Chapter II

Overview of Children and Services

Children who are blind or visually impaired comprise a diverse client population. In terms of degree of vision, their sight can range from total blindness to varying degrees of low vision. For some, vision difficulties are their only disability while others have multiple disabilities that affect their educational needs. In addition, the ability to adapt to vision loss is influenced by individual factors such family support and intellectual, emotional, and physical functioning. As a result, service needs can differ greatly, even among persons with similar visual deficits, and many factors must be considered in designing appropriate educational programs. An overview of the current population of children who are blind or visually impaired in Connecticut and the existing system of education services for students with vision-related disabilities follows.

Client Population

It is estimated about 8 percent of the 17,140 persons identified as legally blind in Connecticut in FY 99 were children. Blindness is a low incidence disability among both adults and children. Information from the state special education report for 1999-2000, summarized in Table II-1 below, shows there were 356 students whose primary disability was visual impairment. They made up only 0.5 percent of all identified students with disabilities and just 0.1 percent of the total public school population.

However, there are students within other special education categories, such as multiple disability or intellectual disability, who have visual impairments. Their numbers are not tracked in Connecticut or other states at this time as federal requirements only mandate reporting according to primary disability category.

The best estimate of the total of blind and visually impaired children requiring educational services comes from the Board of Education and Services for the Blind. According to the board, it served about 1,200 blind and visually impaired children during FY 00. Over the past ten fiscal years, BESB had, on average, a caseload of 1,100 children and received 125 new referrals for its children's educational services per year.

Caseload and referral data for each year during the period FY 90 through FY 99 are summarized in Table II-2. The number of child clients grew slightly up until FY 97 and then began declining although the FY 99 caseload was still 9 percent greater than in FY 90. Some of the caseload increase is likely due to the early intervention efforts of the Birth-to-Three program, which became fully operational in the state in the early 1990s.

Most of the BESB children's services clients are school-age, as Figure II-1 shows. However, the agency also serves many preschool children with vision-related disabilities as well as infants and toddlers who participate in the Birth to Three program.

As shown in Figure II-2, about 37 percent of BESB's FY 99 school-age client population are children whose primary disability is vision-related -- legally blind (LB) or visually impaired (VI). Another 6 percent are children who are deaf-blind (DB). However, the majority of the agency's school age clients - 55 percent -- are children with multiple handicaps including blindness or vision impairment (MH).

Over the years, a very small number of school-age children whose eyesight exceeds the limits set by statute have been provided BESB services, which is permitted under the agency's enabling legislation. At present, about a dozen students are categorized as "not visually impaired" (NVI). They receive agency services primarily because their sight is in transition (e.g., becoming progressively worse and will result in legal blindness or is improving and will be greater than the statutory definition of visually impaired).

It is important to note the BESB educational services caseload does not include every child in the state who is blind or has a visual handicap. Parents may, and some do decline the agency's educational services for their children. Children with disabilities who are home-schooled are not part of the special education system and therefore do not have individual education programs. For that reason, a home-schooled child who is blind or visually impaired is not eligible under BESB regulations. Similarly, students with visual impairments who are served under Section 504 but are not receiving special education services are ineligible. (Staff from BESB and the state education department have been working on revisions to the board's regulations to expand eligibility to 504 students.) How many children are in these various situations is not known but BESB and state education department staff believe the numbers are small.

Educational Services

Children who are blind or visually impaired must be taught skills that sighted children learn through vision. Education programs for students who are blind or visually impaired generally incorporate specialized instruction in reading, writing, and other academic subjects. A variety of instructional methods and media may be employed including Braille, large print, regular print with low vision aids, devices that use computer-generated speech, or some combination of these methods.

Children with very little or no vision usually need orientation and mobility training to allow them move around independently as well as help with social interaction, personal management, independent living skills, and career education they will require to participate fully in their communities. With the rapid development of new computer equipment and software adapted for blind and visually impaired persons, technology skills and computer proficiency have become increasingly important for this student population. The specialized skills and knowledge children with vision-related disabilities need for full access to their educational programs are referred to by education professionals as the expanded core curriculum.

