Bruce Street School for the Deaf, one of the oldest day programs in the country (celebrating over 110 years), offers d/Deaf and hard of hearing students, ages 3-15, a superior education close to their homes. Students attend from throughout the city, as well as from neighboring towns and counties. The Bruce Street School family offers a unique opportunity for d/Deaf and hard of hearing students to socialize and learn while integrated with peers within their school and with general education peers of George Washington Carver. Bruce Street offers a variety of specialized programming and support based on each child’s needs. Sign Language classes are offered to parents and families of Bruce Street students to encourage communication and language development at home.

Students receive ongoing intensive speech and language therapy, as well as instruction in all academic areas. All subjects are taught utilizing the Total Communication philosophy, which stresses speech and speech reading, auditory training, sign language, and finger spelling. Students receive a full-range of audiological services on-site by licensed audiologists, also skilled in sign language. FM systems are available to students in self-contained and inclusion classrooms. On-site audiologists also closely monitor students with cochlear implants and work closely with all hospitals in the area to make sure students receive the maximum benefit from their implants at all times. All students receive speech therapy as mandated by their I.E.Ps (Individualized Educational Plans). Counseling and Physical/ Occupational therapy is available to students based on evaluation and as mandated in their I.E.P.  Educational Interpreters are on staff and available for schoolwide interpreting needs.

The world that deaf children will inherit will be technology based, and technology is a pre-requisite for success in our society. Therefore, Bruce Street's goal is to enable its students to utilize all the tools of technology in order to explore and widen their world. Bruce Street students are immersed in technology when they enter as preschoolers. Chromebooks and/or iPads are available for student use, and each classroom is equipped with a Smart Tablet.

Bruce Street students have the opportunity to participate in general education classes with George Washington Carver students in accordance with least restrictive environment mandates. The full continuum of exposure to typical peers while attending a self contained class to in-class support to general education with modifications and accommodations is available.   Bruce Street students may also participate in all clubs and afterschool programs with George Washington Carver students.

All students who attend Bruce Street School are challenged to excel academically, socially and civically. Our Carver-Bruce stars shine bright!

On November 14, 1910, a class for deaf children was opened in the Chestnut Street School Building. For the first time the city of Newark was offering education for its deaf children comparable to the education offered to hearing children. From 1910 to 1917 the original rooms were in the Chestnut Street School Building, the classes were moved three times: first to James Street, then to Washington Street, and finally to the Bruce Street School Building. 

For many years the classes for the deaf were only on the second floor but as the enrollment gradually grew the children in the classes downstairs were moved to neighborhood schools. By the early 1940s the school for the deaf was given use of the whole building at 45 Bruce Street. Shortly after, at the request of the older students, the name of the school was officially changed to Bruce Street School for the Deaf. 

Through all the years of change and growth, Bruce Street strives for the same goal with which the school was started - to provide the best possible education for deaf and hard of hearing students. Bruce Street School has continued to meet the needs of the deaf populations, revising and expanding its curriculum to meet the challenges of the 1960s, 1970s, and into the 1980s. 

In September 1979, Bruce Street School moved into the newly constructed building on 333 Clinton Place to share the facility with George Washington Carver Elementary School. Today, the Bruce Street community celebrates over 110 years as a part of Newark Public Schools. (Written by Ms. Janet Calvert, 2010) (Revised/Updated by Ms. Sarah Manginelli, 2021)