Chapter IV
Findings and Recommendations
There is general agreement among vision education professionals and the blind community about the factors that contribute to quality educational services for children who are blind or visually impaired. The key elements include:
Based on its review of Connecticut's system for providing educational services to students with vision-related disabilities, the program review committee found each of these elements needs improvement. At present, there is no strong leadership structure to support and promote quality educational services for children who are blind or visually impaired. The committee also found state and local roles are confused.
Furthermore, Connecticut lacks some components of a full continuum of services to meet the needs of its students with vision-related disabilities. Like the rest of the nation, the state also faces a serious shortage of certified teachers of the visually impaired and other vision education professionals. Neither the State Department of Education (SDE) nor the Board of Education and Services for the Blind (BESB) have the mandate or resources to address gaps in the educational system for children who are visually impaired. No effective plan for ensuring an adequate supply of specialized educators is in place or under development by either agency.
Access to specialized services and materials by students with vision-related disabilities varies among local school districts, in part because of historic state funding policies. Overall, the program review committee found state support of vision-related education services is unfairly and inefficiently distributed.
To address the deficiencies identified during its study, the committee adopted a number of legislative and administrative recommendations. The proposed changes discussed in this chapter have four main goals:
Leadership
According to experts, quality educational services for children who are blind or visually impaired depend on a supportive administrative structure at both the state and local levels.1 States, at a minimum, need to have a mechanism for supervising local implementation of education policies concerning children with vision disabilities and evaluating outcomes. The State Department of Education (SDE), primarily through its special education bureau, carries out this role in Connecticut.
Ideally, a supportive state structure also includes centralized resources that help school districts meet the highly specialized and diverse education needs of this very low incidence disability population. An effective state resource center provides: technical advice; assistance in acquiring, developing, and coordinating services; and leadership on matters related to vision education. It can be located within a state's education department, agency for the blind, or school for the blind. In Connecticut, the Board of Education and Services for the Blind and, to some extent, SDE, provide expertise and other support for vision education to local school districts and other state agencies.
Neither agency, however, provides strong leadership for vision education in terms of proactive programming, planning, or policy development. The program review committee found few steps have been taken to address serious service gaps, including insufficient teacher services during summer months and the lack of training in the use of computer technology. Central resources offered to school districts are limited in scope as well as quantity. BESB's main support for school districts -- free services from its staff of 20 certified teachers of the visually impaired -- is not available to all towns in the state.
No state planning document outlines goals and objectives for education services for students with vision-related disabilities. Best practice guidelines, which were developed through a national project in 1999, have not been distributed to local districts. Connecticut is one of only five states that has not designated a state coordinator to follow up on the widely accepted vision education reforms of the National Agenda project described in Chapter I.
In part, leadership within the system is weak because historic practices and funding policies have confused roles. Before federal and state special education laws went into effect, the Board of Education and Services for the Blind was the principal agency for educating children who were blind or visually impaired. Now, local education agencies clearly have primary responsibility for providing a free and appropriate public education to all students in their school systems, including those with vision-related or other disabilities. However, because BESB pays a portion of the costs of special educations services for children with visual impairments and in many cases supplies a child's teacher of the visually impaired and instructional materials, some school personnel and parents believe the state agency is in charge of the student's education program.
Similarly, BESB is the state agency with expertise on vision education, but it has no authority to set policies or address unmet service needs. The state education department, which has responsibility for all education policy-making and compliance, can and has consulted with BESB staff on issues related to education services for students who are blind or visually impaired. The program review committee found, however, there is no mechanism for regular collaboration between the two agencies.
Strong leadership is further impeded by unclear statutes regarding BESB's education services mission. The agency's only statutory mandate for education services is to administer the per-child grants that reimburse towns for special education costs of students who are blind or visually impaired. In addition, the current BESB statutes contain archaic references to the agency's authority to compel a student to attend a residential school for the blind and to provide clothing and transportation allowances for needy blind or visually impaired students.
