PIERRE – A bill that would put the Department of Education clearly in charge of developing services and programs for deaf students failed Wednesday in the S.D. Senate.
SB117 called on the department to offer programs and policies to be disseminated through school districts for the education of deaf and hard of hearing students. Similar legislation has been vetoed twice, according to the bill’s sponsor, Sen. Reynold Nesiba, D-Sioux Falls, who noted that the state fails to give deaf students a “fair, free, appropriate education.”
Progress on educational opportunities for the deaf are held back, Nesiba said, because of the jurisdictional confusion between the Department of Education and the Board of Regents. The department sets the standards for schools while the Board of Regents runs the School for the Deaf.
Passage of SB117 would stop “us from doing the finger pointing,” Nesiba said, about which entity has control of deaf education.
Nesiba said that during the Senate Education Committee hearing there was testimony that school districts aren’t fulfilling their role in the education of deaf students.
“What we need is someone to hold those school districts accountable,” Nesiba said.
Deaf students have suffered because of the way state government funds education, according to Sen. Susan Wismer, D-Britton.
“I’m not proud of our shoestring approach to government funding,” Wismer said, adding that the budget pressure the state puts on local schools is reflected in the lack of services for deaf students.
The bill failed on a vote of 18-17 because it didn’t reach the two-thirds majority needed for legislation that includes an appropriation. Nesiba indicated that he would ask to have the bill reconsidered.
