The Board of Education recognizes that those district parents with hearing impairments which prevent meaningful participation in their child’s educational program must be afforded an opportunity equal to that afforded other parents to participate in meetings or activities pertaining to the academic and/or disciplinary aspects of their child’s education.  Accordingly, and pursuant to law, the school district will provide an interpreter for hearing-impaired parents for school-initiated academic and/or disciplinary meetings or activities including, but not limited to:

• Parent/teacher conferences
• Child/study or building level team meetings
• Planning meetings with school counselors regarding educational progress
• Career planning
• Suspension hearings or other conferences with school officials relating to disciplinary actions

The school district will provide an interpreter for the hearing-impaired parent if a written request for the service has been submitted to and received by the district  at least ten working days prior to the scheduled meeting or activity.  If an interpreter is unavailable, the district will then make other reasonable accommodations which are satisfactory to the parents (e.g., notetaker, transcript, decoder, or telecommunication device for the deaf).  These services will be made available by the district at no cost to the parents.

The Board directs the Superintendent of Schools or designee to maintain a list of available interpreters and to develop procedures to notify parents of the availability of interpreter services, the time limitation for requesting these services, and of the requirement to make other reasonable accommodations satisfactory to the parents should an interpreter not be available.

Ref: Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, 42 U.S.C. §§12131-12134

Rehabilitation Act of 1973, 29 U.S.C. §794

Education Law §3230

8 NYCRR §100.2(aa)

Rothschild v. Grottenthaler, 907 F.2d 286 (2d Cir. 1990)