Arizona School for the Deaf
Based in Tucson, the Arizona School for the Deaf, is part of the Arizona State Schools for the Deaf and Blind. The school offers:- High School
- Middle School
- Elementary School
- Vocational/Work Education Program - This program teaches independence and work skills, and is required of all students.
The middle school has a newsletter, the Blue & White. Like any school newsletter, it includes sports, the honor roll, and miscellaneous student-written articles.
Phoenix Day School for the Deaf
A large logo graces the opening page of the bilingual (ASL-English) Phoenix Day School for the Deaf web site.The school's divisions:
- Elementary - All elementary students attend a transitional first grade, to give them an extra year of schooling to build their language skills while still quite young.
- Junior High
- High School
The school offers several services:
- Community Based Instruction - serves students with multiple disabilities, teaching functional and independence skills. Students in the program are taught social, domestic, vocational, and recreational skills.
- A vocational department that focuses on giving students marketable skills, such as computers. It includes a work experience program that allows students to work on campus or go off campus to work.
- Sign language classes
Sequoia School for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing
Also in the metro Phoenix area (Peoria, Arizona) is a charter program for the deaf, Sequoia School for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, housed in another school. An teacher at the program provided this description to About.com: "We are currently serving Deaf and Hard of Hearing students in grades K-5, with plans to expand the program to K-8. We are located in a small hearing school and the deaf and hard of hearing students have many opportunities to learn to interact with hearing peers. We are a family centered school and we try to educate the child as the parents would like. This means we have the full range of services, from a full day Deaf Ed classroom, to part of the day in the hearing classroom and part of the day in the deaf ed classroom, to full day in the hearing classroom with support from the deaf ed teacher. We offer Speech and Occupational Therapy, as specified in the student's Individualized Education Plan (IEP). We are a public charter school, therefore we don't charge tuition."Desert Voices Oral Learning Center
Another school in Phoenix is the Desert Voices Oral Learning Center, an oral school for the deaf. Started by parents in 1996, this school focuses on preparing young deaf and hard of hearing children to attend mainstream programs, through two programs:- Birth to three
- Educational program for three to eight year olds. The school also offers a transitional mainstreaming program that partially mainstreams children before they are fully mainstreamed.
