Delaware School for the Deaf (DSD) is a public Kâ12 school located on East Chestnut Hill Road in
Brookside Brookside may refer to:
Geography Canada
* Brookside, Edmonton
* Brookside, Newfoundland and Labrador
* Brookside, Nova Scotia
United Kingdom
* Brookside, Berkshire, England
* Brookside, Telford, an area of Telford, England
United States
* Br ...
, Delaware, United States; It has a
Newark
Newark most commonly refers to:
* Newark, New Jersey, city in the United States
* Newark Liberty International Airport, New Jersey; a major air hub in the New York metropolitan area
Newark may also refer to:
Places Canada
* Niagara-on-the ...
postal address.
The
Christina School District
The Christina School District is a Delaware public school district located primarily in the Newark area and a non-contiguous portion of Wilmington. The district office is located in the Drew Educational Support Center in Wilmington, with Dan ...
operates the school, but because it is state-funded, the budget is separate from the rest of the district
DSD operates Delaware Statewide Programs for the Deaf, Hard of Hearing, and Deaf-Blind.
Mission
The mission of the Delaware School for the Deaf, a program serving
deaf
Deafness has varying definitions in cultural and medical contexts. In medical contexts, the meaning of deafness is hearing loss that precludes a person from understanding spoken language, an audiological condition. In this context it is written ...
and
hard of hearing
Hearing loss is a partial or total inability to hear. Hearing loss may be present at birth or acquired at any time afterwards. Hearing loss may occur in one or both ears. In children, hearing problems can affect the ability to acquire spoken la ...
students from birth through twenty-one years of age, is to educate them with rigorous achievement standards, to develop linguistic competence in both
American Sign Language (ASL) and English, and to prepare them to become contributing citizens, by providing them access to language and information in a safe and supportive learning environment.
History
In 1929, Margaret S. Sterck began teaching students first out of Grace Church and later out of her home on Van Buren Street after noticing that deaf children from Delaware had to be educated out-of-state because no deaf schools existed in Delaware.
[ In 1933, the school became the Delaware School for Deaf Children, Inc. and Sterck bought a home in Lewes to be used as a summer camp. She taught until 1945, when state regulations required that deaf children be taught in public schools. Some students were sent to specialized deaf programs in Delaware public schools while others were enrolled in the ]Pennsylvania School for the Deaf
The Pennsylvania School for the Deaf is the third-oldest school of its kind in the United States. Its founder, David G. Seixas (1788â1864), was a Philadelphia crockery maker-dealer who became concerned with the plight of impoverished deaf childr ...
(PSD) in Philadelphia.[ By 1960, however, PSD was facing space restrictions and decided to no longer accept out-of-state students.][
Families of deaf children, particularly those barred from attending PSD, lobbied the Delaware State Board of Education to find a solution. The state began gathering funding and planning out what would later be called the Margaret S. Sterck School for the Hearing Impaired, which opened in 1969. In 1995, the school was renamed the Delaware School for the Deaf.
Construction of the $43 million new building began in 2009 after two years of delays in getting the government to release the funding.] DSD moved into its new building, located on the same campus, in 2011 after more than forty years in the former Sterck School building. The new building has an auditorium, athletic facilities, and a gymnasium as well as boarding facilities, which can accommodate 36 students.[ There is also an early childhood center on campus.][
]
Student life
DSD has a large racial minority enrollment (65%), with white students making up only 34% of the student body.
Academics
DSD follows the Christina School District
The Christina School District is a Delaware public school district located primarily in the Newark area and a non-contiguous portion of Wilmington. The district office is located in the Drew Educational Support Center in Wilmington, with Dan ...
curriculum. Students have the option of taking classes at other schools either within the Christina School District
The Christina School District is a Delaware public school district located primarily in the Newark area and a non-contiguous portion of Wilmington. The district office is located in the Drew Educational Support Center in Wilmington, with Dan ...
or at one of the city's vocational-technical schools such as Hodgson Vo-Tech High School
Paul M. Hodgson Vocational Technical High School is a public high school in Glasgow, Delaware and is one of four vocational-technical school high schools within the New Castle County Vocational-Technical School District.
Brief History
The scho ...
.[
Prior to 1970s, the primary teaching method was oral instruction; it wasn't until Dr. Roy Holcomb introduced the "total communication" philosophy in 1973, which made American Sign Language (ASL) a major component of the school.] In 1993, the "bilingual, bicultural" philosophy was adopted and students were taught to hone skills in both ASL and English.[
]
Athletics
DSD is a member of the Eastern Schools for the Deaf Athletic Association
The Eastern Schools for the Deaf Athletic Association (ESDAA) is an organization that oversees and regulates deaf interscholastic athletics in the US States of Delaware, Maryland, West Virginia, Virginia, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, ...
(ESDAA) and Mid-Atlantic Independent League (MIL) and has six sports teams: volleyball (girls), soccer (boys), basketball (girls and boys) and track & field (girls and boys). The DSD mascot is the Blue Hawks and the school colors are royal blue and white.[ The volleyball team is the winningest of the six sport teams and has been to the ESDAA Division II championships every year from 1999 to 2007, 2010, and 2012â2014; they have been champion four times and as of 2015 have moved up to Division I.][ The 2019-2020 and 2020â2021 seasons were interrupted by the ]COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...
. Most recently added sports to school sports program - Boys' Soccer established in fall of 2019, and Track & Field team was established in spring of 2022.
Notable alumni
* Alexandria Wailes, deaf actress, dancer, director, and educator
Notable teachers/staffs
* Chuck Baird, deaf artist and performer
References
{{Newark, Delaware
Schools for the deaf in the United States
Buildings and structures in New Castle County, Delaware
Educational institutions established in 1929
1929 establishments in Delaware
Schools in New Castle County, Delaware
Public boarding schools in the United States
Boarding schools in Delaware
Public K-12 schools in Delaware