Schools for the Deaf Enrollment Map

June 16, 2011 Archives

Hello all,

I was able to create this Flash map of Schools for the Deaf in the United States. Grey color means the lowest number of students enrolled compared to bright green color that comes with the highest number of students enrolled.

I used 2008-2011 data from various sources (state websites, school performance data sites, and etc.) and I combined the number of enrollment of few/several schools per state (AZ, CA, DC, GA, MD, MA, NY, NC, OH, PA, TN, UT, and VA)

Please open this document : third revision for a specific number of student enrollment for each school. If the data is inaccurate, please contact me immediately. Please come back for further updates.


Interactive Map by iMapBuilder

As you may notice that schools in the midwest, mountain and upper northeastern regions are very vulnerable right now.

Best,
Amy Cohen Efron

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41 comments on “Schools for the Deaf Enrollment Map”

NJ School for the Deaf — right now, there are approx 180 kids and the spring semester will end next week, but this fall will have about 160 kids.

Thank you so much Judge for letting me know about NJ. This school used to have 230 students then dropping down to 160 in this fall? How did that happen? If you know of any information?

Hi Amy,

What about Cleary School for the Deaf in Long Island, NY? Willie Ross School in W. MA? And Clarke School in W. MA and NYC?

Hi! I’ll definitely add them on the list on the document. Thank you so much for bringing this to my attention. Some of the schools you mentioned are private and they don’t get state funds unless if I am wrong.

NY / Cleary School for the Deaf 58 (Private School)
MA / Willie Ross School for the Deaf 71 (Private School)
MA / Clarke School for the Deaf – Northhampton 60 (Private School)
MA / Clarke School for the Deaf – Boston 18 (Private School)
FL / Clarke Jacksonville Auditory – 29 (Private School)
PA/ Clarke Pennsylvania Auditory/Oral Center – 18 (Private School)
NY/ Clarke New York – 60 (Private School)

Also what about Metro School for the Deaf in Minneapolis?

MN / Metro School for the Deaf – 92 – Public Charter School

Kansas School for the Deaf: As of now, we have 141 students. This fall, we already have 8 new students coming (141 + 8 = 149). We also are hearing that there may be approx 6 – 8 new students enrolling this fall. It’s more likely that we will have mid-150’s students for the 2011-2012 school year. Thanks, Kim

Thank you so much, Kim! I’ll update the document. It is nice to see that the numbers are growing. May I ask how did that happen? The old data I found online was 109, and now it is jumping to 150 in the fall.

Thanks for putting this together. The Indiana School for the Deaf has 342 students.

Thank you so much, Tami and I’ll update the document as soon as possible about this change. You are welcome.

Thanks for adding info on schools I mentioned. Cleary School(Eastern LI) is actually one of the 4201 schools in NYS and is state-funded, same as Mill Neck School(Western LI).

Thank you Fred, for correcting me. I appreciate you taking your time to fix that.

I am a bit perplexed at excluding the private schools. Western Pennsylvania School for the Deaf (WPSD) is a private school. So is Pennsylvania School for the Deaf. The web page at http://www.portal.state.pa.us/portal/server.pt/community/special_education/7465/approved_private_schools_and_chartered_schools_for_the_deaf_and_the_blind/596327 has the link to the directory of approved schools.

Scranton State School for the Deaf was closed few years ago and the programs there were taken over by WPSD. The name of the school is now called The Scranton School for Deaf and Hard of Hearing Children and is part of WPSD. Right now, the school is being moved to the new campus at South Abington Township and must complete the move before July 1st. The original campus was sold to Marywood University few months ago and the university will take over the campus on July 1st.

Joseph Pietro Riolo
josephpietrojeungriolo@gmail.com

Public domain notice: I put all of my expressions in this post in the public domain.

Thank you Joseph, and I understand why you are feeling perplexed. It appears to me that state funded schools are at-risk because of budget cuts. I am learning more about chartered schools through Guidestar website. Private schools, it is very difficult to determine how the funding takes place, and I am sure they have foundations and endowments to support these schools. Thank you so much for clarifying about Scranton. I’ll update this name.

Just to be clear – it’s Metro Deaf School. Website is at http://www.mdsmn.org/ 🙂

Thank you so much Adrean. I’ll fix that.

