John Tracy Center
The leading diagnostic and education center for children with hearing loss
Programs and results
What we aim to solve
In the first three years, a child develops a foundation for language and cognition that is the basis for all future learning and development. The earlier a child is diagnosed and receives intervention, the better their language acquisition, school success and social skills will be. In the U.S., nearly two in 1,000 infants are born with significant permanent hearing loss (CDC, 2020), which rises to 5.6 per 1,000 for ages 5-17 (U.S. Census Bureau, 2021). Hearing loss is a low-incidence disability, but the downside of not identifying and treating it early is enormous. A child for whom diagnosis and intervention are delayed is at high risk for substandard academic performance, permanently reduced vocabulary and speech skills, isolation, and few employment opportunities beyond menial work (WHO, 2016). Children from low-income homes and underserved ethnic groups are less likely to receive timely diagnostic follow-up, and early intervention. JTC helps fill this gap for low-income children.
Our programs
What are the organization's current programs, how do they measure success, and who do the programs serve?
John Tracy Center
John Tracy Center is the leading provider of comprehensive audiological and educational intervention services for children with, or at risk of, hearing loss. Through JTC, children develop the speech, language and listening skills they need to learn and thrive. Our parent-centered services provide parents with knowledge, guidance and support so they become independent and confident decision-makers for their child. JTCs acclaimed services and programs include comprehensive audiological testing; parent-infant program for ages 0-3; an inclusive preschool for ages 3-5; listening and spoken language services for ages 0-18; speech language pathology to help children overcome speech, language or feeding disorders; educational support from teachers of the deaf for children in mainstream schools; counseling services; worldwide parent education; and a masters degree in deaf education and teaching credential in partnership with Mount Saint Mary's University.
Audiology Services
Comprehensive evaluations and hearing screenings for children birth to 18 years old at our Los Angeles and Long Beach facilities
Distance Education
Offered to families around the globe, our courses are available in English and Spanish, by mail and online. Individualized guidance is provided to participating families.
Dickinson C. Ross Auditory-Verbal Preschool
Our Ross Preschool enrolls children ages 3-5 who are deaf, hard of hearing, or hearing. Ours is the only family-centered preschool in Los Angeles focused on providing children with hearing loss the opportunity to develop essential listening and spoken language skills alongside hearing peers. Our teachers and staff professionals work as a team to develop children’s vocabulary, listening skills, speech, syntax and discourse skills. Families in the preschool have access to listening and spoken language auditory verbal therapy (LSL-AVT), speech and language therapy, and counseling and child development.
Teacher Education Program
JTC offers a fully accredited Master of Education in Special Education/Deaf and Hard of Hearing degree program offered in partnership with Mount Saint Mary's University.
International Summer Session
JTC offers an intensive parent education and spoken-language preschool program offered each summer to children ages two and half to five years of age and their families.
Parent-Infant Program
Our Parent-Infant Program prepares children ages 0-3 for spoken-language preschool or kindergarten. Components of Parent-Infant are listening and spoken language auditory verbal therapy (LSL-AVT) in a home-like setting; Friday Family School, composed of parent-child group activity and parent class and children’s activity; and counseling and child development.
Speech Language Pathology
JTC offers speech and language therapy from certified speech language pathologists (SLPs). Our SLPs assist children of all ages, with or without hearing loss, who have speech, language or feeding disorders.
School-Age Education Support
In School-Age Education Support, our teachers of the deaf and hard-of-hearing help students with hearing loss, ages 5 to18, access curriculum and learn in mainstream classrooms. Our teachers assist students with academic subjects; assess their language, listening and speech skills; and monitor the use of hearing technology in the classroom. Also, they support classroom teachers in addressing students’ learning challenges. Most important, students gain self-confidence and learn how to advocate for themselves.
Where we work
Videos
Our results
How does this organization measure their results? It's a hard question but an important one.
Number of children with disabilities receiving early intervention services
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Related Program
Parent-Infant Program
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Context Notes
98% of children and families obtained listening devices and consistently used them per their Individualized Family Service Plan (IFSP), within three months of entering the program. 96% increased their
Number of clients who report general satisfaction with their services
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Related Program
John Tracy Center
Type of Metric
Outcome - describing the effects on people or issues
Direction of Success
Holding steady
Context Notes
98% of parents agreed or strongly agreed that JTC helped improve their knowledge of hearing loss, speech and language; 98% ability to encourage their child's communication; and 96% confidence to assis
Goals & Strategy
Learn about the organization's key goals, strategies, capabilities, and progress.
