This bill requires the Tennessee School for the Deaf, together with the West Tennessee School for the Deaf, to maintain a deaf-mentor program consisting of three programs with one program to be located at each of the following locations: the West Tennessee School for the Deaf in Jackson; the Tennessee School for the Deaf, Knoxville campus; and the Tennessee School for the Deaf, Nashville campus. The program must:
(1) Focus on preventing language deprivation, providing a positive impact on a child's social and emotional development through a deaf role model, and ensuring that children who are deaf have equal access to learning opportunities at home and in the community;
(2) Use a deaf mentor curriculum; and
(3) Provide hearing parents of children who are deaf, hard of hearing, or deaf-blind with the option of using a deaf mentor to expose the parents' children to American Sign Language and deaf culture.
The deaf mentors participating in the program will be required to:
(1) Make regular visits to the homes of young children who are deaf, hard of hearing, or deaf-blind;
(2) Interact with the children using American Sign Language;
(3) Demonstrate to family members how to use American Sign Language; and
(4) Help families understand and appreciate deafness and deaf culture.