This bill creates a deaf mentor and parent advisor program, maintained by the Tennessee School for the Deaf and the West Tennessee School for the Deaf, to assist families in implementing bilingual and bicultural home-based programming for young children who are deaf, hard of hearing, or deaf-blind.
The program would be available at 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 would:
(1) Focus on preventing language deprivation or gaps through insufficient language access;
(2) Focus on providing a positive impact on a child's social and emotional development through a deaf role model and on a parent's emotional journey of having a deaf, hard of hearing, or deaf-blind child through a parent advisor;
(3) Focus on ensuring that children who are deaf have equal access to learning opportunities at home and in the community;
(4) Use a deaf mentor curriculum; and
(5) 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 and the option of using a parent advisor to expose the parents' children to listening and spoken English strategies and accessibility, allowing the children to grow and learn in a bilingual and bicultural milieu of hearing and deaf cultures instead of limiting the children's exposure to a signed or spoken English-only environment and the hearing culture of the children's families.
Deaf mentors and parent advisors would:
(1) Make regular visits to the homes of young children who are deaf, hard of hearing, or deaf-blind;
(2) Interact with the children and their families using American Sign Language and spoken English;
(3) Demonstrate American Sign Language and listening and spoken English techniques to family members; and
(4) Help families understand and appreciate deafness and deaf culture, as well as support them in understanding how to provide accommodations and access to communication.

Statutes affected:
Introduced: 49-50-1008