Start your journey
Teach Deaf and Hard of Hearing students
In the Deaf and Hard of Hearing (DHH) MEd and teaching licensure program, you'll receive the training you need to teach students, birth to age 22, with diverse backgrounds and hearing levels. Our classes are offered in the evenings, in real-time primarily online with some in-person components. You'll graduate with the qualifications needed to apply for a DHH licensure in Minnesota and the skills you need to teach DHH students through culturally responsive and multilingual, multimodal best practices for instruction connecting ASL, English, and additional languages through an anti-bias lens.
Students in the program often have undergraduate degrees in special education, Deaf education, elementary education, bilingual/ESL education, Deaf studies, and interpreting.
In order to be recommended for your Minnesota B-12 Deaf or Hard of Hearing License, you must successfully complete these licensure requirements for an initial licensure and these licensure requirements for an additional licensure mandated by the state of Minnesota.
Careers
Graduates serve DHH students from birth through young adults, who come from a variety of backgrounds: cultures, linguistic, race, socio-economic, hearing levels, and abilities.
- Teachers in classrooms at residential or day Schools for the Deaf
- Teachers in classrooms, resource rooms with DHH programming
- Itinerant teachers or early interventionists, working with students and their families
- DHH consultants to general classroom teachers
Admissions requirements
- Undergraduate GPA of at least 2.8
- Graduate school application
- Application fee
- Transcripts
Non-native English Speakers: TOEFL, IELTS, etc. test scores
Contact
Application deadlines
Summer/fall start: The priority deadline for fall start applications is March 1. The final deadline for fall start applications is April 1. Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis between March 15 and April 15.
Requirements for international students
Requirements vary for international students; learn more here.
Tuition
Visit the College of Education and Human Development's Tuition and Financial Aid page for information on tuition.
Funding
Scholarships and awards through school districts for employees
Ask your employer if they have funding to support your education.
Special Education Pipeline Grant is a partnership between educator preparation programs and K-12 schools to recruit and prepare employees to become fully licensed Tier 3 or Tier 4 special education teachers.
Grow Your Own Program is similar to the Pipeline program, but is not limited to special education and often includes a focus on diversifying the teacher workforce.
Come Teach in Minnesota allows school districts to offer hiring and retention bonuses to eligible individuals when they move to Minnesota and enroll in a teacher preparation program.
WE-IMAGINE Funding:
The Deaf and Hard of Hearing MEd and licensure preparation program has received a federal grant for personnel preparation from the Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP). Project WE-IMAGINE: Well-being in Education: Integrating Multilingual & Mindfulness Approaches to Guide & Inspire New Educators- Preparing Teachers to Serve School Age Deaf and Hard of Hearing Student:
- Purpose: To address the gap in service to Deaf and Hard of Hearing (DHH) students by training teachers to meet the culturally and linguistically diverse needs of DHH students through multilingual and multicultural approaches to education, while addressing the wellbeing of teachers and students.
- WE-IMAGINE grant scholars will be eligible to receive a range of financial support towards tuition, possible stipends for expenses and travel, and professional development.
Students who accept support from the WE-IMAGINE Project must agree to the following UMN and OSEP requirements:
- Teach the full-time equivalent of two years with students who are DHH and/or other disabilities for each year they receive funds.
- Students who fail to do so are obligated to repay all or part of the scholarship received plus interest directly to OSEP.
- Participate in all grant-related activities. These include:
- Attending in-person and/or online professional development and conferences, and online grant-related events.
- Participate in planning activities, as requested.
- Opportunities to work with a grant-related mentor, as determined by DHH program instructors.
- Attending in-person and/or online professional development and conferences, and online grant-related events.
Grants for eligible, enrolled students
TEACH Grants
TEACH Grants are part of a federal program to provide financial support to students who will teach in a high need area at a low-income school for at least four years. Application information is available from Onestop on their grants and waivers page.
