If a culture is defined as heritage, language, and a set of customs and values shared by its members and transmitted from one generation to the next, then the Deaf community truly is a culture. According to the April 1996 issue of the American Annals of the Deaf , there were 78 residential schools for the deaf or deaf and blind in the United States with only four states not reporting a residential school. Most schools accept students based on degree of hearing loss, academic needs, parental choice, and other factors. Usually these schools have an established relationship with the child's local education agency. Many schools accept children at about the age of three.
Residential schools are an alternative to placements in local schools.
Separation may cause feelings of guilt in the parents, confusion and homesickness in the child, and depression in both, but once the child has adjusted, he usually embraces the experience wholeheartedly. Houseparents and classroom teachers are often Deaf themselves, and a unique bond may develop between the Deaf child and other Deaf members of the school and community, where the child has access to role models who are Deaf. The primary avenue by which a child with a hearing loss becomes a member of the Deaf culture is through the residential schools, but any child who has a hearing loss and uses sign language can become a member of the Deaf community. Deaf students who are mainstreamed miss out on the feeling of belonging that individuals from the Deaf culture associate with their residential schools, and their experience is very different from those who attend residential school. Mainstreamed students often are singled out in many respects.