[blindkid] blindkid Digest, Vol 98, Issue 1

Richard Holloway rholloway at gopbc.org
Fri Jun 1 21:17:08 UTC 2012 

Sorry if I have overlooked the details, but I'm not super-clear on your daughter's exact situation-- age, support needs, etc. We found that there are different rules for kids from 3 to 5, as opposed to kids over 5, and in fact the rules apparently stated pre-5 services end "the year in which the child turns 5", which lead to an interesting discussion in our case, as our child turned 5 only 9 days into the cutoff for the school year. We never did determine if they had to follow the pre-5 rules for another full year though, as our situation changed when she was still 4 and we moved to a public setting at that point.

For us, we were told we would have TVI and O&M services provided in a private setting until (or through) the year our daughter turned 5, but I believe they could have required us to come to them if they had so chosen at any point. 

At least some (presumably all?) school districts are required to offer a certain amount of support to other students in private and home school settings even for kids over 5. Apparently the nature of the services is not specifically regulated. I believe it is based on a percentage of the total budget, or of a portion of the budget for the district; (perhaps a percentage of the special needs budget for the district?) For the districts in our area, the schools tend to spend that entire budget offering speech therapy, and they tend to offer this in-school, such that kids are brought into a particular school location for services, even though they may not attend the school beyond time there for the therapy.

That was the big switch we learned about-- until 5, they don't seem to be able to eliminate support for any qualified student (though services may be in-school only) after the cutoff, bind kids are seemingly on their own in our (and apparently most) district(s) if not enrolled in a public school.

I was told they offer speech service to older (5+) kids because they can help the most students possible with that particular selection and remain within budget. I can see that surely more kids could be served for the same dollar figure with weekly speech therapy than with complete TVI and O&M services. I'm not saying I agree with the policy, but I follow the logic, if indeed they have too many kids to serve and a truly fixed budget.

Now, if your district is organized differently, they might offer more services for longer, but you might have to go TO a public school for the services. The problem is, while you can do a good bit with O&M that way, any TVI needs which are tied directly to ongoing school work are going to get more complex over time.

I'm a little confused though-- if the district feels she needs to be in a small class, why can they not put her in a smaller class? That is not kist a blindness thing, it must come up from time to time... 

Based on that concern alone, if they cannot put her in a small class, I will say that I am aware of a few situations where school systems have opted to pay for alternative private school settings and/or private services when they could not provide reasonable accommodations in the least restrictive environment. Especially in settings where there are extremely few blind kids they need to support, it can actually save them money. This would not be the case for most larger school systems. Surely you can ask, and there's a small chance they will agree.

Maybe some more background info would help for other suggestions (again, sorry if I have overlooked this). 

The thing for the public schools funding is they get money for every day that each enrolled student attends. As I recall there are also additional funds for IEP kids in attendance. So yes, while we all pay taxes to support schools, the funds aren't paid out for every child on demand. They are just assigned to a given school for every child in attendance on a per-day basis. If you move to a new district, the funds effectively move with your child.

Hope that helps a bit.

On Jun 1, 2012, at 3:35 PM, Cheryl wrote:

