Alicia Lapoint was born premature and deaf, and her mother says she has spent 15 years fighting to get her the support she needs in school. That fight followed her into ninth grade at John Ehret High School in Marrero, where her mother, Lauren Fricano, says the campus did not always provide an interpreter and sometimes fell short on the resources Alicia needed to succeed.
Fricano says her daughter was placed in classes beyond her level without the support called for in her individualized education program, according to reporting by WDSU. Alicia has since been accepted into the Louisiana School for the Deaf, a shift her family hopes will finally match her classroom setting to her needs. Jefferson Parish Schools told the station it cannot comment on an individual student’s situation because educational information is confidential, though records provided to WDSU showed the school communicated with Fricano about interpreter concerns and providing necessary resources.
How Jefferson Parish Says It Serves Deaf Students
Jefferson Parish Schools says it provides interpreting services, classroom accommodations, specialized instruction and other supports for deaf or hard-of-hearing students, with the specific services for each child determined through the IEP process involving parents and relevant educational professionals. The district’s own description of its speech and hearing program, posted on jpschools.org, says students qualify for services through an evaluation and an IEP, and that those services are designed to support students in developing communication skills to be successful in their educational environment.
The district also says teachers of deaf and hard-of-hearing students provide direct instruction, consultation, monitoring and self-advocacy skills based on each student’s IEP needs, while audiology services include hearing screening and testing and support for amplification devices. Louisiana law adds another layer of obligation: under the state’s Deaf Child’s Bill of Rights, public schools and publicly funded early-intervention programs must provide appropriate screening and assessment of hearing and vision capabilities and communication and language needs at the earliest possible age, with screening continuing throughout a student’s educational experience, according to the Louisiana State Legislature.
A New Statewide Registry, and a Thin List of Names
Louisiana’s interpreter shortage comes as the state is, for the first time, trying to formally count and qualify the people who do this work. The Louisiana Department of Health’s Louisiana Commission for the Deaf launched its interpreter registry in 2026, and sign-language interpreters were able to begin applying to join the updated online system on July 1 of that year. The commission maintains the registry pursuant to Louisiana Revised Statute 46:2353, per the Louisiana Commission for the Deaf registry, which describes the tool as a way to locate a sign language interpreter who has met the state’s minimum qualifications…