6.15 2. Commission on Education of the Deaf Report (1988)

• Library: Disability Law and Practice, Vol. 3 (NY) 2017

2.. Commission on Education of the Deaf Report (1988)

Congress enacted the Education of the Deaf Act of 1986.¹¹⁸ A Commission on the Education of the Deaf (COED) was appointed to study the situation. Its 144-page report to the president and Congress, “Toward Equality: Education of the Deaf” (COED Report), begins:

The present status of education of persons who are deaf in the United States is unsatisfactory. Unacceptably so. This is the primary and inescapable conclusion of the Commission. . . . Do we have at hand the knowledge it would take to improve the situation significantly, even dramatically? The answer is a resounding Yes.¹¹⁹

Among other issues addressed, the COED Report focused on the impact of mainstreaming on many deaf children. The COED Report notes that the regular school environment

which may be the least restrictive in terms of the integration of other handicapped and non-handicapped students becomes the most restrictive in terms of basic communication between deaf children and their hearing peers, setting the stage for drastic retardation in development of identity, social skills, and maturity . . . [and] may also impede the child’s ability to acquire and

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