| The 120 Chief Administrators of residential/day schools, public and private, for the deaf and hard of hearing in the United States, and the 50 State Directors of Special Education were surveyed regarding the use of corporal punishment with deaf and hard of hearing students and their perceptions of the use of this method of discipline.;Based upon the review of literature, the use of corporal punishment as a discipline method is a very controversial issue and becomes even more complicated when disabled children are involved. The Supreme Court has determined that the use of corporal punishment is not unconstitutional. The survey revealed that 30 states have banned the use of corporal punishment of all children, nondisabled and disabled including deaf and hard of hearing children. Of the 20 states that still permit the use of corporal punishment, 12 of the states are located in the Southeast and South Central regions of the United States.;Based upon the results of the survey, corporal punishment is used very infrequently in the residential/day schools, public and private, for the deaf and hard of hearing in the United States. In addition, the majority of respondents to the survey, regardless of their position, sex, race or ethnic origin, or hearing status, agreed that the use of corporal punishment as a method of discipline was not appropriate for all students, nondisabled or disabled, including deaf and hard of hearing students.;Educational administrators, including administrators of residential/day schools, public and private, for deaf and hard of hearing students, need to be knowledgeable of the state laws and regulations that pertain to the use of corporal punishment as a disciplinary method. Schools that permit corporal punishment should be sure they have board approved policies and guidelines that follow the procedural standards established by the courts.;The entire population of Chief Administrators of residential/day schools, public and private, for the deaf and hard of hearing and State Directors of Special Education were used in this study; therefore, descriptive statistics, including frequencies and percentages, were used to report the data not inferential statistics.;Despite the fact that corporal punishment as viewed from a judicial perspective is permissible as a form of discipline, administrators of schools in states that permit corporal punishment need to proceed with extreme caution when using this form of discipline. Decision makers within the states and schools that permit corporal punishment should consider the implications of this study and the relevant research to guide them in making policy decisions about how students, nondisabled and disabled, including deaf and hard of hearing students, should be disciplined. |
