The UFT Delegate Assembly on Feb. 11 approved one resolution calling on the city Department of Education to restore comprehensive hearing-screening programs for young students and another endorsing David Kazansky for election as a teacher-member of the city’s Teachers’ Retirement Board.

The resolution on hearing screenings was introduced by three chapter leaders: Speech Chapter Leader Mindy Karten Bornemann, Hearing Education Services Chapter Leader Cecilia Cortez and Audiologists Chapter Leader Susan Kavanagh.

Bornemann told delegates that former Chancellor Joel Klein discontinued a hearing-screening program for kindergarten and 1st-grade students, a move which she said was part of Klein’s “failed education legacy.”

The DOE needs to restore the program to help detect hearing loss in students early, she said. “Many of our young children have speech, language, reading, social and behavioral issues which may be due to hearing impairment,” Bornemann said. “Our students often come from other countries and they were never screened.”

In the second resolution, Kazansky was endorsed to replace Mel Aaronson, who is retiring. [See “Petitions due in March to nominate Kazansky to pension board.” ]