The NAD announces an exciting Congressional bill that will recognize American Sign Language (ASL) and other sign languages used in the U.S. through ensuring that English Language Learning opportunities are equally available to deaf and hard of hearing students, along with hearing children of deaf adults (KODAs/CODAs).

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TAWNY: We are excited to let you know that we have a brand new bill that has been introduced recently in the U.S. Congress, “Signing is Language.” That title is captivating! The purpose of the bill is to amend a major federal law, “Every Student Succeeds Act” (ESSA). ESSA has been around for a long time. The purpose of ESSA is to mandate K-12 education, and is also known as the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. The name of the law has changed over the years, it is now known as ESSA. That law has numerous provisions, such as those that focus on standardized tests, teacher qualification requirements, Free and Reduced Lunch Program, and more. One provision focuses on English Language Learners (ELL). ELL is a program that receives both federal and state funds to provide support and resources towards a particular teaching method for children with families that do not speak English at home. The ELL provision is intended to provide support to those children through their home languages so that they can also achieve academic skills in English. That’s nice, right? Many languages are recognized under this support service, but unfortunately ASL is not, which means that deaf and hard of hearing children along with hearing children of deaf adults (KODAs or CODAs) are unable to receive ELL services. Right now, ELL is only provided if the non-English language used at home is a spoken language. ASL is not on the list of recognized languages by the U.S. Department of Education. That issue has been brought to the NAD’s attention by the community in recent years. For example, one college in Connecticut reached out to the NAD with the concern that they can’t capitalize on ELL services to provide support for deaf college-aged students that are struggling with English. ELL would benefit the students due to its utilizing a bilingual language approach. The NAD collaborated with the college and several key organizations (including those focused on linguistic policies) to bring this issue to the attention of the U.S. Department of Education and the U.S. Department of Justice. We had several meetings, but ultimately our request to recognize ASL in the context of ELL services was not successful with these federal agencies. Another situation was brought to our attention by a family in the state of Washington, the parents were Deaf and their young son was hearing, a KODA. The parents noticed their son was struggling with English, so they decided to ask the school for ELL services for their son. The school checked the list of languages recognized under ELL services and found that ASL was not on the list. So, they denied the request. The parents were confused because they did not speak English at home, they used ASL, so they should’ve qualified for ELL services. After further discussion, the parents asked the state’s Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) -- they denied the request too. So, the next action was to reach out to their U.S. Representative, Rick Larsen. Finally someone decided to take action and discussed the issue with Washington State’s OSPI, who then agreed to add ASL on the list of ELL services. The family was thrilled to have ELL services available for their KODA son, so his development in English could be supported, and at the same, respect ASL as his primary language. The family could have stopped there, but no, they wanted to make a national impact, so they asked Rep. Larsen for his continued leadership. It is also important to recognize the role of the Hearing and Speech Deaf Center (HSDC), an agency that serves deaf and hard of hearing people in the state of Washington. Due to this collaboration, Rep. Larsen introduced a national level bill titled, “Signing is Language Act.” The Act intends to amend the ELL provision of the Every Student Succeeds Act to recognize the use of ASL by deaf or hard of hearing children. The bill also will recognize any other sign language used by deaf or hard of hearing children or families that moved here from other countries along with hearing (KODA) children using ASL at home. This bill is an exciting opportunity to provide more resources and support for deaf and hard of hearing children and KODAs. The bill has been introduced in the U.S. Congress recently. We ask for your help by contacting your U.S. Representatives to let them know that you support the bill. If you’re with an organization, sign on to show your support. The more signatures, the more that we can show the U.S. Congress that this bill is important for our children. Thank you!