Sec. 30.083. STATEWIDE PLAN. (a) The director of services shall develop and administer a comprehensive statewide plan for educational services for students who are deaf or hard of hearing, including continuing diagnosis and evaluation, counseling, and teaching. The plan shall be designed to accomplish the following objectives:

(1) providing assistance and counseling to parents of students who are deaf or hard of hearing in regional day school programs for the deaf and admitting to the programs students who have a hearing loss that interferes with the processing of linguistic information;

(2) enabling students who are deaf or hard of hearing to reside with their parents or guardians and be provided an appropriate education in their home school districts or in regional day school programs for the deaf;

(3) enabling students who are deaf or hard of hearing who are unable to attend schools at their place of residence and whose parents or guardians live too far from facilities of regional day school programs for the deaf for daily commuting to be accommodated in foster homes or other residential school facilities provided for by the agency so that those children may attend a regional day school program for the deaf;

(4) enrolling in the Texas School for the Deaf those students who are deaf or hard of hearing whose needs can best be met in that school and designating the Texas School for the Deaf as the statewide educational resource for students who are deaf or hard of hearing;

(5) encouraging students in regional day school programs for the deaf to attend general education classes on a part-time, full-time, or trial basis; and

(6) recognizing the need for development of language and communications abilities in students who are deaf or hard of hearing, but also calling for the use of methods of communication that will meet the needs of each individual student, with each student assessed thoroughly so as to ascertain the student's potential for communications through a variety of means, including through oral or aural means, fingerspelling, or sign language.

(b) The director of services may establish separate programs to accommodate diverse communication methodologies.

Added by Acts 1995, 74th Leg., ch. 260, Sec. 1, eff. May 30, 1995.