North Dakota School for the Deaf
high school in North Dakota, United States
The North Dakota School for the Deaf (NDSD) is a state-funded residential school located in Devils Lake, North Dakota, that provides services to meet the educational needs of children who are deaf and hard of hearing. NDSD is under the direction, control, and management of the North Dakota Department of Public Instruction. The current superintendent of the school is Donna Sorensen.
History
Before the Dakota Territory was divided, deaf children living in the part of the territory now known as North Dakota had to do without an education or attend the school in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Because of poor roads, great distances, meager railroads, and general financial inability, few of the North Dakota children could attend the South Dakota School for the Deaf. In the fall of 1889 Anson R. Spear, a deaf man from Minneapolis, Minnesota, came to North Dakota to establish a school for the deaf. Mr. Spear's political backers, Senator Swanston and Representative McCormick, introduced a bill in the Legislature for the immediate establishment for the proposed school in Devils Lake. The bill passed March 15, 1890, over the veto of Governor John Miller.
The citizens of Devils Lake furnished free for two years a wooden building located at the corner of Third Avenue and Fifth Street.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “North Dakota School for the Deaf” as high school in North Dakota, United States. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
Why this record matters
The subject matters to the history & society register because the source frames it as high school in North Dakota, United States. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
The record creator and administrative purpose are central evidence, because official documentation reflects both action and institutional priorities. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 16, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7055040. VIAF identifies the subject as 134954328. The Library of Congress control number is n86125377. Authority coordinates are 48.123, -98.868. 3 of 6 selected statements include explicit references; 2 carry qualifiers and 1 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1889 and 1890.
Official terminology may obscure informal participation, dissent or communities documented only indirectly. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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Three-step research path
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Questions for further research
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This entry incorporates text from “North Dakota School for the Deaf” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.