Homeschooling Deaf Children

In the deafness chat room here on About.com, a parent of a deaf boy came in to discuss her concerns. She is homeschooling her son because she is unhappy with the quality of deaf education in his local school district, and the state school for the deaf is too far away. I do not homeschool but am aware that there is a growing number of parents choosing to homeschool their deaf and hard of hearing children, as I have received inquiries seeking information on this topic.

The Another Path website focuses on homeschooling deaf and hard of hearing children. The webmaster is a homeschooling parent of two, one deaf. Most of the information provided is general to homeschooling, but there is also information specific to children with hearing loss, addressing topics such as speech therapy, IEPs, and acoustics.

A 1996/97 issue of the National Challenged Homeschoolers Associated Network (NATHHAN) newsletter has articles about homeschooling deaf children; another back issue, from 1994, was about deaf education. In addition, NATHAAN's lending library provides many materials on deafness.

There are discussion lists focused on homeschooling deaf children, and more general disabled/homeschool discussion lists that also touch on deafness:

• Deaf Homeschool
• Deaf Christian Homeschool
• Homeschooling Kids with Disabilities
• Homeschooling Language Impaired
• Homeschooling Kids with Special Needs
• Deaf Adopted Homeschool - for homeschooling adopted deaf children

There is also a usenet news group, alt.education.home-school.disabilities.