Hi,

Is it possible to change the gray coloring of some states that don’t have schools for the deaf (to avoid the confusion of two different gray areas – lowest student population and no schools)? From what I understand (if I’m correct) that NV and SD don’t have schools for the deaf and I don’t know about other states.

Just a suggestion. Smile.

Great job, btw! :^)

Thank you so much for suggestion. This program which I used has its own limitations. I know it is hard, and you could download the document which provides more information.

Not sure how you color coded the states: simply based on the number of students? If so, that may be a bit misleading.

How about color coding based on % of deaf school students and the state population?

For example, South Dakota has few people so would have smaller number of students in deaf schools while California would have many more deaf school students but with a much larger population. Somehow converting those numbers to a percentage may help give you a better idea on a state-by-state basis.

Yikes… sorry that it is misleading. The color is based on the number of students enrolling in a state funded schools in their state. For example, Wyoming, Nebraska, New Hampshire has none – then lightest grey color. The brightest green is California and NY, because I combined number of students in their state.

Percentage of deaf school students and the state population… interesting and that will require more research and work. It is only a start, and if you are curious about that. Let’s work together! Go and check this site about the map: http://www.imapbuilder.com It costs so much money if I purchase this. It comes with limitations.

Thanks for your interest! Let’s work together!

Amy

Hi,

Your data collection is great and it’s really nice to see what other schools have. I see you miss or maybe not aware of another school in Colorado. We have a public charter school called Rocky Mountain Deaf School & High school in Golden, Colorado. It’s a charter school. http://www.rmdeafschool.org (or net.) I am not quite sure of their enrollments but I want to say it’s over 50 students. 🙂

Thank you Sara! Is it possible that you can call them and find out how many students enrolled? I will definitely update this list including Rocky Mountain Deaf School.

Amy,

The Rocky Mountain Deaf School enrolled about 63 kids as of 2010 – 2011. As biased, I hope to see the enrollment goes up because the RMDS is a wonderful school. 🙂
Thank you for including RMDS. 🙂
Sara

There are two state schools for the deaf in Maryland. One is located at Frederick (50 miles northwest of Washington, DC) and the other is located at Columbia (30 miles northeast of Washington, D.C.) There is a day school for oralists known as Baer Oral School located in Baltimore. The oldest private oral school, St. Francis Xavier at Irvington which I first attended, became defunct.

Nice going! When looking at the enrollment map — bear in mind, “x” or higher dB loss as one of the few eligibility requirements vary by school. For New York, it is 80 dB. Ridiculous! Policy needs to change.

Oops – dB hearing loss

Amy, in Virginia, two schools has been consolidated into one permanently in Staunton. Virginia School for the Deaf and the Blind and the Multidisabled in Hampton has been closed for the last few years as it was consolidated into Staunton Campus which met hundreds of Deaf people’s wishes.

R-

Utah School for the Deaf, 80% of those kids are in the oral program…just FYI

Actuay, let me be clearer. USD serves ALL deaf students in the state. That number includes any deaf or hard of hearing student on an IEP, regardless of their placement (and the vast majority are mainstreamed, and even the small number being served in deaf classrooms, 80% of those are in the oral program). The number for Jean Massieu School (49) reflects the total number of kids being instructed using ASL.

Hi, I presume CSD at Fremont is the largest number of Deaf students who enrolled. ?? Thank you.

Sorry, I forgot to click ‘notify me of followup comments via email. I wrote the previous comment as of “Hi. I presume CDS at Fremont is the largest number of Deaf students who enrolled. ??
Thank you”

Amy
Amy
Amy
How do u love thee

This here is a tedious but cha importNt task u have undertaken

Bless u and ily

Truly grand and such a collaborative approach

Wow and thank u again

Makin the invisible visible u be

Peace

Patti

Montana does have small deaf school. why it is in light gray shade? that mean there’s no school. that’s not true.

I’m puzzled as to why Texas is only a “light green” instead of BRIGHT green, considering the fact that it is *one* school in a state with the second highest enrollment of students, behind Fremont.

