conscious invention of deaf and hearing educators, and as such lack the distinct spatial structures present in native deaf sign languages. MCLs mostly follow the grammar of the oral language—or, more precisely, of the written form of the oral language that they interpolate. They have been mainly used in deaf education in an effort to "represent English on the hands" and by sign language interpreters in K-12 schools, although they have had some influence on deaf sign languages where their implementation was widespread.
The Learning Center for the Deaf (TLC) is a Framingham, Massachusetts-based non-profit organization and school serving deaf and hard-of-hearing children and adults. The mission of The Learning Center for the Deaf is to ensure that all deaf and hard of hearing children and adults thrive by having the knowledge, opportunity and power to design the future of their choice.
Beverly School for the Deaf is a school, established in 1876, for students from birth to age twenty-two who are Deaf, Hard-of-Hearing and/or have cochlear implants by providing language that is visually accessible via American Sign Language, written English, speech, and AAC/Assistive Technology. The school also serves students who have language issues caused by conditions such as autism spectrum disorder, pervasive developmental disorders, and cerebral palsy.
In the United States, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) is a special education law that mandates regulation for students with disabilities to protect their rights as students and the rights of their parents. The IDEA requires that all students receive a Free and Appropriate Public Education (FAPE), and that these students should be educated in the least restrictive environment (LRE). To determine what an appropriate setting is for a student, an Individualized Education Plan (IEP) team will review the student's strengths, weaknesses, and needs, and consider the educational benefits from placement in any particular educational setting. By law the team is required to include the student's parent or guardian, a general education teacher, a special education teacher, a representative of the local education agency, someone to interpret evaluation results and, if appropriate, the student. It is the IEP team's responsibility to determine what environment is the LRE for any given student with disabilities, which varies between every student. The goal of an IEP is to create the LRE for that student to learn in. For some students, mainstream inclusion in a standard classroom may be an appropriate setting whereas other students may need to be in a special education classroom full time, but many students fall somewhere within this spectrum. Students may also require supplementary aids and services to achieve educational goals while being placed in a classroom with students without disabilities, these resources are provided as needed. The LRE for a student is less of a physical location, and more of a concept to ensure that the student is receiving the services that they need to be successful.
Jane Fernandes is a Deaf American educator and social justice advocate. As of August 2021, Fernandes is the President of Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio. She previously served as president of Guilford College from 2014 to 2021.
The Ohio School for the Deaf is a school located in Columbus, Ohio. It is run by the Ohio Department of Education for deaf and hard-of-hearing students across Ohio. It was established on October 16, 1829, making it the fifth oldest residential school in the country. OSD is the only publicly funded residential school for the deaf in Ohio.
Rochester School for the Deaf (RSD) is a private, tuition-free school for deaf and hard of hearing students to attend in Rochester, New York. It is one of the oldest and most respected preK-12th grade schools for children with hearing loss and their families in the United States, and one of nine such school in the state of New York. Serving the Central and Western portions of New York State, it has been educating students since 1876.
The Minnesota State Academy for the Deaf (MSAD) is a public residential school serving deaf children in Minnesota, United States. It is one of two Minnesota State Academies in Faribault and operated by the state for particular student populations.
The Vermont Center for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, a non-profit organization, was the primary educational and support services resource for Deaf and Hard of Hearing residents in Vermont and surrounding areas. The Vermont Center, headquartered at Brattleboro’s Austin’s School For The Deaf, was launched by the Austine School in 1998 and operated until 2014. The Austine School was one of four independent schools and twelve outreach programs through which the Vermont Center assisted thousands of Deaf Vermonters.
Deaf education is the education of students with any degree of hearing loss or deafness. This may involve, but does not always, individually-planned, systematically-monitored teaching methods, adaptive materials, accessible settings, and other interventions designed to help students achieve a higher level of self-sufficiency and success in the school and community than they would achieve with a typical classroom education. There are different language modalities used in educational setting where students get varied communication methods. A number of countries focus on training teachers to teach deaf students with a variety of approaches and have organizations to aid deaf students.
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The history of deaf education in the United States began in the early 1800s when the Cobbs School of Virginia, an oral school, was established by William Bolling and John Braidwood, and the Connecticut Asylum for the Deaf and Dumb, a manual school, was established by Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet and Laurent Clerc. When the Cobbs School closed in 1816, the manual method, which used American Sign Language, became commonplace in deaf schools for most of the remainder of the century. In the late 1800s, schools began to use the oral method, which only allowed the use of speech, as opposed to the manual method previously in place. Students caught using sign language in oral programs were often punished. The oral method was used for many years until sign language instruction gradually began to come back into deaf education.
The Deaf rights movement encompasses a series of social movements within the disability rights and cultural diversity movements that encourages deaf and hard of hearing to push society to adopt a position of equal respect for them. Acknowledging that those who were Deaf or hard of hearing had rights to obtain the same things as those hearing lead this movement. Establishing an educational system to teach those with Deafness was one of the first accomplishments of this movement. Sign language, as well as cochlear implants, has also had an extensive impact on the Deaf community. These have all been aspects that have paved the way for those with Deafness, which began with the Deaf Rights movement.
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after retiring in Brattleboro