AB 2072 update – sign language cultists up in arms over parental choice

Sign language cultists are against parental choice

The sign language cultists are continuing to raise a stink about AB 2072, a good bill which will give parents of infants diagnosed as deaf more information about their options, including implants and whole language.  Previsouly all they received was one-sided dogma about sign language.

My problem with sign language is that hardly anyone knows it.  If all a deaf child is exposed to is sign language they are in essence consigned to a life of loneliness – a life apart from the rest of us.

Sign language cultists want deaf kids to know sign language so they can keep their cult going as they get old.

Here is the latest language of the bill, which was just amended this week by the bill’s author, Assemblyman Tony Mendoza:

BILL NUMBER: AB 2072 AMENDED BILL TEXT

AMENDED IN SENATE JUNE 9, 2010
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY APRIL 27, 2010
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY APRIL 13, 2010
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY APRIL 5, 2010

INTRODUCED BY Assembly Member Mendoza

FEBRUARY 18, 2010

An act to add Section 124121 to the Health and Safety Code, relating to public health.

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL’S DIGEST

AB 2072, as amended, Mendoza. Hearing screening: resources and services.

Existing law, the Newborn and Infant Hearing Screening, Tracking, and Intervention Act, requires every general acute care hospital with licensed perinatal services to offer every newborn a hearing screening test for the identification of hearing loss, as specified,
and provide written information on the availability of community resources and services for children with hearing loss to the parents of those who are diagnosed with a hearing loss.

Existing law, the California Early Start Intervention Services Act, commonly known as the Early Start program, provides various
early intervention services for infants and toddlers who have disabilities to enhance their development and to minimize the
potential for developmental delays.

This bill would also require that parents of a newborn or infant diagnosed with a hearing loss be provided written or electronic
information from the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders on specified communication options for
children with hearing loss by an audiologist or other related professional at a followup appointment after diagnosis with a hearing loss, and by a local provider for the Early Start Program upon initial contact with the parents of a newborn or infant newly diagnosed with a hearing loss. It would also specify that neither the state , nor an audiologist, nor an Early Start Program provider , shall incur the cost of implementing this bill.

Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: no.
State-mandated local program: no.

THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:

SECTION 1. Section 124121 is added to the Health and Safety Code, to read:

124121. (a) Parents of all newborns and infants diagnosed with a hearing loss shall also be provided written or electronic information from the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders on American Sign Language (ASL), Total Communication, Cued Speech, and Listening and Spoken Language communication options for children with hearing loss,
including, but not limited to, information about deaf and hard-of-hearing organizations, agencies and early intervention
centers, and educational programs. The information shall be provided:

(1) By an audiologist or other related professional at a followup appointment after diagnosis with a hearing
loss.

(2) By a local provider for the Early Start Program, provided for pursuant to the California Early Intervention Services Act (Title 14
(commencing with Section 95000) of the Government Code) upon initial contact with the parents of a newborn or infant newly diagnosed with a hearing loss.

(b) Neither the state , nor an audiologist, nor an Early Start Program provider , shall incur any cost for the implementation of this section.


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