Governor Livingston High School offers ASL program that benefits many populations of students

-Written by a non-politically connected Educator in the Community

Governor Livingston High School (GLHS) offers the rare gem of an American Sign Language (ASL) program that benefits students with both hearing-related and non-hearing related learning differences, as well as an elective course offering.

GLHS offers four world language programs: Spanish, French, Italian, and American Sign Language. While all students can take four years of Spanish, French, and Italian, including at the Advanced Placement (AP) level, if they qualify, ASL has three years of coursework and is not available at the AP level. This is not a GLHS-specific matter due to the fact that College Board, which is the organization that runs AP exams, does not offer an AP exam in ASL, and therefore no AP course exists.

Spanish, French, and Italian can also be taken at Columbia Middle School for Grade 6-8 students. ASL is offered exclusively at GLHS.

According to New Jersey School Performance Reports, during the 2023-24 school year, the makeup of GLHS students enrolled in each language was as follows:

• Spanish: 376
• French: 77
• Italian: 109
• Other Languages: 80

Please note that while New Jersey School Performance Reports notes the ASL category as “Other Languages,” all 80 students are enrolled in ASL as no other small language program is offered.

While the ASL program may be small at GLHS, the benefits are as follows:

• Clearly, the ASL program benefits the Deaf and Hard of Hearing participants at GLHS. While GLHS receives deaf students from other towns, students without a hearing impairment can take ASL courses at GLHS to fulfill their world language requirement (if their college accepts ASL as a world language requirement).
• After completing two or three consecutive years of French, for example, students can take ASL as an elective offering. ASL can also be taken concurrently with another world language if there is room in a student’s schedule.
• ASL can be very beneficial to students with Individualized Education Plans in the categories of Specific Learning Disability and Other Health Impairment (stems generally from Attention Deficit Disorder). While students may have an In-Class Support (ICS) co-teacher or small group resource room, these special education supports are not offered in most high schools including GLHS.
• Additionally, ASL can especially benefit students who have the language-based learning disability of dyslexia. For children with dyslexia, learning a world language, such as Spanish, French, and Italian, presents the same difficulties with decoding, spelling, and writing as learning English. Offering ASL would decrease frustration of not being able to easily associate letters and sounds for a student with dyslexia.
• Additional benefits according to this op-ed can include higher student reading and vocabulary levels, better social skills, and communicating with the deaf in a more timely manner than in writing in order to become a more inclusive society.

Looking at surrounding districts who offer an ASL program:

• Bernards Township Schools (Basking Ridge) offers ASL at the high school level.
• The School District of the Chathams offers ASL in their middle school and high school.
• Mountain Lakes High School offers their students an ASL program as well as in their middle school as a rotation course.
• At their June 3rd, 2024 BOE meeting [timestamp 39:30], Millburn Middle School students had approached their Board of Education asking their Superintendent and administration to consider an ASL program at Millburn High School citing world population statistics with hearing loss, a less complicated learning process to students who struggle with writing, and how ASL can be used worldwide.

One final note is that all high school students in New Jersey must fulfill the requirement of one full year of world language completion to graduate from high school. Selective colleges/universities prefer two to three years of consecutive world language completion. Highly selective colleges/universities prefer three to four years of consecutive world language completion. However, according to the 2025-2026 GLHS Program of Studies, written under each of the three levels of ASL coursework is the note, “Some colleges may not accept American Sign Language as a World Language requirement.” This is not a Berkeley Heights-specific problem. However, students and families as early as eighth grade should look into which colleges/universities accept ASL as a world language requirement to ensure their GLHS ASL credits count. In the event that ASL credits do not count towards their potential college, students can still take one to three years of ASL in addition to at least one year of Spanish, French, or Italian, which the latter would fulfill their college requirement.

Given the great work being done at Governor Livingston High School (GLHS) with their American Sign Language (ASL) program, neighboring high schools should consider adding ASL to their world language offerings. Doing so would not only support graduation requirements for some special education students, but also expand elective options and promote a more inclusive society through ASL instruction.

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