American Sign Language for All Georgia Students

UPDATE: 23 May 2007 - SB 170 Passed the Full House, in April and was signed into law by Governor Sonny Perdue on 23 May 2007. CONGRATULATIONS!! WE DID IT!! Thank you ALL for your support and help!

To:  Governor Sonny Perdue, the Georgia Legislature, and Georgia State Board of Education

As citizens of the state of Georgia, we hereby request that the Georgia Legislature and Georgia State Board of Education modify Georgia’s current educational rules to grant foreign language credit for American Sign Language as a primary foreign language for all students.

Whereas Georgia’s current law allows American Sign Language to fulfill primary foreign language requirements only if a student is deaf (160-4-2-.47), and the State Board of Education routinely denies all foreign language waiver requests for students with disabilities, we believe this law to be discriminatory on the basis of disability. All students should have an equal right to take American Sign Language as a primary foreign language for Advanced Degree credit.

Additionally, Georgia and North Carolina are the only two states requiring foreign language credit who don’t permit American Sign Language to fulfill the foreign language requirement for all students, yet A.S.L. is the fourth most commonly used language in the United States.

A.S.L. is a viable, fully complex language. “Because of its signed modality, people often incorrectly assume that A.S.L. is fundamentally different from spoken languages, or that it is merely a contrived representation of English. A.S.L. is a fully developed, natural language, one of the world's many signed languages. It is not a derivative of English; A.S.L. contains structures and processes that English does not (Klima & Bellugi, 1979). A.S.L. is not a "simplified" language, but rather a complete language with its own unique grammar (Fromkin, 1988)”. Because A.S.L. is a visual language, students with learning differences or multi-sensory learning needs, like dyslexia, can learn A.S.L..

The benefits of learning A.S.L., are virtually the same as learning any other “recognized” foreign language. “Students who know a foreign language often find that their perceptions of themselves and the world are richer than those of their monolingual peers (Edgerton, 1979). The study of a language, culture, and literature different from their own propels students beyond the limits of their own world (Bugos, 1980). In all respects, the study of A.S.L. affords students the same challenges and rewards as more traditional foreign languages.”

We implore you to pass legislation permitting American Sign Language to fulfill foreign language requirements for any student in Georgia, eliminating the requirement that a student be deaf. Granting foreign language credit for A.S.L. would benefit Georgia by:

1)Increasing the number of students graduating with an advanced degree,
2)Permitting more students with disabilities to fulfill advanced degree requirements,
3)Reducing the number of waiver requests,
4)Giving students a viable, visual language to fulfill advanced degree requirements,
5)Increasing the number of citizens who can interpret for the deaf, a sorely needed service,
6)Increasing communication with, and a sense of greater community for, Georgia’s hearing impaired citizens.

Recognizing American Sign Language as a foreign language for all students is one way Georgia can increase the number of Advanced graduates without compromising quality of educational requirements. Thank you for recognizing the benefit of changing Georgia Code to support the students and citizens of Georgia.

This project is supported by: Parents Educating Parents & Professionals, Inc. (http://www.peppinc.org/) and the Georgia Advocacy Office (http://www.thegao.org/)

Petition drafted by: S. Cook,
Parent Support Leadership Project Graduate, 2003, Georgia Advocacy Office
Member, Gwinnett Committee for Exceptional Children
Special Education Advocate, and Parent


References:
http://www.ericfacility.net/ericdigests/ed309651.html, 15 July, 2004
http://42explore.com/signlang.htm, 15 July, 2004
http://www.ericfacility.net/ericdigests/ed309651.html, 15 July, 2004

Sincerely,

The Undersigned

The American Sign Language for All Georgia Students Petition to Governor Sonny Perdue, the Georgia Legislature, and Georgia State Board of Education was created by Gwinnett Committee for Exceptional Children and written by Sandra Cook (dyslexiaparent@yahoo.com).  This petition is hosted here at www.PetitionOnline.com as a public service. There is no endorsement of this petition, express or implied, by Artifice, Inc. or our sponsors. For technical support please use our simple Petition Help form.

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