Bill to change South Dakota School for Deaf to SD Services for Deaf passes first step

A bill backed by the Board of Regents to change the name of the South Dakota School for the Deaf (SDSD) to South Dakota Services for the Deaf passed its first step Thursday morning in the Senate Education committee.

Kim Wadsworth, superintendent of SDSD, said Senate Bill 37 won’t affect any program or activity currently provided by the SDSD and that a name change better reflects and clarifies the mission of the SDSD as an outreach and audiology program serving children in their homes and in schools.

Patty Kuglitsch, treasurer of the South Dakota Association of the Deaf, a former classroom teacher at SDSD and an advocate for the Deaf, said in the committee meeting Thursday that it’s important to the Deaf community to keep the acronym for the facility as SDSD.

Kuglitsch also told the Argus Leader in an email Monday that since SDSD no longer provides a classroom education to children who are deaf and hard of hearing, it makes sense for the name to be changed. Using the word “school” has been causing some confusion for people, she said.

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Sen. Steve Kolbeck motioned for the bill to pass Thursday and said that as someone who is hearing impaired for life and the parent of two hearing-impaired children, SDSD does a fantastic job and praised Wadsworth for helping his children when they were young.

SB 37 passed in the committee vote Thursday morning and will move to the Senate’s consent calendar for a vote in the coming days.