The California School for the Deaf's Fremont campus will soon start offering a day program for adolescents with a daunting set of educational challenges: autism or severe developmental disabilities, in addition to deafness. The new class is part of a legal settlement between the school and the parents of a 15-year-old student who believe their daughter is better served in an environment where American Sign Language is used than in a program for hearing students with autism. The lawyers who represented the family hope the program, set to begin next month, will create a new resource for families that have had few good educational options for their children. The settlement exposes fault lines within the deaf education community over the best placement for students who face severe disabilities in addition to deafness. Some say flatly that the parents' battle with the school is just one example of how some schools for the deaf are trying to pick and choose which students they will serve. Other educators say schools for the deaf are being forced to accept students with expensive additional special needs who cannot truly benefit from an environment in which sign language is the primary mode of communication.