Charting impact
Four powerful questions that require reflection about what really matters - results.
What is the organization aiming to accomplish?
The mission of John Tracy Center is to provide parent-centered services locally and globally to young children with hearing loss, offering families hope, guidance, and encouragement. JTC was founded in 1943 by Louise Tracy and her husband, Hollywood legend Spencer Tracy, and named after their son John, who was born deaf. JTC offered one of the nations first spoken-language education and support programs for parents of children with hearing loss. Since then, JTC has assisted nearly half a million children with or at risk of hearing loss. Today, JTC is recognized as the leader in early-childhood listening and spoken language education, one of the top three centers for pediatric audiology in the Los Angeles area, and the worlds largest private provider of services to young children with, or at risk of, hearing loss. In 2019, JTC moved to a newly renovated, state-of-the-art building and became known as John Tracy Center instead of John Tracy Clinic.
Our overarching goals are to
1. Detect hearing loss at the earliest possible time in a child's life.
2. Help children develop the speech, language and listening skills they need to thrive.
3. Provide each child with optimal access to sound, spoken language and social-developmental activities.
4. Equip families with the necessary support, knowledge and training to help their children achieve their full communication potential.
5. Furnish leadership in the field.
Population: We serve more than 6,000 children and their family members worldwide per year. JTC provides services to families of all socioeconomic backgrounds, with an emphasis on low-income families. Overall, our clients are 90% low-income. We offer direct services to families in Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties, who are 72% Latino, 8% African American, 6% white, 6% Asian, and 8% of multiple or other ethnicities. Roughly 40% of children are female and 60% male. To accommodate the more than 40% of families whose home language is Spanish, we offer our services in Spanish as well as English, and we secure translators for other languages, if needed. JTC's Worldwide Parent Education Program reached 1,239 families in 24 U.S. states and 43 countries in 2022-23.
Need: In the U.S., nearly two in 1,000 infants are born with significant permanent hearing loss (CDC, 2020), which rises to 5.6 per 1,000 for ages 3-17 (U.S. Census Bureau, 2021). Untreated hearing loss can significantly, negatively impact childrens academic performance, psychological well-being and future employment opportunities (WHO, 2016). The goals established by the Joint Committee on Infant Hearing are to screen children for hearing loss by 1 month of age, perform audiologic diagnosis by 3 months and begin intervention by 6 months (2019). This swift timing is essential because infants begin developing language skills at birth. Children not receiving early intervention are at serious developmental risk.
What are the organization's key strategies for making this happen?
JTC diagnoses children with hearing loss, develops listening and spoken language skills in children with hearing loss, and assists children of all hearing abilities in overcoming speech and language disorders. In our family-centered programs, parents gain skills to support communication and advocate for their children. Our family-centered approach is not included in most similar programs offered by other providers, though research has found it very effective.Audiology offers diagnostic hearing services for children ages 0-18, along with explanations of results, recommendations and guidance. In Education Services, the Parent-Infant Program for ages 0-3 prepares children for spoken-language preschool or kindergarten. Components of Parent-Infant are listening and spoken language auditory verbal therapy (LSL-AVT) in a home-like setting; Friday Family School with a parent-child group activity, parent class and childrens activity; and counseling and child development. For children ages 0-18, JTC offers individual LSL-AVT. Also for ages 0-18, JTC provides speech and language therapy for children with and without hearing loss. Our Ross Preschool for ages 3-5 provides an inclusive learning environment for both hearing children and those with hearing loss. School-age children with hearing loss receive educational support in mainstream classrooms from our teachers of the deaf and hard-of-hearing.
Worldwide Parent Education offers real-time virtual, online and mail-based courses and materials in English and Spanish to develop spoken language skills in children with hearing loss ages 0-5. Parents of young children with hearing loss anywhere in the world can form groups to connect to JTC for live, online video classes. Children around the country and world can receive live, individual LSL-AVT sessions online.
To meet the tremendous national demand for auditory-oral teachers of the deaf, we offer a masters program in deaf education and California educational specialist teaching credential with Mount Saint Marys University.
What are the organization's capabilities for doing this?
