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 hearing. The council also reported academic outcomes showing nearly 50% of DHH students were two or more years behind in 2022–23. “Clearly, this is a significant underreporting of the student count, and it’s very concerning,” Henry told the committee.

What the council asked the committee to do

- Change the statutory language that governs information sharing so the council can reliably receive yearly reports, associated documents and educational literacy and language outcomes needed to fulfill its mandate.

- Request a review or audit of AOE federal reporting practices to understand why student counts reported to the Office of Special Education Programs differ from the council’s data and whether federal funding is affected.

- Conduct an audit or review of AOE administration and of grantees from 2021 to the present to confirm how roughly $1,000,000 in grant funds are spent, whether grantees follow monitoring requirements and whether outcomes match grant expectations.

- Require the AOE and Board of Education to adopt the council’s resources, developed from best-practice guidelines, for use by all districts and providers serving this population, whether or not they receive AOE grant funding.

- Reintroduce and advance the bill of rights for deaf, hard of hearing and deafblind students (Senate bill S.172) so the Legislature can consider the measure with appropriate time for debate.

Accountability and records concerns: Henry described repeated problems obtaining records. A council member submitted a public records request for grant and monitoring documents covering 2021–25; the council received incomplete, delayed and mislabeled material. Henry said a subsequent request by counsel produced similar results. “What was provided was way beyond the 3 to 10 day window required by law, incomplete, and documents were, again, mislabeled,” she said.

Grantees and service delivery: The council noted that the AOE administers an annual grant funding DHH services; in recent years two major contractors named in the council’s report are UVM CARES and the University of Vermont Medical Center educational service program. Henry said midyear and monitoring reports suggest the two entities sometimes appear to work in parallel rather than in active collaboration and that directors from those programs did not attend the December council meeting where members reviewed and voted on the legislative report.

Outcomes and program models: The council presented academic-year data showing a large share of students lagging academically. Henry and Pendleberry said some districts hire their own teachers of the deaf, some services are provided under the AOE grant, and that service models differ across the state. Henry described a model in which a licensed teacher of the deaf follows a child across grades, provides direct instruction and classroom consultation — services she said are not consistently delivered today.

Committee response and next steps: Committee members asked clarifying questions about who would perform an audit; Henry suggested the state auditor’s office (the elected auditor) or an external consultant. A committee member noted the legislative calendar: bills to reach the Senate would need to be filed quickly, so immediate inclusion may be limited to items that can be added to a miscellaneous education bill. The committee chair said members might discuss adding the council’s year-end report access issue to their fast-moving bill package.

No formal committee action or vote on the council’s requests occurred during the hearing. The council offered to provide additional materials and to revise its report to make it shorter and more accessible to the committee.

The hearing included these named speakers and program contacts: Will Pendleberry, interim chair, Vermont Deaf, Hard of Hearing and DeafBlind Advisory Council; Dr. Sharon Henry, parent member and school-age subcommittee co-chair; Cassie Santos, Agency of Education representative to the council and now state director of special education at the AOE; Laura Siegel, director of deaf, hard of hearing services in state government; Sherry Souza, superintendent (Mountain View Supervisory Union) and co-chair of the subcommittee; Linda Hazard and Pam Hoover, directors affiliated with the UVM CARES and UVM Medical Center educational services program; and members of the House Education Committee who asked questions during the hearing.

Ending: The council requested the committee’s help making statutory and administrative changes to improve data sharing, reporting accuracy and accountability so the council can fulfill its legislatively assigned duties and support better educational outcomes for Vermont students who are deaf, hard of hearing or deafblind. The committee asked the council to provide shorter, accessible materials and said staff would consider how to incorporate some items into the Legislature’s near-term work.