Since the enactment of Public Law 94-142 (The Education for All Handicapped Children Act) in 1975, approximately one-half of all hearing impaired students in the United States have had the opportunity to be mainstreamed into regular education classrooms. This law was intended to ensure that any student with disabilities had access to a ."..free and appropriate education as identified in each child's IEP."

I teach at Northside Elementary in Colleton County. This school has seven hearing impaired students ranging from seven to eleven years old. All of these students are mainstreamed in regular classrooms for a portion of their day. Our hearing impaired teacher is at our school for the first half of the day and at a middle school the second half. She has one full-time certified interpreter and one full-time assistant.

Joshua, the youngest hearing impaired student at Northside, is mainstreamed into my regular first grade classroom...