Since 1943, JTC has been the recognized leader in early childhood deaf education. From the beginning, JTC was considered a national model program. Founder Louise Tracy was widely recognized for her pioneering work. She instituted standards and practices for parent-centered intervention with deaf children that have become the basis of programs in deaf centers around the world. In the decades since, we have introduced programs and services that have transformed the field. JTC was one of the first organizations to conduct hearing screening of infants, to embrace cochlear implants in early intervention, and to develop parent-infant programs. In 2008, we developed a new initiative for young deaf children to learn both English and their home language, which helped transform the field.
Over the years, JTC professionals have been mentors and conference presenters, disseminating our successful techniques nationwide and worldwide. Also, our website is a leading global source of information, demonstration videos, special papers and referrals on childhood deafness. Plus, JTC’s Parent-Infant and Preschool programs act as a lab school for fieldwork done by students seeking master’s degrees in auditory-verbal deaf education, in a partnership between JTC and Mount St. Mary’s College. The master’s graduates disseminate JTC’s best practices and strategies throughout the nation to promote systemic change. JTC master’s alumni have founded schools modeled after JTC’s program in Texas, Australia and England. The USC School of Social Work places social work interns on-site to work with JTC staff conducting health and wellness risk assessments. In 2021, JTC is becoming a permanent site for master’s students in speech pathology at the University of Southern California to do clinical rotations.
JTC has a long history of collaboration, partnership and coordination of services with hospitals, universities, pediatric audiology centers, state and county agencies and nonprofit organizations. These activities enhance our practices and our influence, and they create opportunities to serve a broader range of families. Also, JTC is a member of OPTION Schools, Inc., a national advocacy group for listening and spoken-language programs for the deaf, and of the Alexander Graham Bell Association for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, which works globally to ensure that people who are deaf and hard of hearing can hear and speak. We work with school districts in Los Angeles County to coordinate Individualized Education Plans for children with hearing loss. We partner with Mount Saint Mary’s University as the degree-granting partner for JTC’s master’s and credential program in deaf education. We collaborate with Best Start Metro L.A., a community initiative to build resources for young children, parents and pregnant women. TC staff are active on numerous national and local roundtables, committees, associations and consortia related to hearing loss, child development, & teacher preparation.
What have they accomplished so far and what's next?
JTC is: 1) 1 of the 4 leading centers for pediatric audiology in L.A.; 2) largest community hearing screening program in area; 3) a pioneer in early childhood deaf education, preparing children with hearing loss to enter mainstream school; 4) nationally recognized programs that teach parents of deaf children how to nurture their childs language skills.
JTC has helped reduce the average age that a deaf child is identified from 2.5 years in 1988 to 6 months in 2012 by leading the effort to institute universal hearing screening for newborns in CA hospitals. In 2008, JTC introduced two groundbreaking initiatives 1) for Spanish-speaking children to learn English in preschool, while 2) helping their parents develop a plan for speaking their birth language at home with their deaf child. In 2011, JTC completed a 3-year pilot program in L.A. to build the regions 1st model for incorporating hearing screening into well-baby care in community medical clinics. The program tested 9,500 babies & trained 326 medical personnel.
Our Distance Education program has a national & international presence. We bring our parent-infant services to isolated families via face-to-face video on the Internet in English & Spanish.
Sele2022-23 outcomes were:
Audiology tested 1,488 children in 1,797 appointments. Nearly met target. Audiology provided 100% of 70 families whose children were identified with permanent hearing loss with appropriate referrals. Met target
Parent-Infant. 96% of children increased their communication skills (auditory, receptive-language and expressive-language) in the timeframe specified in theirIndividualized Family Service Plan (IFSP). Exceeded target
Ross Preschool. 82% of all preschoolers (neurotypical preschoolers with or without hearing loss and neurodivergent preschoolers with or without hearing loss) achieved at least 80% of their communication goals in their Individualized Education Plan (IEP). 100% of 8 graduating preschoolers transitioned to mainstream educational settings with hearing classmates or other educational programs that use spoken language as the main communication medium. Exceeded targets
Listening and Spoken Language-Auditory Verbal Therapy. 76% of all children (neurotypical children with hearing loss and neurodivergent children with hearing loss) achieved at least 85% of the LSL goals in their IEPs. Nearly met.
Speech Language Pathology. 80% of ALL children (neurotypical children with or without hearing loss and neurodivergent children with or without hearing loss) achieved at least 75% of the functional communication goals in their IEP in the plans timeframe. Met target.