> I have heard there are some court cases out there over this type of thing, I just expected that since our intermediate unit was providing the aide, the assistive technology and e tvi at there should be no reason for them to not accommodate us because the resources were Not funded by them but by our district instead. I guess the common answer to whether or not they follow idea comes from whether or not the school itself accepts any federal funds for reduced school lunches or etc... If they do then they have to follow idea. The district and myself feels that if she has to go to a larger class size that she will not be able to function, and I am definitely afraid that she will shut down..
> 
> Cheryl
> Sent from my iPad
> 
> On Jun 1, 2012, at 1:00 PM, blindkid-request at nfbnet.org wrote:
> 
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>> Today's Topics:
>> 
>>  1. Refusal to school (Cheryl)
>>  2. Re: Refusal to school (Jill Fass)
>>  3. Re: Refusal to school (Arielle Silverman)
>>  4. Re: Refusal to school (Richard Holloway)
>> 
>> 
>> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>> 
>> Message: 1
>> Date: Thu, 31 May 2012 17:18:36 -0400
>> From: Cheryl <cherylrenee24 at yahoo.com>
>> To: "blindkid at nfbnet.org" <blindkid at nfbnet.org>
>> Subject: [blindkid] Refusal to school
>> Message-ID: <87F3673A-2135-4A35-B041-F95AD15A188B at yahoo.com>
>> Content-Type: text/plain;    charset=us-ascii
>> 
>> My daughter was attending a private preschool, they told us she could not attend next fall because they did not have the money to provide her with the appropriate services the intermediate unit and school district had been providig an aide a tvi, and technology. They had refused several times to give us a copy of the lesson plans in order to make accommodations with her materials.
>> Cheryl
>> 
>> Sent from my iPad
>> 
>> 
>> ------------------------------
>> 
>> Message: 2
>> Date: Thu, 31 May 2012 17:28:50 -0400
>> From: Jill Fass <jillfass at gmail.com>
>> To: "Blind Kid Mailing List,    (for parents of blind children)"
>>   <blindkid at nfbnet.org>
>> Subject: Re: [blindkid] Refusal to school
>> Message-ID:
>>   <CAP8sPY5+Qpg+RtQjbDgViHa4o_ujpqNjzE1jGuB9TyDGBW-nrw at mail.gmail.com>
>> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
>> 
>> I thought private schools were not obligated to follow idea
>> 
>> On 5/31/12, Cheryl <cherylrenee24 at yahoo.com> wrote:
>>> My daughter was attending a private preschool, they told us she could not
>>> attend next fall because they did not have the money to provide her with the
>>> appropriate services the intermediate unit and school district had been
>>> providig an aide a tvi, and technology. They had refused several times to
>>> give us a copy of the lesson plans in order to make accommodations with her
>>> materials.
>>> Cheryl
>>> 
>>> Sent from my iPad
>>> _______________________________________________
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>> 
>> 
>> 
>> ------------------------------
>> 
>> Message: 3
>> Date: Thu, 31 May 2012 16:23:53 -0600
>> From: Arielle Silverman <arielle71 at gmail.com>
>> To: "Blind Kid Mailing List,    (for parents of blind children)"
>>   <blindkid at nfbnet.org>
>> Subject: Re: [blindkid] Refusal to school
>> Message-ID:
>>   <CALAYQJCwc_yQbDC_EG1a2YUiDtYxQTgmWQ9WgaGwY6SKVFbO1w at mail.gmail.com>
>> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
>> 
>> Hi Cheryl,
>> It's very sad that that happened but you will probably be better off
>> with a public school, anyway. Is there a public preschool she could
>> attend?
>> Arielle
>> 
>> On 5/31/12, Jill Fass <jillfass at gmail.com> wrote:
>>> I thought private schools were not obligated to follow idea
>>> 
>>> On 5/31/12, Cheryl <cherylrenee24 at yahoo.com> wrote:
>>>> My daughter was attending a private preschool, they told us she could not
>>>> attend next fall because they did not have the money to provide her with
>>>> the
>>>> appropriate services the intermediate unit and school district had been
>>>> providig an aide a tvi, and technology. They had refused several times to
>>>> give us a copy of the lesson plans in order to make accommodations with
>>>> her
>>>> materials.
>>>> Cheryl
>>>> 
>>>> Sent from my iPad
>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>> blindkid mailing list
>>>> blindkid at nfbnet.org
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>>>> To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for
>>>> blindkid:
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>>> 
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>> 
>> 
>> 
>> ------------------------------
>> 
>> Message: 4
>> Date: Thu, 31 May 2012 18:45:10 -0400
>> From: Richard Holloway <rholloway at gopbc.org>
>> To: "Blind Kid Mailing List,    \(for parents of blind children\)"
>>   <blindkid at nfbnet.org>
>> Subject: Re: [blindkid] Refusal to school
>> Message-ID: <1E813DFB-C24A-4BCB-9DBA-9B20BCE2829E at gopbc.org>
>> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
>> 
>> Unfortunately I think Jill is correct. We had our (blind) daughter in a private school for a couple of years but once Kendra was 5 years old, the county no longer had to provide services in the private setting. Not only that, but despite an outstanding existing relationship because our older daughter (typically sighted) had already gone to the same private school for about 7 years, and no matter that she'd enjoyed great success there, the complexities of dealing with a the needs of a blind child quickly overwhelmed the school's teachers and staff.
>> 
>> We even looked into the cost to pay for services ourselves to see if we might try to extend our time at the school. The rough figure of $20,000 a year came up (sourced directly, not through the private school) on top of private tuition for the actual school, and even if we had the funds and were willing to spend them that way, as we understood it, they could have "pulled the plug" on their end at will.
>> 
>> I know this is frustrating, but hopefully you can find a good fit in a public school setting with really good services available. Nothing is likely to work well or "feel right" when you are in a situation where the school believes it is doing you a "favor" to try and accommodate your child.
>> 
>> Good luck,
>> 
>> Richard
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> On May 31, 2012, at 5:28 PM, Jill Fass wrote:
>> 
>>> I thought private schools were not obligated to follow idea
>>> 
>>> On 5/31/12, Cheryl <cherylrenee24 at yahoo.com> wrote:
>>>> My daughter was attending a private preschool, they told us she could not
>>>> attend next fall because they did not have the money to provide her with the
>>>> appropriate services the intermediate unit and school district had been
>>>> providig an aide a tvi, and technology. They had refused several times to
>>>> give us a copy of the lesson plans in order to make accommodations with her
>>>> materials.
>>>> Cheryl
>>>> 
>>>> Sent from my iPad
>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>> blindkid mailing list
>>>> blindkid at nfbnet.org
>>>> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/blindkid_nfbnet.org
>>>> To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for
>>>> blindkid:
>>>> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/options/blindkid_nfbnet.org/jillfass%40gmail.com
>>>> 
>>> 
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>> End of blindkid Digest, Vol 98, Issue 1
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