Current law does not reflect the broader role the agency has undertaken to support education services for children who are blind or visually impaired. Over the years, BESB evolved to become a comprehensive service provider agency for blind and deaf blind persons of all ages. While not mandated by law, it has continued a tradition that began in the late 1950s of providing teachers to certain school districts throughout the state. For many years it has operated as a clearinghouse for acquiring and producing Braille and large print instructional materials for any student in the state who is blind or visually impaired. BESB also is the statewide Birth to Three service provider for infants and toddlers with vision-related disabilities and their families
Agency teaching staff have taken the unofficial lead on providing professional development and training opportunities for educators and paraprofessionals who work with children with vision-related disabilities throughout the state. With the assistance of a statewide parent organization, they organize social and recreational events for children who are blind or visually impaired. None of these activities are specified in statute.
The program review committee found BESB has the potential to be the supportive state administrative structure and central resource Connecticut needs to provide quality education services for children with vision-related disabilities. To promote leadership for vision education and clarify roles within the system, the committee recommends the statutes be amended to articulate BESB's education services mission as follows: the Board of Education and Services for the Blind, in collaboration with the state department of education, shall support local school districts in meeting the educational needs of children with vision-related disabilities by providing, within available appropriations, advice, assistance, and resources, including the specialized educational services and materials children require because of their blindness or visual impairment.
The committee also concluded removing the term "board of education" from the agency's title would further clarify its actual role in the education system. When established, BESB was responsible by law for the "care and supervision" of pupils receiving instruction at the residential school for the blind in the state. With the enactment of federal and state special education laws, it no longer has authority over students or educational policies and programs. BESB has evolved to become a service agency for all persons with vision-related disabilities and its title should reflect that role. Since its current name is misleading, the program review committee recommends the Board of Education and Services for the Blind be renamed Connecticut Services for the Blind. The agency's current seven-member advisory board should also be renamed Connecticut Services for the Blind Advisory Board.
The new title underscores that BESB is a service agency; its education role is to be a resource for local school districts and other state agencies, and an advocate for vision education. It also makes clear that districts and the state board of education -- not BESB -- have primary authority over and responsibility for students and their education programs.
As lead advocate for vision education, BESB's goal should be improving the quality of and accessibility to the expanded core curriculum for students who are blind or visually impaired in Connecticut.2 Many consider Texas to have one of the best state resource centers and advocates for vision education, the Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired (TSBVI). The program review committee believes BESB should use TSBVI as its model in carrying out its new statutory mission.
The school describes itself as a partner with school districts in Texas in providing instructional and related services to students who are blind, deaf-blind, or visually impaired, including those with additional disabilities. In addition to running the state's residential school for this client population, TSBVI provides a wide range of outreach services that includes:
In addition, the school offers conferences, workshops, and targeted training for parents and various professionals working with children who are visually impaired. It develops training and professional reference materials, maintains a professional library, and makes available current research, teaching information, and resources on transition. TSBVI has an extensive website and publishes, with the state commission on the blind, a quarterly newsletter for parents and professionals.
Connecticut has no school for the blind or higher education institution with a teacher of the visually impaired preparation program to take on some or all of these leadership functions. BESB, with its staff of specialized teachers, Braille and large print materials center, and Birth to Three program, has the basic elements of a comprehensive vision education resource like TSBVI in place. In building centralized services to support vision education, it can also draw upon resources throughout the agency, such as the counselors in the vocational rehabilitation division, and rehabilitation teachers and mobility specialists from the adult services division.
Relationship with SDE. Under the committee recommendation, BESB's leadership role for vision education is strengthened but the authority to make and enforce all education policy continues to rest with the state board of education and its administrative arm, the education department. The two agencies still need to work together to develop and implement policies and programs that promote quality education services for children who are blind or visually impaired. Staff from both agencies meet now on an informal basis from time to time to work on joint projects, but there is no formal link between BESB and SDE.
The program review committee found there have been occasions where initiatives to improve vision education services have been undertaken by one of the agencies without participation by the other. For example, the education department recently developed and issued a request for proposals from higher education institutions for recruiting and training new teachers of the visually impaired without involving any BESB staff in the process. Similarly, BESB did not consult the education department when it adopted its "Learning Media Assessment (LMA),"a tool teachers of the visually impaired can use to assess which learning media (e.g., regular print, large print, Braille, or auditory.) best meets the needs of a student with vision-related disabilities. BESB also adopted its standardized form teachers of the visually impaired can use to track individual student progress in key compensatory skill areas without SDE input.
