Utah Schools for the Deaf (USD) Associate Superintendent Michelle Tanner met with Utah State University’s (USU) Communicative Disorder and Deaf Education Department’s Chair Karen Munoz and Deaf Ed Program Director Lauri Nelson for a more in-depth discussion about the relationship between USD and USU for the reimagined Bilingual/Bicultural (Bi/Bi) Deaf Education program at USU.
As announced in April, USU plans to bring back the ASL/English, Bi/Bi Deaf Education program as an on-line Bachelor’s program. The plans announced at that time still had many details to be determined in order to move forward with the program. USD was key in ensuring the program’s viability and success.
The current plan intends to define eligible program candidates as those individuals who are already working at Utah deaf schools as teacher’s aides. Eligible program students can also include individuals in the public school districts who are working as classroom aides for deaf children.
During the meeting with USU and USD, Karen and Lauri shared a proposed course schedule. USU wants USD’s input to finalize the course requirements. There will be another meeting scheduled in the future for this purpose. Contributors will include members of the Deaf community as well as Nathan Harrison, USDB Curriculum Director.
USU is not concerned about reaching a certain minimum number for enrollment. Rather, they are focused on getting a program up-and-running, to take the place of the suspended ASL/English Deaf Ed program, as quickly as possible.
USD has 4 campuses from which to draw prospective program students. These 4 campuses are Kenneth Burdett School (KBS) in Ogden, Jean Massieu School (JMS) in Salt Lake City, Elizabeth DeLong School (EDS) in Springville, and a satellite school in St. George.
Also, it is important to note that there is a state-funded grant available to individuals who would like to enroll and graduate from this on-line Bi/Bi Deaf Education program at USU.
Hello Bibi 