Scholarships, fellowships and awards through the University
- Special education scholarships, fellowships, and awards
- College of Education and Human Development awards
Financial aid
Minnesota Aspiring Teachers of Color Scholarship Pilot Program
Minnesota Aspiring Teachers of Color Scholarship Pilot Program provides post-secondary financial assistance to eligible undergraduate and graduate students who are preparing to become teachers, have demonstrated financial need, and belong to racial or ethnic groups underrepresented in the state’s teacher workforce.
Visit OneStop Student Services for more information on available financial aid.
Request information
Coursework
All classes are offered in the evening to allow students to maintain full time employment while completing course requirements, as long as their employer is flexible in allowing them to complete all field experience requirements. Most courses are taught synchronously remote and some also include in-person sessions on the St. Paul campus and/or in local DHH programs.
The Deaf and Hard of Hearing MEd program requires the completion of 46 credits (plus an additional 8 credits for those without prior licensure). Your total number of required credits may vary based on previous educational experience or licensures.
See a sample plan of a DHH course schedule
Note: This plan is an example only. You'll work with your advisor to develop a course schedule specific to your needs.
- Based on full time program plan
- Does not include field experiences
- Funding support available for travel/tuition/stipend. See WE-IMAGINE, in the tuition and funding section of this page.
Semester 1 (fall year 1)
- Program wide: two days with one overnight during MEA
- Course specific: half day in December
Semester 2 (spring year 1)
- Program wide: Thursday - Friday in March
- Course specific: half day in April
Summer
- One day in June
Semester 3 (fall year 2)
- Program wide: in person two days with one overnight during Minnesota Education Association (MEA) weekend
- Course specific: one day in November
- EPSY 5016 - Special Education Foundations - Advancing Equity and Inclusive Practices (2 cr)
- EPSY 5641 – Foundations of Deaf Education (3 cr)
- EPSY 5644 – Early Childhood Language and Literacy Development and Best Practices: DHH (3 cr)
- MTHE 5355 – Mathematics for Diverse Learners (3 cr)
- EPSY 5653 – ASL/English Structure and Application (3 cr)
- EPSY 5651 – Best Practices Teaching Content Areas: DHH (3 cr)
- EPSY 5646 – Best Practices Teaching Reading and Writing for School Age: DHH (3 cr)
- EPSY 5645 – Deaf Plus: Deaf with Disabilities (1 cr)
- EPSY 5654 – Current Research and Trends in Deaf Ed (1 cr)
- EPSY 5614 – Assessment and Due Process in Special Ed (3 cr)
- EPSY 5642 – Early Childhood Interventions for Infants, Toddlers and Families: DHH (3 cr)
- EPSY 5647 – Spoken Language and Assistive Technology DHH (2 cr)
- EPSY 5652 – Incorporating Academic ASL in the classroom: DHH (3 cr)
- EPSY 5616 – Classroom Management and Behavior Analytic Problem Solving (3 cr)
- EPSY 5643 – Seminar: Identity, Culture and Diversity in Deaf Ed (2 cr)
- EPSY 5704 – Field Experience in a Special Education Classroom #1 (1 cr)
- EPSY 5705 – Field Experience in a Special Education Classroom #2 (1 cr)
- EPSY 5706 - Field Experience in a Special Education Classroom #3 (1 cr)
- EPSY 5751 – Student Teaching Practicum and Seminar (6 cr)
Required for initial licensure and MEd
EPSY 5699: Experimental Teaching Seminar (2 cr)
OR
Required for additional licensure and MEd or MEd only
EPSY 5991 – MEd Paper/Project Independent Study (2 credits)
- OLPD 5005 – School and Society ( 2 credits)
- OLPD 5009 – Human Relations (1 cr)
- CI 5307 – Technology (2 credits)
- EPSY 5001 – Learning Cognition and Assessment (3 credits)
Faculty
Access resources for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing
Contact
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