To facilitate collaboration between the agencies in the future, the program review committee recommends a representative from the special education staff of the state education department, designated by the commissioner of education, be added as an ex officio member to the BESB advisory board. While the BESB board is only an advisory body, its meetings provide a forum for regularly discussing vision education issues and an opportunity for the two agencies to formally share information.
The committee also recommends that the Board of Education and Services for the Blind and State Department of Education work together to develop and issue to local districts, policy and best practices guidelines related to education services for children with vision-related disabilities. Promoting quality education services at the local level requires a strong partnership between the two state agencies. BESB has the expertise to design and assess educational policies and programs for children who are blind or visually impaired and SDE has the authority to oversee local implementation of educational mandates.
One of the first items the department should endorse and notify all districts about is the educational service guidelines for blind and visually impaired students published by the National Association of State Directors of Special Education in 1999. Following these nationally recognized best practices, which were developed by experts and organizations that serve persons with vision-related disabilities, can help districts provide quality education services. SDE notified local districts about guidelines for deaf and hard-of-hearing students developed by the same organization in 1994.
The department should also recommend local school districts require their staff to use BESB's learning media assessment tool and student skill tracking form for all students with vision-related disabilities. Both mechanisms can help ensure students receive services appropriate to their needs and promote accountability for education outcomes.
Professional development and training is another key area for cooperation. At present, BESB is the main source of in-service training on vision education for teachers, other professionals, and paraprofessionals who work with students who are blind or visually impaired. The state education department through its Special Education Resource Center (SERC) provides training, professional development, technical assistance, and resources to local schools related to all special education populations and programs. The two agencies recently arranged a series of regional workshops on teaching methods for multiply disabled children, with BESB supplying the training experts and SERC taking care of administrative details. Jointly sponsored training programs are an efficient use of both agency's resources and should be continued and expanded.
Advisory council. During the last legislative session, an advisory council on Braille literacy was created to focus attention on issues related to the ability of children who are blind or visually impaired to read and write. The program review committee found the new council, with some modifications of its mandate, can also assist BESB in fulfilling its leadership role for vision education.
The advisory council's current duties, while centered on issues of Braille literacy, already encompass broader aspects of educational services for children who are blind or visually impaired, such as caseloads, teacher qualifications, and state funding policies. The review and assessment function the council is intended to perform for Braille services could be expanded to all education services provided to children who are blind or visually impaired. The result would be greater oversight and accountability for the whole system.
To accomplish this purpose, the program review committee recommends the Braille literacy advisory council's responsibilities be amended to include evaluating and reporting on: the array of education services available to children with vision-related disabilities; access to services, materials, equipment and technology; and outcomes of the services provided.
The committee also recommends the name of the council be changed to the Advisory Council on Vision Education Services. Finally, it is recommended the membership of the council be increased to include a parent of a child who is blind or visually impaired and has additional disabilities and a teacher who specializes in providing vision-related education services to multiply disabled students.
Access to Services and Materials
An effective system for educational services for children who are blind or visually impaired ensures students have ready access to qualified teachers as well as the materials and equipment required for their educational program. The program review committee found inequities as well as inefficiencies in the way specialized teacher services are supplied under the current system. In addition, while the state has taken some steps to address what is becoming a critical shortage of teachers of the visually impaired, more efforts are needed to secure an adequate supply in the future.
The committee also found the materials resource center operated by BESB provides a valuable service to students throughout the state but is understaffed and unable to meet current demand. The agency's capacity to provide technical assistance and support on adaptive technology, including specialized computer equipment and software, is limited. Administration of the agency's Birth to Three program has been cited for deficiencies by the Department of Mental Retardation (DMR). The program review committee concluded a number of changes to the current system, discussed in detail below, are needed to improve access to education services and materials by children who are blind or visually impaired.
Teacher services. BESB employs certified teachers of the visually impaired and provides their professional services to school-age children in about 100 of the state's 169 towns. Agency teachers also serve preschool children anywhere in the state. BESB teachers additionally staff the agency's Birth to Three program, which provides early intervention services to infants and toddlers with vision-related disabilities and their families statewide.
