$3 Million Budget Cut to the Indiana School For the Deaf
Story by WISH-TV
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — An Indiana School for the Deaf alumni who is a deaf community advocate on Monday said layoffs at the school will impact students beyond the classroom.
When the new state budget takes effect on July 1, the Indiana School for the Deaf will receive nearly $1 million less in each of the next two budget years than it did during the last budget cycle. In a memo shared with parents and provided to News 8, school officials said they would have to cut 26 positions, including nine teachers, four substitute teachers, four mentors and a pair of nurses.
Jeffrey Spinale, a 2014 graduate of the school and the president of the Indiana Association of the Deaf, said those teachers are deaf themselves and as such, serve as role models for the students.
“In a public school, you don’t have deaf students who are learning ASL (American Sign Language). Here, we can provide Deaf students their language,” he said. “With these layoffs, they’re losing access to those Deaf professionals.”
About 350 students attend the school, with roughly 60% living on its campus across East 42nd Street from the State Fairgrounds during the academic year. The school provides tuition-free education from early childhood through 12th grade. State lawmakers cut about 5% of its funding this spring as part of a larger effort to make up for a $2.4 billion revenue shortfall, which state economists blamed on the economic impact from President Donald Trump’s tariffs. Lawmakers at the time said they wanted to preserve the state’s core K-12 funding, which still will go up by 2% each year.
Besides the layoffs, school officials said, they would have to reduce hours at the school health center and discontinue overnight health care services. Staff will be responsible for cleaning classrooms, hallways and offices, with only restroom cleaning being contracted out to a housekeeping company. In addition, the school can no longer contract out for third-party ASL interpreters for field trips and other events that require additional staff.
“We have residential students who stay here on campus,” Spinale said. “If something happens in the middle of the night, we don’t have anyone to take care of that. They would have to go somewhere off campus to receive those health services.”
Spinale said parents are very upset but not surprised by the cuts. He said lawmakers never consulted the Deaf community before making the cuts. If the cuts are maintained, he said, students will be left without instruction and resources tailored specifically to their needs.
“It’s already almost impossible for Deaf children to find the quality education that they deserve,” he said. Indiana School for the Deaf “provides specialized service and care that other schools all over the state are not able to offer.”
Spinale said he wants lawmakers and Gov. Mike Braun to tour the school’s campus to better understand the services it provides, adding the school provides services at a much lower cost per student than schools for the deaf in other states.
The offices of Braun, the House Ways and Means Committee Chair Rep. Jeff Thompson, R-Lizton, and the Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Sen. Ryan Mishler, R-Mishawaka, did not return News 8’s request for comment.
