I am the mother of a 5 yr. old daughter who was born with a moderatly-severe bilateral hearing loss at birth. She has been enrolled in the Oral program run through the ISD for all the children of our county through the public school system since the age of 14 mos. We chose this program for the same reasons you mentioned. She is very smart and does well with her hearing aids. She has made REMARKABLE PROGRESS over the last few years and continues to do so. In addition, I have taken 3 semesters of ASL at college and have been teaching that to her as well as her father and her 2 brothers at home. While many ask us why we just don't put her in the Total (sign) program, we prefer she develop as much speech as possible because no matter what anybody tells you - it's still a hearing world. In addition, she enjoys signing and we encourage her to say the word when she signs it. Many children are verbally bilingual. I look at this a an advantage for her because another bottom line - she is HOH and will be part of deaf communities, groups, and friendships where she can communicate easily with those who use sign alone.
Anyway, to answer your question. The first thing you absolutely MUST DO, is spend a day in the school/classroom and familiarize yourself with the cirriculum, the teacher, the atmosphere,etc. Our daughter has been blessed with the best teacher, teacher asst., and speech-hearing therapists. We also found that visiting the children in the middle and high school programs was enlightening - these kids were smart, happy, and had great plans for their futures no matter what degree of hearing loss they had. Her teacher(s) have taught us teaching techniques for her at home which we practice and learn about everyday. The school has been instrumental in her language developement. BE SURE YOU EXPLORE ALL OPTIONS BEFORE MAKING A DECISION! If you have any more questions, or just want to talk, feel free to e-mail me.