School-Age Mainstream. 82% of all children (neurotypical children with hearing loss and neurodivergent children with hearing loss) achieved at least 80% of the deaf-and-hard-of hearing goals in their IEP in the timeframe specified in the plan. Exceeded target.
How we listen
Seeking feedback from people served makes programs more responsive and effective. Here’s how this organization is listening.
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How is your organization using feedback from the people you serve?
To identify and remedy poor client service experiences, To identify bright spots and enhance positive service experiences, To make fundamental changes to our programs and/or operations, To inform the development of new programs/projects, To strengthen relationships with the people we serve, To understand people's needs and how we can help them achieve their goals
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Which of the following feedback practices does your organization routinely carry out?
We collect feedback from the people we serve at least annually, We take steps to get feedback from marginalized or under-represented people, We aim to collect feedback from as many people we serve as possible, We take steps to ensure people feel comfortable being honest with us, We engage the people who provide feedback in looking for ways we can improve in response, We act on the feedback we receive, We tell the people who gave us feedback how we acted on their feedback
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What challenges does the organization face when collecting feedback?
It is difficult to get the people we serve to respond to requests for feedback, It is difficult to find the ongoing funding to support feedback collection, Staff find it hard to prioritize feedback collection and review due to lack of time
Financials
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Operations
The people, governance practices, and partners that make the organization tick.
Connect with nonprofit leaders
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- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
- Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
- Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations
Want to see how you can enhance your nonprofit research and unlock more insights? Learn More about GuideStar Pro.
Connect with nonprofit leaders
SubscribeBuild relationships with key people who manage and lead nonprofit organizations with GuideStar Pro. Try a low commitment monthly plan today.
- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
- Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
- Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations
Want to see how you can enhance your nonprofit research and unlock more insights? Learn More about GuideStar Pro.
John Tracy Center
Board of directorsas of 05/15/2024
Mr. Eric Crabtree
Causeway Capital Management LLC
Mark E. Brubaker
Capital Group
Eric P. Crabtree
Causeway Capital Management LLC
Paul E. Slye
Pinnacle Capital Management Services, LLC
Anzor Zurhaev
Crimson IT Services, Inc.
Gaston Kent
Northrop Grumman Corporation (Retired)
James Daues
Farmers Insurance (Retired)
Maria Manotok
Capital Group
Michael D. Barker
Barker Pacific Group
Kimberly Basile
Prodigy Chiro-Care and Spinal Rehabilitation
Elizabeth Larson
Link Family Enterprise
Jeffrey Newman
IDS Real Estate
Qumars Montazeri
Goldman & Sachs Co.
Merryl Werber
Kilroy Realty Corporation
Aaron Krass
Adobe
Board leadership practices
GuideStar worked with BoardSource, the national leader in nonprofit board leadership and governance, to create this section.
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Board orientation and education
Does the board conduct a formal orientation for new board members and require all board members to sign a written agreement regarding their roles, responsibilities, and expectations? Yes -
CEO oversight
Has the board conducted a formal, written assessment of the chief executive within the past year ? No -
Ethics and transparency
Have the board and senior staff reviewed the conflict-of-interest policy and completed and signed disclosure statements in the past year? Yes -
Board composition
Does the board ensure an inclusive board member recruitment process that results in diversity of thought and leadership? Yes -
Board performance
Has the board conducted a formal, written self-assessment of its performance within the past three years? No
Organizational demographics
Who works and leads organizations that serve our diverse communities? Candid partnered with CHANGE Philanthropy on this demographic section.
Leadership
The organization's leader identifies as:
Race & ethnicity
Gender identity
Transgender Identity
Sexual orientation
No data
Disability
Equity strategies
Last updated: 03/01/2022GuideStar partnered with Equity in the Center - an organization that works to shift mindsets, practices, and systems to increase racial equity - to create this section. Learn more
- We review compensation data across the organization (and by staff levels) to identify disparities by race.
- We disaggregate data by demographics, including race, in every policy and program measured.
- We seek individuals from various race backgrounds for board and executive director/CEO positions within our organization.
- We have community representation at the board level, either on the board itself or through a community advisory board.
- We help senior leadership understand how to be inclusive leaders with learning approaches that emphasize reflection, iteration, and adaptability.