The array of options for providing special education services to children who are blind or visually impaired includes:

• residential schools designed for children who are blind children or multiply handicapped;
• special classes and day programs;
• resource rooms; and
• itinerant teaching services in regular education classrooms.

Today, most children in Connecticut and throughout the country whose primary disability is visual impairment are taught in regular classrooms and receive the specialized instruction they need from itinerant teachers of the visually impaired¹.

Before inclusion of children with disabilities (mainstreaming) became a goal during the 1970s with the passage of special education laws, most legally blind students attended residential schools for the blind. At present, Connecticut children who require the services of a residential school for blind and visually impaired students must go out of state. The Connecticut Institute for the Blind/Oak Hill, formerly a residential school for the blind, now only provides community-based services to children and adults with multiple disabilities, which may include mental retardation, blindness, visual impairments, physical disabilities, deafness, hearing impairments, and severe health impairments.

Braille literacy. Not every child with vision-related disabilities is taught Braille. Depending on their degree of vision loss, some students are be able to read regular print with aids or large print proficiently and do not need Braille instruction. Other children have multiple handicaps (e.g., blindness and severe mental retardation or brain injury) that limit their participation in any type of academic programming. Background information on Braille is presented in Appendix C.

Braille instruction is a controversial issue within the blind community. Some advocacy groups want to enact legislation requiring Braille instruction for all legally blind students to promote literacy. They point out children who read and write proficiently have a better chance of success in their adult lives. Others believe decisions about instruction media and methods for students who are blind must be made on a case by case basis and one approach cannot meet every child's needs. Those opposed to mandatory Braille instruction note that if a child does not want to learn Braille, he or she cannot be forced to do so.

Another position related to this issue is that literacy, not necessarily Braille literacy, should be goal for children who are blind or visually impaired. Ways to promote and measure children's reading, writing, and overall communication skills need to be developed and implemented. Literacy issues are a main focus of the recently created Braille Literacy Advisory Council mentioned in the prior chapter.

Teachers

Specially trained and certified teachers of the visually impaired are a key component of educational services to blind and visually impaired children. Depending on a child's needs and learning environment (e.g., residential school, regular classroom, etc.), the teacher's role can range from primary instructor for a visually impaired student to consultant to the student's team of education professionals. Whatever their role, it is generally agreed teachers of the visually impaired should carry out six main functions. These functions are:

• assessment and evaluation;
• learning environment;
• curriculum adaptation;
• guidance and counseling;
• administration and supervision: and
• school - community relations.

Examples of the types of activities teachers of the visually impaired may carry out in each area are summarized in Figure II-3. As the figure indicates, teachers of the visually impaired are not just Braille instructors and do not just teach children. Training a child's classroom teacher, paraprofessional, and parents so they can reinforce special vision-related educational skills and techniques is a critical role, particularly for itinerant teachers who may only work directly a child a few hours per week.

The expertise of a qualified teacher of the visually impaired is also important during the development of a special education student's Individual Education Program. Because blindness is such a low incidence disability, most teachers and other education professionals in local school district have had little experience planning and delivering services for visually impaired students. The IEP team relies on the teacher of the visually impaired to give advice and recommendations on learning media (e.g., Braille, large print), types and amounts of vision-related services, and specialized instructional materials and equipment that should be included in a student's education program.

Teacher supply. According to state education department records for the 2000-01 school year, 104 individuals were certified to teach visually impaired students in Connecticut. About half were teaching in state during the last school year; 21 were on staff at BESB and at least 28 certified teachers of the visually impaired were working for local school districts, RESCs, and private educational programs in Connecticut (e.g., Oak Hill, American School for the Deaf). The remainder could be teaching in other states or in other capacities (e.g., as regular classroom or general special education teachers states, since many educators hold more than one type of teaching certificate), or they may have left the teaching profession but maintained their certification.

In many states, local school districts are experiencing difficulties obtaining the services of qualified teachers of the visually impaired. In Connecticut, teacher caseloads are high, as the following analysis shows, and some districts have reported vacancies are becoming harder to fill. The shortage of teachers of the visually impaired is a nationally recognized problem. Recent studies predict it will become critical in the next few years, as many of the current teachers are close to retirement age and enrollment in teacher preparation programs has been declining.

