Willie Ross School for the Deaf Awarded $32K Grant for Audiology Equipment
Longmeadow – Willie Ross School for the Deaf announced it has received a MassHealth Provider Access Improvement Program (PAIGP) grant in the amount of $32,122.50 to purchase audiology equipment for the school’s expanding audiology program. The grant is from Health Resources in Action on behalf of the Massachusetts Executive Office of Health and Human Services.
The new equipment that will be purchased through the grant funds will allow the school’s audiology program to replace old, outdated equipment with new technology to more effectively serve the needs of their students and the greater community. The updated equipment will also allow the school to evaluate young children beginning at birth.
WRSD accepts pediatric and adult patients for hearing evaluations and hearing aid fittings at its Curtis L. Blake Center for Audiological Services at the school’s Longmeadow campus at 32 Norway Street.
According to President and CEO Bert Carter, “This grant represents a resource not only for the WIllie Ross School but also for the public at large. Providing audiology services to children and adults in the community is important and we are thankful for this important grant.”
The school is also undergoing a $1.2 million campus expansion that includes an updated audiology center in a new second story of its administration building. The project is expected to be completed in January 2021.
WRSD has four staff on its Audiology team: Dr. Decia DeMaio, clinical audiologist; Dr. Joy Guay, educational audiologist; and Debra Scanlon and Albert Breeding, outreach audiologists. Patients must be at least 3 years old for on-site evaluations, and the school also provides home-based Early Intervention services for deaf and hard-of-hearing children birth to age 3.
For more information about Audiological Services at Willie Ross or to make an appointment,
contact Willie Ross School for the Deaf at 413-567-0374.
Willie Ross School for the Deaf provides a comprehensive educational program stressing academic excellence that focuses on the development of students’ intellectual, social, and emotional growth from the early childhood level through high school. Willie Ross serves students at its main campus in Longmeadow and at its partnership campus located in the East Longmeadow Public Schools. Mainstreaming opportunities are provided at the partnership campus.