About the Clerc Center and its National Mission

Together we can......improve the quality of education for deaf and hard of hearing children and youth.

At Gallaudet University's Laurent Clerc National Deaf Education Center, we're on a mission to help deaf and hard of hearing students become successful adults. We are mandated by Congress to develop, evaluate, and disseminate innovative curricula, instructional techniques and strategies, and materials. As an integral part of its mission, the Clerc Center operates two demonstration schools, Kendall Demonstration Elementary School (KDES), which serves children in the metropolitan Washington, D.C., area from its parent- infant program up through the eighth grade, and the Model Secondary School for the Deaf (MSSD), a tuition-free residential high school for students from across the country.

The Clerc Center is not alone in its mission. In addition to running our two demonstration schools, we work closely with schools and programs around the country to meet critical needs related to literacy, family involvement, and transition from school to postsecondary education and employment.

The Clerc Center collaborates with the Gallaudet University Regional Centers (GURCs) as one of the ways it reaches out to schools and programs across the country. The GURCs bring the resources and expertise of Gallaudet to five major regions of the United States and its territories in Guam, American Samoa, and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. Through the GURCs, Gallaudet offers extension courses, training workshops, and technical assistance to address the educational, transition, and professional development needs of deaf and hard of hearing people from birth through adulthood, their families, and the professionals who work with them.

For more information, see http://gurc.gallaudet.edu/.