In supplying school districts with the professional services they need to meet the special education needs of students with a low incidence disability, BESB is performing the functions of a regional education service center (RESC). Like a RESC, it recruits, supervises, and supports the training needs of specialized teachers and makes their services available to districts who need personnel on an itinerant basis. Unlike a RESC, however, BESB does not charge districts any fee for its teacher services.
At existing staffing levels, BESB is unable to supply free personnel to every district that needs the services of a teacher of the visually impaired. Current assignments of BESB are based on historic practice rather than district needs and resources. The committee found, as a result of these factors, a significant state resource for vision education is unfairly and inefficiently distributed to local districts.
The program review committee concluded BESB should continue to offer the services of its vision education professionals to local districts provided the unfairness of the current system is addressed. To make access to BESB teaching staff equitable, the program review committee recommends the agency provide its teachers to districts on a fee-for-service basis starting in the 2002-03 school year.
The committee also found the agency needs to address the lack of access to its teacher services during the summer months, especially for clients of the Birth to Three program. At present, all teachers work under contract that is for the period September 1 to June 30. While it is not likely the entire teaching staff is needed all year, some coverage is required for the summer months. Teachers of the visually impaired must be available to conduct timely assessments of all newly referred children and to consult whenever a student's early intervention or special education program needs modification. In addition, the lack of continuous service is a potential federal compliance issue for BESB's Birth to Three program.
The program review committee recommends BESB pursue contract revisions to ensure the availability of teachers of the visually impaired services all 12 months of the year during its next collective bargaining negotiations. It is further recommended the agency make teacher services available year-round for its Birth to Three program, through collective bargaining negotiations or other arrangements, before June 30, 2001.
Under the committee recommendation, BESB teacher services would be available for a fee to any district in the state. This would eliminate current inequities in state financial support for vision education among towns as districts would no longer receive free teachers from the state. Ensuring the expertise of a teacher of the visually impaired is available year-round will mean better access to services for all children and address noncompliance issues in the agency's Birth to Three program. This change is needed whether or not a fee-for-service structure is adopted.
The change to fee-for-service system will mean new expenses for many local school districts. Costs could be significant in a few cases. There are at least a dozen towns with 10 or more students who are blind or visually impaired that now have free BESB teachers. They may need to hire or contract for the services of a full-time teacher of the visually impaired whose salary costs alone could range from about $40,000 to over $60,000 per year. Changes in state vision education funding policies recommended by the committee in the following section could relieve some of this new financial burden.
Fairness could be achieved by providing free teacher services to all districts but this option is not recommended. First, it would entail a significant new expense in the state budget. Second, all teacher of the visually impaired services would be subject to the state budget constraints that create problems for BESB now. The agency has too few teachers to adequately meet current demand but additional staff positions cannot be authorized. As a result, BESB teacher caseloads are high and service hours provided to individual students are dictated by availability of personnel.
This approach also is inconsistent with the state policy about local control over education services. In addition, a number of complicated labor issues would need to be negotiated if the state were to absorb teachers now employed by local districts. Finally, there are districts, according to committee survey results, that do not want state teachers working in their school systems but outside of their control even if they are free.
The committee supports retaining teaching staff within BESB for several reasons. The main reason is the agency needs the expertise of experienced vision education professionals to effectively carry out its mission as central resource for technical advice, assistance, and advocacy. Given the shortage of teachers of the visually impaired, it seems efficient to also continue to make their services available for direct instruction of students.
Furthermore, the services provided by BESB teachers are generally well-regarded, according to testimony the committee received during its public hearing, responses to the committee survey of special education directors, and committee staff interviews conducted with parents, educators, and interest groups. Nearly all the teachers have advanced degrees, most have many years of experience, and all BESB teachers participate in agency-sponsored professional development and training programs. Outside of a residential school for the blind, it is unusual to have a large group of teachers working together, supervised by vision education professional, and able to develop specialties and share expertise.
It is possible one or more regional education service centers could, over time, replicate the level and scope of teacher services now at BESB. A comprehensive array of education services for deaf and hearing impaired children is available through the Soundbridge auditory oral program operated by CREC, the regional education service center for the central area of the state. In addition to providing teachers of the hearing impaired to school districts on a fee basis, Soundbridge offers the services of other professionals such as audiologists and therapists, assessment services, equipment maintenance services, parent programs, and Birth to Three services. The Soundbridge model could be applied to vision education services. However, to ensure continuity of services and retain a core of expertise, the program review committee found it makes sense to maintain a direct service role within BESB at the present time.
