Our Mission:
Total Accessibility to Language, Communication and Educational Excellence
in a Visual Environment
Communication and Language Guiding Principles
Most Deaf students communicate and interact primarily in two different languages and cultures. Consequently, both American Sign Language (ASL) and English are valued as integral parts of the total school program at the Kansas School for the Deaf.
One component of the KSD mission is to develop, in each student, fluency in both languages. Through those languages, each student can access the same educational opportunities as students in Kansas public schools.
All means of acquiring first and second language skills are to be implemented as appropriate based on each student’s needs. These include reading, writing, speaking, listening, receptive ASL, and expressive ASL.
Incidental learning plays an important role in the overall education and language development of each student. Because ASL is a visually accessible language, it will be used in all face to face communication.
Objectives:
As Kansas School for the Deaf Educators
we believe that:
• each student can and will learn and has the right to an
academically rigorous and culturally rich environment.
• each student has the right to a safe and secure educational
and residential environment.
• both American Sign Language and English are equally valued
and that Deaf culture and heritage are an integral part of the
total school program.
The following objectives support the mission of the Kansas
School for the Deaf:
• Involve parents and families of children who are deaf as
important participants in the educational process and strengthen
their skills as contributors to communication, language, social
and cognitive growth.
• Create a total educational environment including the school,
residential facilities, and extracurricular programs with interdisciplinary
teams planning for each student's social, emotional, academic
and physical development.
• Develop in each child fluency in both ASL and English,
and through those languages, make accessible the same outcomes
accessed by Kansas public school children.
• Help each student acquire the skills and interests necessary
to function in each cultural group with which the student identifies
and to recognize and respect other cultures.
• Help each student develop the independence and critical
thinking necessary to foster life-long learning.
• Expand career and vocational preparation, relevant to the
changing nature of work.
• Extend and update, for educators and other professional
staff, the professional competence and leadership excellence that
are essential to quality education.
• Increase the Kansas School for the Deaf's leadership role
in the community, including the promulgation of awareness of deafness,
the delivery of services to persons who are deaf, and the development
of community employment opportunities for the deaf.
• Provide services to children who are deaf and with special
needs, which focus on maximizing their individual potential.
• Continue to expand the capacity of the Kansas School for
the Deaf to function as a resource center for all programs and
agencies serving children who are deaf and hard-of-hearing in
Kansas.
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