 It also has a deaf department for students in preschool through grade eight and additionally a Regional Gifted Center (Options) for students in grades kindergarten through eight.The elementary school was founded in 1917 with 24 classrooms for hearing students and 15 classrooms for deaf students, after the Chicago School Board allocated US$285,000 for it in 1915 (approximately $ in current dollars).The school, one of the largest built in the Chicago Public School system at the time, was dedicated on April 1, 1918, by its name source Alexander Graham Bell, advocate of education for deaf students.