I don’t think it makes sense for New York to be “bright” green, as you’re combining several schools with low enrollments into one number. I can understand making California a “bright” green, since their two biggest schools (Fremont and Riverside) at least have numbers close to Texas’.

Hi! This is fascinating, thank you so much for taking on such an effort!

My child is at a school for the deaf that we adore — TLC — and I’d hate to see it leave your list, but if you must leave off private schools — like you’ve done with the 2 Clarke schools, Beverly School for the Deaf, and Willie Ross — the Learning Center for the Deaf in MA is also private.

I was surprised to see MA as light green rather than bright, with so many different schools for the deaf here. You probably know better than I, but I thought that all of the nominally private deaf schools in MA were state-funded to some degree, including the Clarke schools, because of the way placement is financed by local public schools in MA.

Hi Amy ~

I commend you for taking on this task! I think it is great to be bringing attention to this issue. I also can appreciate that it was not so easy a task, and that trying to get accurate information could get complicated.

I do think some good points have been made here about how we need to evaluate the information and analyze the statistics with some care..such as looking at percentages based on state population as opposed to just the numbers in and of themselves. States with larger populations and larger Deaf Communities would likely have a larger number of students in the Deaf schools.

I also think Beth has made a good point – just because a school is private doesn’t necessarily mean it is not receiving state funds. It just means it is not administered by the state educational system. I suspect that some of these schools are still getting state dollars in the form of grants and the like, or reimbursement for educational services provided.

To use a comparison – there are many agencies which serve the deaf and hard of hearing community which are private, non-profit agencies…and yet a large portion of their funding comes from the state. (California is an example, where the state contracts with local non-profits such as DCARA or Nor-Cal to provide services). If the state was to cut off funding to these agencies, they would likely be in serious trouble.

It might be a good idea to do some research and find out more about what the actual funding is of these private schools. How much government funding are they receiving – either from local, state, or federal sources?

I think the big questions to ask here include…How many deaf and hard of hearing children have been identified in that state? How many are enrolled in schools for the deaf? How many are mainstreamed? What percentage of the state budget is being allocated to education of deaf and hard of hearing children in that state? How much of that allocation is going to fund schools for the deaf?

I think if and when you can get answers to these questions, you might get a clearer picture of the issues surrounding state support and funding for schools for the deaf.

Good luck, Amy…this is a great and beneficial project, and I do hope that you continue to work with it – the information could be valuable to all of us.

Hello Amy, thank you for putting this together.
Please note: For NY schools, Cleary School for the Deaf is a state-funded, 4201 school.
Thanks again!

Hi Amy, Cleary School is one of the state-funded .. the staff and students went up to Albany for the Rally this past March.. Enjoy your day and Happy Fourth!

Great idea!

Add these to the list for Missouri:

St. Joseph Institute for the Deaf in St. Louis
Central Institute for the Deaf in St. Louis
Moog Center in St. Louis (they also have certified programs outside of Missouri – Albuquerque, Buffalo, Chicago, Cincinnati, Minneapolis and Phoenix)

Indiana:
St. Joseph Institute for the Deaf

Kansas:
St. Joseph Institute for the Deaf

Sorry that I do not have the current enrollment numbers for 2010 to 2011 for the above schools but it wouldn’t surprise me to hear a large migration of Deaf/HoH children to mainstreamed programs like the Moog Center “certified programs” around the U.S.A.

I do think the ADA does have a large role in the declining enrollment numbers at the state funded Deaf/HoH elementary/high school programs – the parents are mainly more interested in finding support services in their local school districts/communities over sending their kids away (dorms) or pulling up their roots to relocate their entire family hundreds of miles to attend another state deaf school…. This can be seen in the declining enrollment numbers at the higher education level (Gallaudet/CSUN/NTID) now that deaf college bound students choosing the more affordable local community college option over the high cost of crossing the state lines to attend college…. though I would do anything/find a way to attend one of the “big” three colleges over staying at home with my parents! LOL

Amy, do you have a list of your sources for these data? I’m a data librarian at UNC at Chapel Hill and I have a student who’s looking for total national enrollment of students at deaf schools. I’m thrilled with the amount of work you’ve done, but it won’t do my student much good unless she can see which enrollment numbers are for which year and the source of each. Thanks a million!

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