Therefore, the program review committee recommends the statutes be revised to authorize the agency to provide teachers of the visually impaired services on a fee-for-service basis to any school district in state. Legislation should also be enacted to establish a self-sustaining account to receive fees from districts and pay costs related to supplying teacher services.
The committee believes making BESB function more like a regional education service center can correct current inequities and increase the availability of teacher services to all districts. In addition, changing the structure for providing agency services can also free up existing General Fund resources for other agency purposes that support quality education services for children who are blind or visually impaired.
Expanded centralized services. The program review committee found BESB, at present, has few resources and little funding flexibility to support its statewide technical assistance, training, and advocacy functions. Most of its professional development and program development activities are carried out by the teaching staff in addition to direct service responsibilities. At present, BESB in-service training sessions are the only opportunities for continuing education on visual impairment issues offered in the state. The agency's ability to meet statewide training and professional development needs is constrained by the heavy teaching caseloads of its staff.
The agency's Birth to Three Program is coordinated by one of the BESB preschool teachers with limited administrative support. DMR, the state's Birth to Three lead agency, has criticized BESB for failing to: make timely referrals; submit required monitoring data; be included in the program's third-party billing system; and participate in free service coordination training.
The state parents' association for the blind and visually disabled has taken the lead on outreach efforts by publishing a newsletter, compiling program resource directories, and organizing parent workshops and conferences. An agency web page is planned but there is no internet access to BESB education service resources at present.
The agency's materials resource center has a lending library of 15,000 items and has received more than 1,500 requests for adapted materials such as Braille and large print books so far this school year. Until the current fiscal year, it was staffed by one person and a team of volunteers. One clerical assistant position was recently assigned to work with the center's Braille coordinator. The center is unable to fulfill all requests for its transcription services and the coordinator has insufficient time to train additional volunteers.
Technology expertise among the BESB teaching staff is limited. At this time, one specialist is available on a contract basis to provide technical support on computer hardware and software matters for all of the nearly 1,200 children with vision-disabilities BESB serves.
The annual salary and fringe benefit costs of teacher positions included in the agency's General Fund budget total about $1.6 million for the current fiscal year. Depending on the number of positions transferred to the self-sustaining account under the fee-for-service model proposed above, a significant amount of this money could be made available to: 1) expand BESB's material resources center services; 2) establish new technology services; 3) augment training, outreach, and parent support efforts; and 4) strengthen administration of the agency's Birth to Three Program. The program review committee recommends the state funds formerly allocated for BESB teacher costs be used to augment the agency's centralized resources and support services.
Supply of qualified teachers. An adequate supply of specially trained and appropriately certified teachers is essential to providing quality education services to children who are blind or visually impaired. The program review committee found the severe shortage of teachers of the visually impaired in Connecticut and nationwide has strained the resources of BESB's teaching staff and limited student access to instructional services throughout the state.
Responses to the committee's survey of local special education directors indicated many districts have had difficulty obtaining the services of certified teachers of the visually impaired over the past five years. Survey responses and testimony presented at the committee's public hearing revealed several districts have had inadequate or no teacher services available for their students with vision-related disabilities for an entire school year.
Both the state education department and BESB are taking steps to increase the state's supply of teachers of the visually impaired. As noted above, SDE is using federal grant funds to develop programs at Connecticut institutions of higher education to train teachers of students with visual impairments. Staff at BESB are involved in effort by several northeast states to establish a regional collaborative teacher preparation program with "distance learning" opportunities through the University of Massachusetts at Boston . In addition, one of the duties of the new Braille literacy advisory council, whose members include SDE and BESB representatives, is to develop a plan to attract qualified teachers of the visually impaired. The department and BESB are also required to report on efforts concerning the certification of teachers of the visually impaired to the council and the legislature.
The program review committee concluded these various initiatives, if effectively coordinated, can begin to address the state's teacher shortage problem. The previous committee recommendations to add an education department representative to the BESB board and to expand the role of the advisory council should promote interagency communication and cooperation on this and other vision education issues. However, it is also recommended SDE officially include BESB education staff in planning, evaluating, and monitoring the activities undertaken through its federal teacher training grant project.
