Melanie Miner has a lot riding on a bill that would alter an already existing law governing student eligibility for public education deaf services. If passed, it would mean her son could communicate with others, develop friendships and have a more normal childhood.

HB291 would allow nonverbal students to attend and receive services from the Utah Schools for the Deaf and Blind. Under current law, only deaf students are eligible.

Miner's son Jeffrey was born with Down syndrome, and when he was 5 years old, speech therapists told Miner he would probably never develop speech.

So Miner started using sign language in a last-ditch effort to communicate with her son.

"He blossomed," she said. "Finally he could express his little personality in a big way. He participated in songs as we signed them more. He told us jokes and stories at bedtime."

After that success the Miners opted to enroll Jeffrey in the Jean Massieu School for the Deaf, an arm of USDB.

Leaders accepted Jeffrey for a month but in the meantime were researching the legalities of having a hearing student at a deaf school.

During that month, Miner said, Jeffrey started signing complete sentences.

"He made friends quickly and learned faster than we'd seen him learn before," she said.

But her happiness was short-lived after school leaders discovered that Utah code didn't permit hearing students at the school. Jeffrey's hearing is in a normal range.

Regardless of recommendations from educators and therapists stating USDB would be the best placement for Jeffrey, the current law still prohibits his enrollment, Miner said.

Moreover, after returning to his local school, Jeffrey was denied signing aides because he can hear. He was also ineligible for other signing programs within the local school because it was also part of USDB.

Miner said State Office of Education leaders told her she would have to get the law changed if she wanted her son to attend USDB.

Kenneth Sumsion, R-American Fork, sponsor of HB291, said the language in his bill is still fluid but a way is needed for USDB to make some exceptions.

He said that allowing all nonverbal students to enroll in the school could open the floodgates. Other students with a myriad of disabilities could become eligible. And USDB is not equipped for that.

The current draft comes with a $350,000 fiscal note that would provide funding for those extra students that would be eligible under the bill but Sumsion said that a per-student funding formula could be a better way to go.