[blindkid] School placement question

Sun Dec 14 20:02:35 UTC 2008

I'm following this thread with great interest, as we also face school 
placement issues for our own son.  I'm curious about something, and 
rather than being contrary, I'm truly trying to understand the reasoning 
behind the "resource room" or "resource school" sort of placement for 
blind children, and why we should embrace that placement option.  At 
first glance, our school district seems to embrace the concept of LRE... 
children with Downs Syndrome, CP, and many other needs are routinely 
placed in their home school, with full time aides, pull-out therapies, 
etc.  But children that are VI/blind or HOH/deaf are routinely placed in 
schools with resource rooms rather than their neighborhood schools.  
Why?  I'm really trying to understand this.  To me it seems to further 
the prejudice against VI/blind people (or HOH/deaf) by indicating that 
their "disability" is so severe, so unique that it can only be 
appropriately handled at a special school.  The child grows up with 
that, and the students that they would otherwise go to school with also 
know it.... they see the kid in the neighborhood, but know he has to go 
to a special school because he's blind.  When they grow up, how willing 
will those kids be to hire a blind person?  I'm sorry, I'm struggling to 
understand why this is okay.  I understand that you have to pick your 
battles in life, and that it's best not to battle with the school every 
step of the way.  Perhaps I'm tilting at windmills, but isn't this a 
battle worth fighting?

Karen Leinart

Carol Castellano wrote:
> Hi Stephanie,
>
> I guess you have also visited the classroom in your neighborhood 
> school that Kendra would be in and felt that you could picture her 
> there.  I like the idea of the neighborhood school, too.  It seems 
> that the problem you will be facing is this:  if you succeed in 
> getting Kendra placed in her neighborhood school, will the district do 
> what will be necessary for her to succeed?  Might they just do the 
> minimum and wait for her to fail so that they can prove to you that 
> she belongs in the school with the resource room?  From their 
> perspective all the work has already been done and things are all 
> ready in the other setting.  To them, a decision to place Kendra in 
> another school will seem unreasonable.  Very difficult indeed.
>
> Carol
>
> At 10:48 AM 12/12/2008, you wrote:
>> I should have stated that my husband and I did visit the resource room
>> school twice, in two different school years.  We did the same with the
>> other school we want her to attend.  Kendra's TVI was with us for the
>> most recent visits to both schools as well.  For confidentiality
>> reasons, I did not want to disclose everything but I will quote some
>> sections from a letter I wrote to the head of TVIs after our last visit
>> to the resource room school:
>>
>> 1.  We did not observe any Braille signage in the building.  Doors were
>> not labelled with the Braille room numbers, nor with the teachers'
>> names.  In order for children to develop independence in orientation and
>> mobility, it is helpful for them to have such information.
>>
>> 2.  There were no Braille books in the kindergarten classroom we
>> observed but there was a shelf of print books.  When I questioned the
>> TVI about this, I was told that the children could walk to the resource
>> room for a Braille book.  Blind children should have the same access to
>> reading materials as the sighted children have.
>>
>> 3.  The children did not initially have a Perkins brailler in their
>> classroom.  When it was commented upon, one was brought into the room.
>> Blind children should have the same access to writing materials as the
>> sighted children have.
>>
>> 4.  The two blind/visually impaired children we observed were seated
>> separately from the sighted students in the classroom.  Whether this was
>> by their choice or not, they did not seem to be integrated into the
>> classroom activities.  We observed them working with a separate teacher
>> at separate tasks.
>>
>> 5.  The most upsetting thing we observed at our last visit was a
>> para-pro placing a printed worksheet in front of a blind child, telling
>> her "here is a fence, color it in" and then placing a crayon in her hand
>> and putting the child's hand over the picture.
>>
>> When we visited (SCHOOL X) two years ago, we brought up many of these
>> concerns (lack of Braille signage and lack of Braille classroom books,
>> in particular).  It was disheartening on our second visit to see that
>> none of these issues had been addressed.  These were not surprise visits
>> so our conclusion was that the things we observed were typical of how
>> things are run at that school.  I would be happy to talk with you,
>> either in person or on the phone, if there is any other information I
>> can provide about our visits.
>>
>>
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>
>
>
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