The committee further recommends the department, in consultation with BESB, determine the number of teachers and other personnel, such as orientation and mobility specialists, that are required to meet the education needs of children with vision-related disabilities in Connecticut at present and over the next ten years and report its results to the advisory council by July 1, 2001. A long-range needs assessment should be the basis for the state's strategies for ensuring children who are blind or visually impaired have ready access to education services. The critical first step for effective planning has been overlooked by both state agencies to date.
Funding Process and Policy
The state, through BESB, currently reimburses local school districts for certain special education costs related to serving students with vision disabilities. Towns can receive an annual per-pupil grant capped at $6,400 for students who are legally blind or visually impaired and $11,000 for children with vision and other disabilities. Over the past five fiscal years, total state aid provided to towns through BESB averaged about $7.5 million per year. The program review committee found the present funding mechanism is not only cumbersome but ineffective in supporting the specialized services and materials needed by students who are blind or visually impaired.
Agency staff and local school officials strongly agree the way towns are reimbursed for vision-related special education costs needs to be streamlined and simplified. The current BESB funding process was a major source of complaints from local school personnel interviewed and surveyed by program review committee staff.
Although the amounts requested for reimbursement are relatively small (ranging in total from just a few thousand dollars for towns with only one or two students up to about $350,000 for a city with a large number of children with vision-related disabilities), the process involves substantial paperwork and three payment periods. There are no clear guidelines about eligible costs and payment delays are common. As of mid-November 2000, for example, BESB had not processed the payments for the town claims for reimbursement from the third period of the last school year.
The program review committee found much of the funding BESB provides to towns appears to subsidize basic special education expenses rather than the specialized instruction or materials required by students with vision-related disabilities. Most agency funding - almost 80 percent during the last school year - offsets either: 1) local expenditures for tuition at out-of-district placements, which primarily serve multiply disabled students; or 2) the salaries of district special classroom teachers and aides who work with students who are blind or visually impaired.
Much smaller portions of BESB funding are applied to education services solely required because of visual impairment such as salaries of teachers of the visually impaired, Braille and large print books, adaptive equipment and assistive technology for vision disabilities, and orientation and mobility training. The distribution of the BESB education funding for school year 1999-00 is shown in Figure IV-1. In total, direct purchases of instructional materials by BESB on behalf of school districts made up 15 percent of all expenditures while reimbursements to towns for various education expenses such as teacher salaries and out-of-district tuition payments accounted for 85 percent.
Committee staff analysis further indicates a significant amount of the state's vision education funds, both in total and on a per-child basis, is allocated to students who are non-readers. As Table IV-I shows, more than $2.6 million in BESB funding for the last school year was spent on educational services for children who are non-readers. Based on the preliminary data from the 1999-00 school year, the committee also found towns received reimbursements in amounts above $6,400 for 379 multiply handicapped students; 221 of these students (58 percent) were non-readers.
A substantial amount of agency funding supports special education services for students whose primary disability is not vision-related. Based on this finding, the program review committee considered proposing BESB grant resources be added to the appropriation made for state special education grants. In effect, state support to local districts for exceptional special education costs would not change in total although individual towns might get more or less state funding than they did under the separate BESB grant.
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Table IV-1. Estimated BESB Funding by Reading Mode: School Year 1999-00* |
|||
|
Reading Mode |
Number of Children |
BESB Funding: Mean |
BESB Funding: Sum |
|
Non-Reading |
389 |
$6,970 |
$2,634,768 |
|
Pre-Reader |
319 |
$3,423 |
$951,731 |
|
Large Print Reader |
214 |
$5,034 |
$1,001,953 |
|
Regular Print Reader |
186 |
$3,622 |
$561,495 |
|
Braille Reader |
51 |
$6,788 |
$332,612 |
|
Auditory Reader |
29 |
$7,462 |
$208,937 |
|
* Based on preliminary annual expenditure data Source of Data: LPR&IC staff analysis of BESB client database and expenditures records |
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Further, eliminating the per-child BESB grant should not impact what services, materials, or equipment a special education student with vision-related disabilities receives. Local districts are obligated by state and federal law to implement child's individual education program (IEP), providing all items called for in the document developed by the child's IEP team.
