National Association of the Deaf

The National Association of the Deaf in conjunction with the Nebraska Association of the Deaf (NeAD) organized a Rally on Saturday, May 23, 1998, in Omaha. Pre-rally keynote presentations and organizing activities were held at the Omaha Association of the Deaf Hall.

The main purpose of the Rally was to protest the closure of the Nebraska School for the Deaf (NSD) and to strengthen local and statewide coalition efforts in preparation for the new legislative session.

Representatives from the NAD included President Benjamin J. Soukup, former Executive Director Gary W. Olsen, and Associate Executive Director Nancy B. Rarus. Rally presenters also included NeAD President James DeVaney; Norm Weverka, Rogeilo Arteaga, and others. Jack Cooper, president of Kansas Association of the Deaf, was also on hand to give his support.

The weekend's events included Jack R. Gannon as the guest speaker for NSD graduation ceremonies on Saturday afternoon, May 23rd, followed by a neighborhood parade and an evening "Deafywood" performance, at NSD. The NSD Alumni Association sponsored a reception and meeting on Friday evening, May 22nd, and all day informal activities on May 24th.

Approximately 300 NSD alumni attended the final graduation. Jack Gannon, the graduation speaker, called the closing of NSD "a black hole" in deaf education for Nebraska. The event received TV coverage on two channels, as well as newspaper coverage.

Background

The Nebraska Legislature, with minimal input from parents of deaf children and deaf professionals, has decided not to provide continued funding for NSD, favoring instead a plan put forth by the Nebraska Department of Education. This plan, effective Fall 1998, will establish four regional/statewide programs for children who are deaf and hard of hearing. Those four programs will cover 1) Omaha metropolitan area, 2) Lincoln and Southeast Nebraska, 3) Northeast Nebraska and 4) Central-Western Nebraska.

The NAD has been working with the NeAD to oppose this plan. The NAD believes that deaf and hearing children should be afforded with a full continuum of educational choices to choose from. With the closure of NSD, parents will be denied a vital option in determining the most appropriate educational setting for their children.

Legislative Bill (LB) 1276 was introduced by Senator Kiel in the Nebraska Unicameral Legislative Session on January 22, 1998. LB 1276 proposed standards of education for deaf and hard of hearing children and stated that NSD could not be closed until other programs that would meet those standards be established and fully functioning. Unfortunately, this bill died in the Education Committee.

The Governor of Nebraska convened a special one week session in May 1998 to revise and pass a previously vetoed bill for special education funding. There was a line in this voluminous bill that would repeal the statute requiring the [existence of the] Nebraska School for the Deaf. Parents and the deaf community attempted to amend this bill to adopt standards of deaf education, as outlined in the failed LB 1276. Legislators, however, turned a deaf ear to the needs of deaf and hard of hearing children.

Because the Nebraska Legislature has chosen to ignore the pleas of parents of deaf and hard of hearing children, educators, the deaf community and children themselves, favoring instead to adopt a supposedly cheaper plan proposed by the Nebraska Department of Education, the following events have taken place:

    * The Nebraska School for the Deaf will close its doors on August 1998.
    * No standards of education for deaf and hard of hearing children have been adopted, leaving such in the hands of those who are not fully aware of the full ramifications of the current plan.

The National Association of the Deaf (NAD) deplores this situation and calls upon the Nebraska Legislature to put the future of quality education for deaf and hard of hearing children above the value of the current dime.

In the 1999 Nebraska state legislative session, there will be another attempt to introduce a bill establishing educational standards for deaf and hard of hearing children. The NAD will continue to work with the Nebraska Association of the Deaf and related individuals and groups within the state toward this goal.