Mission Statement
Through residential and day programming, the North Dakota School for the Deaf/Resource Center (NDSD/RC) will provide optimum educational, social/emotional, and cultural experiences for deaf and hard of hearing children (preschool through 8th grade) and will serve as a resource center for outreach services for all North Dakota citizens who are deaf and/or hard of hearing (infants through senior citizens). As per recent legislation (ND Century Code 25-07-12), the school for the deaf may collaborate (not compete) with public and private entities for the provision of services to adult individuals who are deaf or hard of hearing.
Philosophy
Through a caring, nurturing 24-hour residential and academic program and through outreach programming, NDSD/RC provides educational and social opportunities which assist all students to attain their fullest potential.
Emphasis is placed on meeting the unique needs of each child, fostering positive values, good health, and community involvement, and encouraging each student to view learning as a lifelong endeavor in an ever-changing world.
Each child's program emphasizes the development of functional language which includes the following:
- expressive and receptive skills--speech
- speechreading
- manual communication (sign language and fingerspelling)
- reading
- writing
- auditory processing
Each child's program stresses the development of positive social and emotional attitudes, achievement in academic areas, vocational exploration, and the development of lifelong independent living skills.
Major Goals
Within the scope of local, state, and federal laws and regulations:
- provide a safe, orderly, aesthetically pleasing learning environment.
- provide an environment for students and parents which fosters deaf pride and an awareness of positive, productive deaf/hard of hearing role models.
- provide an environment that advocates the deaf child and his/her family and bases decisions and actions on their input and needs.
- provide an environment for students that nurtures the development of the whole person - social, physical, intellectual, and emotional and provides opportunities for spiritual growth.
- develop the student's individual abilities toward self-sufficiency in society.
- provide deaf/hard-of-hearing children of North Dakota with comprehensive services designed to promote educational, vocational, and personal/social development.
- provide early intervention services statewide through the Parent/Infant Program.
- provide services and training to parents of deaf/hard of hearing children so they can be informed, active participants in their child's educational process.
- serve as a statewide resource center providing personal and printed resources to school districts, state agencies, health/medical professionals, law enforcement, independent service providers, community organizations, parents, families, and a variety of other interested individuals and/or groups.