Grades Don’t Tell the Whole Story
By Sara Kennedy, H&V Headquarters
As an educational advocate, I sometimes meet deaf/hard of hearing (DHH) students getting strong grades but lacking the knowledge and experiences for adult life. For many families, this disconnect is familiar: a child who is exhausted at the end of the school day, who works far harder than peers to keep up, yet whose report card suggests everything is “fine.” When grades look acceptable, schools may conclude there is no adverse educational impact—and therefore no need for an IEP. Grades don’t tell the whole story.
Adverse Educational Impact: Not About Grades Alone
Under IDEA and Section 504, adverse educational impact means that a disability affects a student’s ability to access, participate in, or benefit from their education. Academic performance is one consideration, but federal law under the IDEA makes it clear that educational need goes far beyond academics. Adverse educational impact may appear in areas such as:
- Attention and listening stamina
- Executive functioning and organization
- Language access and comprehension
- Social interaction and participation
- Emotional regulation and mental health
- Independence and self-advocacy
None of these shows up neatly on a report card. For deaf and hard of hearing (DHH) students in particular, grades often mask the additional cognitive and emotional effort required just to access instruction. When a child is using most of their energy to listen, watch, interpret, or fill in missing information, that effort is no longer available for learning, memory, or even emotional regulation.
Educational need is evaluated through a careful process outlined by the IDEA (Individuals with Disabilities Education Act). Teams must use more than one test. Educators must use a variety of functional and objective assessments across all areas of function. Caselaw clarifies that this goes beyond academics. (IDEA Caselaw: See G.D. v. Wissahickon Sch. Dist., or S.H. v. Keystone Central Sch. Dist., ODR №25032–20–21, at 25 (Pa. ODR May 13, 2022).
Using the Chart: What Grades Show—and What They Don’t
Special education advocate Lisa Lightner (A Day in Our Shoes) captures this disconnect clearly in the chart below. It illustrates the difference between what grades typically reflect and what they often fail to reveal about a student’s day-to-day functioning.
For DHH students, nearly every item in “what grades don’t show” column is intensified by language access demands, listening fatigue, and reduced access to incidental learning.
| What Grades Show | What Grades Don’t Show (Adverse Impact) |
| Scores on tests and assignments | How long the work took to complete |
| Completion of homework | How much parent scaffolding was needed |
| Participation as judged by the teacher | Masking, anxiety, or emotional exhaustion |
| Whether the child turned something in | How independently the child can work |
| Final product quality | Meltdowns, shutdowns, frustration after school |
| Classroom behavior from an outside view | Internalizing behaviors the teacher never sees |
| Ability to perform well on familiar tasks | Difficulty generalizing or retaining skills |
| Occasionally missing work | Executive functioning patterns: planning, organization, initiation |
| Ability to recall information | Whether the child understands or is memorizing |
| Surface-level performance | Whether the effort is sustainable long-term |
| Strengths in one subject | Hidden weaknesses in literacy, math reasoning, or writing |
| Compliance | Burnout, school refusal, perfectionism, or low self-esteem |
A DHH student may earn good grades because:
- Parents spend hours reteaching material that was not fully accessible at school
- Assignments are graded for completion rather than depth of understanding
- Teachers provide informal supports that are not documented
- The workload or grade level is quietly modified or reduced without team discussion
- The student memorizes information rather than fully comprehending it
- Anxiety or perfectionism drives performance
These scenarios do not indicate that a disability has no impact. They indicate that the student is compensating—often at a significant cost.
Listening fatigue, delayed processing, gaps in incidental language, and the constant need to monitor access can lead to exhaustion, frustration, and burnout. Grades may remain stable while independence, stamina, and emotional well-being erode.
Executive Functioning and Masking: Hidden Costs of “Doing Fine”
Executive functioning challenges are a common example of how DHH students can appear successful on paper while struggling in practice. Strong reasoning or memory skills may allow a child to compensate for years, even as underlying difficulties grow.
Families may notice:
- Homework that takes far longer than expected
- Difficulty planning or completing long-term projects
- Trouble getting started or staying organized
- Heavy reliance on adults to manage materials and deadlines
- High anxiety around schoolwork
Masking compounds this problem. Many DHH students work hard to appear attentive and capable during the school day, pushing through confusion, missed information, or sensory overload without outward signs.
The result often appears at home:
- After-school meltdowns or shutdowns
- Extreme fatigue
- Avoidance of schoolwork
- Rising anxiety or school refusal
Masking is itself a form of adverse impact. It drains the energy a child needs for learning, relationships, and regulation—none of which are reflected in grades.
What the Law Requires Teams to Consider
Both IDEA and Section 504 require schools to look beyond grades when determining eligibility and supports.
Under IDEA, teams must consider whether a disability affects a student’s access to and progress in the general education curriculum. For deaf and hard of hearing students, this explicitly includes language and communication needs, opportunities for direct communication with peers and staff, and access to instruction during the entire school day–all highlighted in the IDEA Special Considerations for DHH Students.
Section 504 similarly focuses on equal access. A student who earns good grades only through extraordinary effort, constant adult support, or significant emotional cost may still be denied equal access compared to peers.
In other words, the question is not “Are the grades acceptable?” but rather, “Is this student able to access, participate, and learn in a way that is sustainable and comparable to peers?”
What Parents and Teams Can Document
When grades look fine, but concerns persist, families can focus on documenting patterns rather than isolated incidents:
At home:
- How long assignments take
- How much reteaching or support is required
- Signs of fatigue, frustration, or emotional distress
- After-school meltdowns or shutdowns
- Cycles of burnout over the school year
At school:
- Missing or inconsistent work
- Notes about attention, listening, or participation
- Informal accommodations that are not written into a plan
Teacher language:
- “Works hard” or “tries very hard”
- “Difficulty following multi-step directions or working independently”
Ask for the Expanded Core Curriculum
If you have not heard of the Expanded Core Curriculum (ECC), it is DHH-specific guidance recognized by the National Association of State Directors of Special Education in Optimizing Outcomes for Students Who Are Deaf or Hard of Hearing. Several states, including Iowa and Minnesota, developed ECC frameworks after recognizing that many DHH students earned acceptable grades but were leaving school without the skills needed for adult life.
The ECC addresses critical areas not reflected on report cards, including understanding one’s hearing and communication needs, self-determination and self-advocacy, social-emotional skills, functional independence, assistive technology use, and how to navigate accommodations across settings. When these areas are not taught explicitly, students may appear successful in school while struggling with independence, stamina, and long-term transition outcomes.
Why self-advocacy? It is hard to weather life’s daily frustrations of asking the teacher to repeat or to educating yet another substitute about the interpreter’s role or the remote microphone and captions. It is hard to advocate for one’s needs as a child among adult authority figures, and this is a lifelong task of DHH adults. All of this can be a drain on a child’s mental health, emotional steadiness, and stamina for the day’s work.
The Bottom Line
A child can have good grades and still experience significant disability-related barriers to learning, participation, regulation, and independence. Grades are one data point—not the whole story. When families and teams understand how to recognize and document adverse educational impact, they can move beyond surface-level performance and make decisions that truly support access and long-term success for deaf and hard of hearing students.
Taken together, these data points often tell the story the report card cannot.
Thank you to Lisa Lightner at A Day in Our Shoes https://adayinourshoes.com/adverse-educational-impact/ .~
H&V Communicator – Spring 2026