Among the sweeping changes to education proposed by the Malloy administration, amid the controversy of so-called "scream rooms" and the drive to ban them, a little-known issue will get taken up by the legislature's education committee Friday.
It's called "A Deaf Child Bill of Rights."
Proposed by The Connecticut Council of Organizations Serving the Deaf (an organization with perhaps surprisingly deep roots in the state), among others, a bill of rights would, "ensure the choice of language and communication mode of deaf/hard of hearing children is respected and to ensure these children have fully accessible educational opportunities through an Individualized Education Program (IEP) focused on language and communication needs."

You can read the a larger summary of the proposal below, but, according to the CCOSD, attorney Terry Bedar, parent of a deaf son, and Dr. Harvey Corson, retired Executive Director of American School for the Deaf wrote the following email to fellow advocates, urging them to encourage legislators to get on board:

This DCBR would require a Language & Communication Plan to be attached to every deaf/hard of hearing child’s IEP so that the IEP is: (1) language & communication driven; (2) focused on unique language & communication needs, (3) effective by developing an action plan to meet these needs with the goal to close the unacceptable wide achievement gap for deaf/hard of hearing children.

DCBR-Deaf Child Bill of Rights Summary-2012