Program Office: Office of Special Institutions

CFDA Number: 84.910
Program Type: Direct Appropriation

The U.S. Department of Education provides support for Gallaudet University in order to help promote education and employment opportunities for persons who are deaf. The university provides a wide range of undergraduate, graduate, and continuing education programs in fields related to deafness for students who are deaf and students who are hearing.

Gallaudet also operates the Laurent Clerc National Deaf Education Center, which includes the Kendall Demonstration Elementary School (KDES), which operates an elementary school for children who are deaf, and the Model Secondary School for the Deaf (MSSD), which provides secondary education programs for students who are deaf. The federal government funds these programs in order to support the development, evaluation, and dissemination of model curricula, instructional techniques and strategies, and materials that can be used in a variety of educational environments serving individuals who are deaf or hard of hearing throughout the nation. In FY 2006, the university enrolled 1,913 undergraduate and graduate students and 367 elementary and secondary education students.

Gallaudet University offers a traditional liberal arts curriculum and graduate programs in fields related to deafness for students who are deaf and hearing. To increase the effectiveness of its instructional programs, the university provides communications training, counseling, and other support services for its students who are deaf. Gallaudet also conducts a wide variety of basic and applied deafness research and provides public service programs for persons who are deaf and professionals who work with persons who are deaf.