The McAllen Independent School District is the home of the Regional Day School Program for The Deaf and has long played a key role in the education of hard-of-hearing students. 

The McAllen program got its start in 1979 as the Regional School for the Deaf. An Easter Seals donation came to the program in the form of an audiometric booth for conducting student audiological examinations.

On March 24, McAllen’s regional program for the deaf marked a new chapter in its services by holding a dedication and ribbon cutting of its new state-of-the art audiometric suite at Escandon Elementary School. It’s the home campus for pre-K through fifth-grade students in the program.

The school district’s program for the deaf currently educates nearly 325 students who live in Hidalgo and Starr counties. The district provides bus transportation from area cities to its facilities at Escandon. The program also offers academic and support services for students at Escandon, Brown Middle School and Memorial High School. Additional services are provided for students between the ages of 18 and 22, as well as assistance for infants diagnosed with a hearing loss. 

The program also offers sign-language classes for parents, and training for Rio Grande Valley districts and teachers who have deaf and hard-of-hearing students in their classes.

Boost In Quality

Liza Lara, the director of McAllen’s program for the deaf says getting the new facilities “was truly a labor of love.”

Efforts to get the new equipment began in 2021 when McAllen school administrators asked department and program leaders throughout the district to identify their greatest needs. From there, it could be determined if those needs qualified for federal Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief funds through the American Rescue Plan.

Lara and her team submitted a proposal for a new audiometric booth to replace the one donated to the program in the 1970s. 

“The sound quality was one of the big struggles with the old booth,” said Ayde Pena, an audiology assistant. “We shared this office and everyone outside the booth had to completely stop everything when a student was being tested.”

Identifying the need and having district leaders approve it was the easy part. Precise results from students’ audiological exams are critical for speech therapy, language development and listening skills. 

“Deaf and hard-of-hearing students max out on their ability to hear,’’ Lara said. “We want the hearing they have, what’s called their residual hearing, to be as clear and as crisp as possible. In cases where they are still unable to understand speech, safety becomes a priority so they can identify the sound of a car or a bus, for example.”

Designed To Last

Finding vendors proved to be a challenge in setting up the new audiometric suite.

In fact, Lara said, only two vendors in the nation sell the type of audiometric booth they sought. One of those operates in Texas, which is e3 Diagnostics in Cedar Park. Their bid received district approval and the results are now part of the new facilities.

Instead of an audiometric booth, the program features an audiometric testing suite with two separate doors and one room for the audiologist and another for the student The old booth had only one room with a divider wall to separate the audiologist from the student.

Patricia Roldan is the chief audiologist at A+ Audiology and Hearing Services in Mission and has also worked for the McAllen school district for more than 10 years. She works at Escandon once a week throughout the school year. 

“The old booth was top-level at one time, but it had a lot of sound leakage inside and outside the booth and did not have enough outlets,” Roldan said. “This one is as soundproof as it should be. When you close the door, there’s no sound leakage.” 

Vanessa Salinas, a high school student in the program, recognizes the importance of the suite being soundproof. 

“In the old one, it was hard for me to hear,” she signed, as instructional strategist Robyn Ellis voiced for her. “I completed a practice test and I could hear the difference!”

Now, Roldan said, employees can maintain a good working environment outside of the suite while she is testing students inside. The suite is also wheelchair accessible. The more Roldan learns about the new audiometric suite, the more excited she feels about its possibilities.

“We appreciate all of the effort extended to get it,” she said. “This will last 20, 30, maybe 40 years. It’s a long-term investment!”