Advisory council urges Vermont Legislature to fix data access, audit grants and adopt statewide standards for deaf and hard-of-hearing students

Montpelier — The Vermont Deaf, Hard of Hearing and DeafBlind Advisory Council urged the House Education Committee on March 13 to change state law to give the council better access to student-education data, require an audit of Agency of Education (AOE) reporting and grant spending, and direct the AOE and Board of Education to adopt statewide resources based on best practices.

The council’s interim chair, Will Pendleberry, told the committee the panel was created under Act 107 in 2016 to assess services and outcomes for Vermonters who are deaf, hard of hearing and deafblind and to recommend policy changes. “Our council was established in 2016, under act 107,” Pendleberry said. “At that time, we were tasked with submitting a legislative report annually.”

Dr. Sharon Henry, a parent member of the council and co-chair of its school-age subcommittee, outlined five legislative recommendations the council voted to endorse in December. “In order to assess, we need both the information in the terms of yearly reports and associated documents, and the council needs the data about educational literacy and language outcomes,” Henry said.

Why it matters: The council said lack of complete, shareable data prevents it from fulfilling the statute’s oversight role and may hide undercounting that affects services and funding. The council reported that for academic year 2022–23 it recorded 220 students receiving individualized education programs (IEPs) and 151 students on 504 plans who were receiving services; the AOE’s federal report for the same year lists 61 students with a primary disability category of deaf or hard of…