About Us:

St. Francis de Sales School for the Deaf (SFDS) is a nonpublic, New York State supported school for Deaf students from birth through 8th grade located in the Crown Heights section of Brooklyn. SFDS offers a Parent Infant Program (Ages 0-3), an Early Childhood Program (Ages 3-5) and a School Age Program (Grades K-8). Students attending SFDS are Deaf, Deafblind, Functionally Deaf and Deaf with Additional/Multiple Disabilities including Deaf with Autism and Deaf with Intellectual Disabilities.

SFDS utilizes best practices from current research in Deaf Education. We are a communicative, language and literacy rich environment.

Meet Our Executive Director

Meet Our Board of Directors

Mission Statement:

The mission of St. Francis de Sales School for the Deaf in Brooklyn is to educate the whole child utilizing best practices through a multimodal – multilingual communication approach in an inclusive, barrier-free environment so that each student develops academically, linguistically, physically, socially and emotionally. We focus on students’ strengths and support them achieving their goals as independent readers, writers and communicators.

Vision Statement:

We strive to be a center of excellence in serving Deaf, DeafBlind and Deaf Disabled children and their families. In pursuit of this vision, our school is committed to becoming a model school with a highly specialized staff and a state of the art- universally designed facility. Our school community aims to provide a safe haven for our students, families and employees united in our support of students’ success.

Core Values: 

⋅ Language & Communication Rights

⋅ Independence   

⋅ Accessibility

⋅ Inclusivity

⋅ Research Based Practices

⋅ Asset Based Model

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