Addressing the national shortage of teachers of the visually impaired and for other low incidence disability populations is a priority of the U.S. DOE. Federal funding has been made available for this purpose and the state education department received a federal grant during 2000 to develop ways of increasing the supply of teachers of the visually impaired earlier this year. Among the strategies under discussion in Connecticut and other states are alternative routes to certification and developing new higher education programs to train teachers of the visually impaired.

At present, there are no programs to train teachers of the visually impaired in any higher education institution in Connecticut. However, there is one teacher preparation program in the northeast region (currently at Boston College) and at three institutions in New York state (Columbia University, Hunter College, and Dominican College) have training programs for teachers of the visually impaired.

Analysis of current teacher workforce. As discussed earlier, local school districts are responsible for obtaining the services of qualified teachers for their students who are blind or visually impaired. In Connecticut, districts have three main ways of getting teachers for their blind and visually impaired students:

• hire teachers of the visually impaired, usually on an itinerant basis;
• purchase services of teachers of the visually impaired from a RESC; or
• receive services (at no charge) from the educational consultants employed by the Board of Education and Services for the Blind.

During the 1999-00 school year, BESB teachers served local and regional school districts covering about 100 towns as well as five state vocational technical schools and students at approximately 20 other facilities (e.g., special education programs, parochial schools, etc.). At present, the board will provide teacher services for preschool students in any district but has insufficient resources to provide every system with teachers for older students. Further, some districts prefer to hire their own teachers of the visually impaired. As the map presented in Figure II-4 shows, BESB teachers were assigned to school-age students in 99 towns during the last school year while 70 towns the districts had made their own arrangements for teachers of the visually impaired to provide services to school-age students.

Program review committee staff gathered information on the qualifications, caseloads, and duties of the BESB education consultants and the itinerant teachers employed by school districts. Analysis of the data compiled for the 20 BESB teachers and 24 itinerant teachers indicated their backgrounds and the scope of services provided are about the same for both types of teachers. All are certified teachers of the visually impaired and the majority have many years of teaching experience.

Duties. In their roles as teachers of visually impaired students, both BESB education consultants and district itinerant teachers are expected to:

• provide direct and consultative instruction, technical assistance and advice to school personnel and parents;
• participate in the IEP process;
• place orders for Braille and large print books and related special education supplies and equipment with BESB; and
• assist with arranging related services (e.g., orientation and mobility training, vocational counseling, etc.) and extracurricular enrichment activities (e.g., field trips, social events, etc.).

BESB teachers have some additional duties related to statewide activities sponsored by the board, such as professional development workshops and summer programs for the children.

Caseload. As noted earlier, district itinerant teachers do not serve preschool children so only school-age caseload information is compared to BESB teacher data. In general, the caseload mix of older students appears similar for BESB and district itinerant teachers. The caseloads of both types of teachers include multiply handicapped children, often at least one deaf-blind child, as well as children whose only disability is blindness or visual impairment. The caseloads of each of the BESB teachers who serve school-age children includes from one to three students who are Braille readers. Committee staff was unable to compile similar information on Braille readers for all district itinerant teachers.

Analysis of teacher caseload data indicated BESB education consultants for school age children generally have higher caseloads and more locations to serve than the itinerant teachers who work for local school districts. As Table II-3 shows, caseloads for BESB teachers as of August 2000 averaged 31 school-age children while the average caseload for district itinerant teachers during the last school year was 24.

All BESB education consultants serve multiple school districts. Currently, the school-age children in each BESB teacher's caseload are located in as few as three towns and as many as 24 different towns and facilities. In contrast, over half of the district itinerant teachers only work for only one or two school systems and the largest "territory" served was 14 local and regional school districts. By its nature, teaching on an itinerant basis involves travel time. When caseloads cover large geographic areas and multiple locations, travel time can be significant for both BESB and district teachers.

As noted above, local school districts typically do not provide vision-related services to preschool clients, relying instead on BESB and other outside providers. The caseloads of BESB education consultants who serve preschool children averaged 24 and ranged from 21 to 27 as of August 2000. For caseload purposes, preschool clients include children from birth to age 5 or 6 and the younger children are in the Birth to Three program.

1 Itinerant refers to the fact that the teacher travels to where the student is and is not assigned to a classroom.

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