Recently, the National Association of the Deaf (NAD) sent out a call to action encouraging individuals to contact their legislators and ask them to support the Cogswell-Macy Act, which is designed to improve services and educational opportunities for students who are deaf, deafblind, hard of hearing, and blind. 

Here are key pieces of the legislation currently in the bill.

• Increase training for teachers and other special education professionals, so they are qualified to work with deaf, deafblind, and hard of hearing students.
• Require more appropriate and specific data tracking through appropriate evaluations and assessments, which will give us better data and information to best support our students.
• Encourage states to develop quality improvement services, such as requiring language goals to include measured progress in acquiring American Sign Language (ASL) and English, which leads to national expectations for quality services for students.
• Protection for special education placements for the students, including deaf schools and deaf programs for DHH students.
• Require interpreter training programs to prepare students for the educational interpreting field and move them towards educational interpreting licensure.
• Change outdated terminology in current educational law from “hearing impaired” to “deaf, hard of hearing, and DeafBlind.”

Sample script 

Visit "Alice Cogswell and Anne Sullivan Macy Act, H.R. 1959, S. 813" for a sample script you can use for your letter(s) or phone call(s). 

Who to contact

Here is the list of Minnesota senators. You may contact both:

• Sen. Amy Klobuchar - Sen. Klobuchar's email form
• Sen. Tina Smith - Sen. Smith's email form

Here is the list of Minnesota representatives. You may contact the representative for your district.

• Rep. Jim Hagedorn (1st District) - Rep. Hagedorn's email form
• Rep. Angie Craig (2nd District) - Rep. Craig's email form
• Rep. Dean Phillips (3rd District) - Rep. Phillip's email form
• Rep. Betty McCollum (4th District) - Rep. McCollum's email form
• Rep. Ilham Omar (5th District) - Rep. Omar's email form
• Rep. Tom Emmer (6th District) - Rep. Emmer's email form
• Rep. Michelle Fischbach (7th District) - Rep. Fischbach's email form
• Rep. Pete Stauber (8th District) - Rep. Stauber's email form

If you are not sure which congressional district you are in, please use the "Find Your Representative" tool.