The main drawback to this proposal is it conflicts with long-standing state policy; funding would no longer be dedicated to meeting the special education needs of children who are blind or visually impaired. It has been state policy since the beginning of last century to underwrite educational programs for children with sensory disabilities. The state has supported Connecticut's residential schools for the blind and for the deaf with General Fund monies, and until 1980, even operated one special educational facility, the Mystic Oral School for the Deaf.3
The General Assembly still makes an annual appropriation (about $7.3 million at present) toward the operating expenses of the private American School for the Deaf and now provides towns with additional aid to serve children who are blind or visually impaired through the BESB grants. Many advocates fear that without dedicated funding, the unique needs of students with low incidence sensory disabilities would be overlooked by local school systems.
The program review committee believes dedicated funding can be an effective way to promote the quality and accessibility of education services for children with vision-related disabilities. However, to achieve these goals, major changes to the current funding structure are needed. First, the funding process must be simpler to administer. Second, funding policies must more flexible and directed at the unique education needs of students who are blind or visually impaired.
Therefore, the program review committee recommends the current statutory provisions on state payment of special education costs for blind or visually impaired children be repealed and replaced with language establishing a grant program for vision-related education services to be administered by the Board of Education and Services for the Blind. The grant program shall be funded at an amount equal to $6,400 times the number of blind and visually impaired children in the state as determined by BESB.
BESB shall use the state funding to provide eligible students who are blind or visually impaired with the specialized instructional materials, including Braille and large print books, and adaptive equipment and technology they require to access their education programs. The state shall also annually provide a $2,000 entitlement to districts for the special education costs of each child who is blind or visually impaired.
The remaining balance of grant funding shall be used to provide supplemental funding to reimburse local school districts on a proportional basis for the costs of consultation and instructional services provided by teachers of the visually impaired and other services related to providing expanded core curriculum for blind or visually impaired students including but not limited to orientation and mobility training and independent living skills. Only districts that have expended an amount greater than the total amount of entitlement funding received on educational services required for vision-related disabilities shall be eligible to apply for supplemental funding.
The Board of Education and Services for the Blind, in consultation with the State Department of Education, shall develop a proposed statutory funding formula for the grant program and a description of all expenses eligible for funding to present to the legislature for its consideration by January 1, 2002. The new grant program for vision education should go into effect by January 1, 2003.
Under the committee recommendation, state aid for vision-related special education costs is focused on services students require because of blindness or visual impairment. Statutory caps on individual spending are eliminated, allowing more flexibility in the use of funds as well as simpler accounting and payment procedures. Requiring in statute the program be funded in total at $6,400 for each eligible child preserves the entitlement aspect of the current funding mechanism. At the same time, the state's financial commitment to vision-related special education is maintained at approximately its present level.
BESB is already required under P.A. 00-127 to review and report on funding patterns of the current grant program to the legislature and the Braille Literacy Advisory Council by January 1, 2002. New automated financial systems being implemented at the agency should facilitate this project, which should also produce the data needed to design a new funding formula.
Making the grant program easy to administer should be a priority as BESB develops related policies and procedures. There should be a simple one-step application and payment process, clear instructions, and concise written guidelines for districts to follow. Funding policies should promote flexibility, allowing districts to pool grant monies and to assign them to educational service providers.
The proposed funding mechanism gives priority to instructional materials and adaptive equipment, which is a continuation of current BESB policy. However, without per-child caps on spending, the agency has the ability to provide all books and complete computer systems to students in accordance with their education needs. BESB could buy certain equipment in bulk, which should reduce purchasing costs and simplify technical support, maintenance and repairs. Opportunities to share equipment and recirculate instructional materials among students would also be facilitated.
Reimbursement for specialized teacher services was by far the top funding priority among the approximately 100 district special education directors who responded to a program review committee survey. Under the new grant, towns would continue to be reimbursed for expenses related to certified teachers of the visually impaired however they are employed by the district. New costs some districts will incur because of the prior committee recommendation to eliminate free BESB teachers could be offset, to a degree, by the entitlement and supplemental funding sources.
The proposed funding mechanism could result in towns receiving significantly less aid for tuition costs of out-of-district educational placements for students who are blind or visually impaired and have other disabilities. Only placements at vision-related educational programs should be eligible for supplemental funding under the new grant program. However, towns with students who require expensive out-of-district placements generally receive state aid toward these costs under the special education equity and "catastrophic" costs grants administered by the state education department.
