Appeals Court Rules South Dakota Could Close School for the Deaf

     PIERRE, S.D. (AP) - A federal appeals court has ruled that state
officials had legal authority to close the South Dakota School for
the Deaf campus in Sioux Falls.
     The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals says the South Dakota
Constitution and state laws allowed the officials to close the
campus in favor of outreach education and contracted services that
educate students with hearing impairments in local school
districts.
     The decision by a three-judge panel of the appeals court upholds
a ruling by U.S. District Judge Lawrence Piersol of Sioux Falls.
     Piersol said last year that the South Dakota Legislature had
given the state Board of Regents the power to run the school in the
way it believed would best serve students with hearing impairments.