TEXAS – This summer 5-year-old Bear Stoenescu has been spending more time at home and it looks like that’s where he's staying despite the new school year starting.

“With everything that’s been going on we’re like, it’s probably the right time to pull the trigger on homeschooling,” his mother, Trayce Stoenescu, said.

Both of Stoenescu’s children, Bear and Mila, are hard of hearing. The two have attended the Texas School for the Deaf (TSD) since they were toddlers and while Stoenescu says she wanted to send them another year, the pandemic changed their plans.

“…it was pretty obvious that there’s gonna be regulations that we’re not comfortable with,” said Stoenescu.

She says she wasn't satisfied with the COVID-19 guidelines that the Texas Education Agency drafted, specifically for deaf and hard of hearing students. The re-opening safety guidelines called for virtual instruction and masks for in-person classes.

“I don’t think a lot of typically hearing people realize how much of a struggle wearing masks are for deaf and hard of hearing people," she said. “Obviously with their technology in their ears hanging like that, masks would be super-duper uncomfortable to them.”

Bear wears hearing aids and Mila has cochlear implants to help them each hear. Stoenescu says the masks are uncomfortable because the kids already carry weight on their ears from the devices, but the masks can also rub, create extra noise, and muffle words.

“But then, also the sign language portion of it. Half of sign language is on your face. It’s facial expressions, it’s the way that your mouth moves," Stoenescu stressed. "If your face is covered, they can’t see that.”

Because of the guidelines, Stoenescu has decided to homeschool her children.

“I don’t have anything against public school, I love TSD. It does make me sad that we decided to leave right now,” she said.