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The Tennessee School for the Deaf, together with the West Tennessee School for the Deaf, shall establish a one-year deaf mentor pilot project to assist families and agencies in implementing bilingual and bicultural home-based programming for young children who are deaf, hard of hearing, or deaf-blind.
The pilot project must consist of one (1) program to be implemented at the Tennessee School for the Deaf, Knoxville campus.
The pilot project must focus on:
Preventing language deprivation;
Providing a positive impact on a child's social and emotional development through a deaf role model; and
Ensuring that children who are deaf have equal access to learning opportunities at home and in the community.
The pilot project must use a deaf mentor curriculum.
The pilot project must provide hearing parents of children who are deaf, hard of hearing, or deaf-blind with the option of using a deaf mentor to expose the parents' children to American Sign Language and deaf culture, allowing the children to grow and learn in a bilingual and bicultural milieu of hearing and deaf cultures instead of limiting the children's exposure to a signed or spoken English-only environment and the hearing culture of the children's families.
Deaf mentors shall:
Make regular visits to the homes of young children who are deaf, hard of hearing, or deaf-blind;
Interact with the children using American Sign Language;
Demonstrate to family members how to use American Sign Language; and
Help families understand and appreciate deafness and deaf culture.
The pilot project will begin with the 2019-2020 school year.
At the end of the pilot project, the department of education shall evaluate the pilot project to determine whether the pilot project should be continued or replicated. The department shall report its findings and conclusions to the education committee of the senate and the education committee of the house of representatives by no later than February 1, 2021.