Outcomes and Strategic Planning
In its position statement on measuring success, the State Board of Education points out defining standards, measuring success, and reporting results are important steps in the process of improving education. Assessing student performance and monitoring progress toward education goals promotes accountability. Measuring outcomes also permits informed decisions on allocation of resources, programming priorities, and new initiatives.
How well the current system for serving students with vision-related disabilities achieves education goals is unknown at this time. Neither BESB nor the state education department track educational outcomes for this population. The program review committee found no data are compiled on drop-out rates, post-graduation employment rates, or literacy rates among students with vision-related disabilities. While a number of students who are blind or visually impaired participate in statewide standardized testing (the Connecticut Mastery Tests and the Connecticut Academic Achievement Test), results have not been reviewed and compared with other groups or state goals.
The program review committee recommends the State Department of Education, in consultation with the Board of Education and Services for the Blind, establish, monitor, and report on outcome measures for educational services to children who are blind or visually impaired. Monitoring results should be included as part of the department's annual report on special education beginning in 2002.
Gathering and analyzing outcome data will allow education professionals and policymakers to better assess the effectiveness of various instruction methods, materials, and assistive technology. The analysis can also help BESB and the education department develop guidelines for services in such areas as optimal teacher caseload size and appropriate amounts of direct instruction time for students who are blind or visually impaired.
BESB and education department, aware of the need to measure outcomes of special education services, have initiated projects to assess the performance of students with vision-related disabilities in the future. As described earlier, BESB recently developed a system for monitoring individual student progress in specific skill areas. Under the 1997 revisions to the federal Individuals With Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), all states must expand efforts to assess special education students and report on their progress. In response, SDE is establishing a system that will build on current statewide testing of academic performance and include a new alternative assessment mechanism for special education students who are not in academic programs.
Strategic plan. For the first time in many years, BESB is engaged in an agency-wide planning effort. With the assistance of the Department of Administrative Services, it is developing a strategic plan for integrating and enhancing its continuum of services for all clients, including children. The process is in the initial stages and no firm schedule or methodology has been adopted.
A comprehensive blueprint for carrying out the agency's education mission is critical to quality services, particularly if BESB is made the lead advocate and central resource for vision education as recommended previously. The program review committee recommends the portion of the agency's strategic plan concerning education services for children who are blind or visually impaired be completed by July 1, 2001, and be updated annually. The strategic plan should incorporate and specifically address the outcome measures developed under the prior recommendation.
In preparing its strategic plan for vision education services, BESB should consult with the state department of education, the Braille Literacy Advisory Council and representatives of the many stakeholders in the system such as parent groups, professional associations, and organizations that serve the blind. To facilitate discussion and broad participation during the initial planning process, the program review committee recommends BESB, with the assistance of the State Department of Education, arrange for the National Association of State Directors of Special Education (NASDSE) to conduct one of its training seminars on improving educational services for the sensory impaired in Connecticut.
NASDSE is the organization that developed the education service guidelines for students who are blind or visually impaired. Its training seminar is intended for teachers and school administrator from regular and special education, related professions, and community and parent groups. The seminar covers a number of topics useful for strategic planning including federal and state policies and promising practices in education service delivery. Staff in the SDE special education bureau have made an initial contact with the seminar organizer and the department is willing to absorb costs related to the seminar in its SERC training budget.
1 See: Pugh G.S. and Erin, J., eds. Blind and Visually Impaired Students: Educational Service Guidelines. National Association of State Directors of Special Education in cooperation with Hilton/Perkins Program. Watertown, MA.: Perkins School for the Blind, 1999.
2 As described in Chapter II, the expanded core curriculum for children with vision related disabilities incorporates the following: compensatory or functional academic skills; social interaction skills; recreation and leisure skills; independent living skills; orientation and mobility; use of assistive technology; visual efficiency skills; and career education.
3 Declining enrollments led the state to close the Mystic Oral School and plan alternative placements for the remaining students including other residential schools and local or regional programs for hearing impaired children. At present there is no state special education funding dedicated to auditory oral education services for children who are deaf or hearing impaired.