Deaf and Hard of Hearing

Spartanburg County Schools Deaf and Hard of Hearing Program

Spartanburg School District Six manages the county's Deaf and Hard of Hearing Program. We currently have six itinerant teachers serving DHH students in their home schools in the seven districts and five satellite teachers serving DHH students in our satellite settings. We work with a variety of communication modalities (listening/spoken language, sign language, both) and serve students on a self-contained basis (K3-5th grade) and resource basis in our satellite settings, and on an itinerant basis (4k-12th grade) in the student's home district according to the student's needs as deemed by the IEP team. Our team is also equipped with an educational audiologist and a DHH psychologist. All of our teachers are certified Teachers of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing.

Satellite School Settings

Child Development Center
Roebuck Elementary School
Gable Middle School
Dorman Freshman Campus
Dorman High School

What is a Teacher of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing?

A Teacher of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, or TOD, specializes in educating D/deaf and hard of hearing students, addressing their auditory access, language, and learning requirements. They excel in teaching self-advocacy, langauge skills, assistive technology, vocabulary, listening, and transition skills. They also create personalized instructional plans for each student.

What is an itinerant Teacher of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, and what do they do?

An itinerant TOD is a Teacher of the Deaf/Hard of Hearing who travels from school to school and works with students with hearing loss on an individual or small group basis at most three times weekly in the student's home school. An itinerant TOD provides instruction primarily in the areas of listening comprehension/auditory skills (when appropriate), language and vocabulary development, and self-advocacy skills. This individual works with the IEP teams to ensure there are appropriate accommodations in place to ensure the student has access to the spoken curriculum in the learning environment.

What does the DHH Satellite Program do?

For students who need more support by a certified TOD, the Spartanburg County DHH Satellite Program is designed to provide support to DHH students with daily TOD intervention and opportunities to mainstream using listening/spoken language and/or an interpreter. Students in the satellite program typically have more extensive language and academic needs directly related to language deprivation which is caused by their hearing loss.

What does an Educational Audiologist do?

Our Educational Audiologist is able to diagnose and/or monitor a hearing loss and recommend the proper medical follow-through, suggest classroom accommodations to enhance auditory access, determine the signal to noise ratio a student needs for adequate auditory access, and recommend assistive technology to increase auditory access in the learning environment.

What does a DHH Psychologist do?

The purpose of the DHH Psychologist is involved in the initial evaluation process for students with hearing loss to determine the educational impact of the child's hearing loss. Our program's DHH Psychologist is part of a multidisciplinary team who assesses a student with hearing loss in the following areas as deemed necessary by the IEP team:

Functional listening
Self-advocacy skills
Cognitive Processing
Academic Achievement
Receptive Communication
Expressive ASL Communication
Adaptive Behavior
Social/Emotional/Behavioral

What does an Educational Interpreter do?

An educational interpreter/transliterator plays a crucial role in facilitating communication between individuals who are D/deaf and hard of hearing and those who are hearing within educational settings. Educational interpreters/transliterators may be used when a student is unable to access his or her educational environment using listening and spoken language alone due to his or her level of hearing loss, and a visual mode of communication is necessary. Responsibilities of the educational interpreter include ensuring all information is accurately interpreted and ensuring visual access to educational content.

For more information about the Spartanburg County Schools Deaf and Hard of Hearing Program, please contact Erin America, Lead Teacher of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing.

Erin America

Office Phone: 864-216-4318

Cell Phone: 864-590-1571

MEET OUR TEAM

Erin America

Countywide Lead Teacher and District 4 and MTS Itinerant

Ashley Myers

Child Development Center Satellite Teacher

Lynette Richau

Roebuck Elementary School Satellite Teacher (K-2nd)

Linda Kemp

Roebuck Elementary School Satellite Teacher (3rd-5th)