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— North Dakota School for the Deaf - Today
On this date in 1907, the North Dakota School for the Deaf announced that the school had opened an exhibit at the Grand Forks Fair where students displayed examples of work including needlework, carpentry, and penmanship. The exhibit also featured photographs of the school.
Before Dakota split into two states, deaf children in the territory could attend the Dakota Territorial School for the Deaf in Sioux Falls. However, few children were able to take advantage of the school because of the travel challenges. The Enabling Act, passed by Congress in 1889, required the new states of North and South Dakota to provide special education for physically handicapped children. South Dakota already had a school for the deaf. It was up to North Dakota to establish its own, and that came about in 1890 as directed by the state’s constitution.