New Jersey-2016-A4772-Introduced

An Act concerning the early language development of deaf and hard of hearing children and supplementing chapter 46 of Title 18A of the New Jersey Statutes and P.L.1993, c.309 (C.26:1A-36.6 et seq.).

Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:

1. a. There is established in the Department of Education a Working Group on Deaf Education for the purpose of making recommendations on issues related to the early linguistic development of children who are deaf or hard of hearing.

b. The working group shall consist of 12 members appointed by the Commissioner of Education including:

(1) a parent of a child who is deaf or hard of hearing who uses the dual languages of American Sign Language and English;

(2) a parent of a child who is deaf or hard of hearing who uses only spoken English, with or without visual supplements;

(3) a certified teacher of deaf and hard of hearing students who use the dual languages of American Sign Language and English;

(4) a certified teacher of deaf and hard of hearing students employed at a nonpublic school;

(5) an expert who researches language outcomes for deaf and hard of hearing children using American Sign Language and English;

(6) an expert who researches language outcomes for deaf and hard of hearing children using spoken English, with or without visual supplements;

(7) a certified teacher of deaf and hard of hearing students whose expertise is in curriculum and instruction in American Sign Language and English;

(8) an advocate for the teaching and use of the dual languages of American Sign Language and English;

(9) an advocate for the teaching and use of spoken English, with or without visual supplements;

(10) an early intervention specialist who works with deaf and hard of hearing infants and toddlers using the dual languages of American Sign Language and English;

(11) a certified teacher of deaf and hard of hearing students whose expertise is in American Sign Language and English language assessment; and

(12) a speech pathologist from spoken English, with or without the use of visual supplements.

c. Appointments to the working group shall be made within 30 days after the effective date of this act. Vacancies in the membership of the working group shall be filled in the same manner as the original appointments were made.

2. a. It shall be the duty of the working group to examine, research, and make recommendations to the Department of Education for:

(1) the development of a resource guide for parents to monitor and track deaf and hard of hearing children's expressive and receptive language acquisition and developmental stages toward English literacy; and

(2) the selection of one or more early intervention assessments to be used by educators to assess the language and literacy development of deaf and hard of hearing children.

b. The working group shall issue a report, including its recommendations, no later than one year after the working group organizes.

3. a. The Department of Education, in an effort to assist deaf and hard of hearing children in becoming linguistically ready for kindergarten and in consultation with the Department of Health, shall develop a parent resource guide for use by parents of deaf and hard of hearing children.

The parent resource guide shall:

(1) help parents monitor and track deaf and hard of hearing children's expressive and receptive language acquisition and developmental stages toward English literacy by presenting language developmental milestones in terms of typical development of all children, by age range;

(2) be appropriate for use, in both content and administration, with deaf and hard of hearing children from birth to five years of age, who use both or one of the languages of American Sign Language and English;

(3) be written for clarity and ease of use by parents;

(4) be aligned to existing instruments used by school districts to assess the development of children with disabilities pursuant to federal and State law;

(5) include a statement that the parent resource guide is not a formal assessment of language and literacy development, and that a parent's observations of his child may differ from formal assessment data collected as part of a professional evaluation; and

(6) include a statement that a parent may bring the parent resource to a child study team meeting for purposes of sharing observations about the child's development.

b. The department shall incorporate the recommendations provided by the working group established pursuant to section 1 of this act into the parent resource guide.

c. The department shall make the parent resource guide developed pursuant to this section publicly available on its website.

4. a. The Department of Education shall, after consideration of the recommendations provided by the working group established pursuant to section 1 of this act, select one or more early intervention assessments to be used by educators to assess the language and literacy development of deaf and hard of hearing children. The selected assessments shall track the development of deaf and hard of hearing children's expressive and receptive language acquisition and developmental stages toward English literacy, and shall be appropriate for the assessment of children from birth to five years of age.

b. The department shall disseminate the assessments selected pursuant to this section to school districts, and shall provide materials and training on their use.

5. The Department of Education shall annually collect and publicly report data on the language acquisition and developmental progress of children from age two to age five who are deaf or hard of hearing.

6. The Early Intervention Program in the Department of Health, established pursuant to section 2 of P.L.1993, c.309 (C.26:1A-36.7), shall annually collect and publicly report data on the language acquisition and developmental progress of infants and toddlers from birth to age two who are deaf or hard of hearing.

7. This act shall take effect immediately and the working group shall expire on the 30^th day after the submission of its report.

STATEMENT

This bill establishes in the Department of Education a Working Group on Deaf Education for the purpose of making recommendations on issues related to the early linguistic development of children who are deaf or hard of hearing. The working group will consist of 12 members appointed by the Commissioner of Education. It will be the duty of the working group to examine, research, and make recommendations to the Department of Education for:

(1) the development of a parent resource guide for parents to monitor and track deaf and hard of hearing children's expressive and receptive language acquisition and developmental stages toward English literacy; and

(2) the selection of one or more early intervention assessments to be used by educators to assess the language and literacy development of deaf and hard of hearing children.

Under the bill, the working group is required to issue a report, including its recommendations, no later than one year after the working group organizes.

The bill also directs the Department of Education, in consultation with the Department of Health, to develop a parent resource guide for use by parents of deaf and hard of hearing children. The parent resource guide will:

(1) help parents monitor and track deaf and hard of hearing language acquisition;

(2) be appropriate for use, in both content and administration, with deaf and hard of hearing children from birth to age five,

(3) be written for clarity and ease of use by parents;

(4) be aligned to existing instruments used by school districts to assess the development of children with disabilities;

(5) include a statement that the parent resource is not a formal assessment of language and literacy development; and

(6) include a statement that a parent may bring the parent resource guide to a child study team meeting for purposes of sharing observations about the child's development.

The department is directed to incorporate the recommendations provided by the working group into the parent resource guide. The department must make the parent resource guide publicly available on its website.

The bill also directs the department to, after consideration of the recommendations provided by the working group, select one or more early intervention assessments to be used by educators to assess the language and literacy development of deaf and hard of hearing children. The bill directs the department to disseminate the selected assessments to school districts, and provide materials and training on their use.

Finally, the bill directs the Department of Education to annually collect and publicly report data on the language acquisition and developmental progress of children from age two to age five who are deaf or hard of hearing and the Early Intervention Program in the Department of Health to annually collect and publicly report such data for infants and toddlers from birth to age two.