[blindlaw] Special education question

[Andrew Webb]

Dear List,

 

Is there anyone here with expertise on special education law?  I expect so,
and wonder if someone could shed some light on my question.

 

I'm helping a client with a visual impairment (not severe) who is wrangling
with his local school district in order to qualify for special education
services. As many of you probably know, eligibility categories for special
education are a matter of federal law, set forth in the IDEA (Individuals
With Disabilities Education Act).  One of those categories is for students
with visual impairments, and the full text of the eligibility standard reads
as follows:

 

Visual Impairment Including Blindness
<http://nichcy.org/disability/specific/visualimpairment/> .

.means an impairment in vision that, even with correction, adversely affects
<http://nichcy.org/disability/categories#adversely>  a child's educational
performance. The term includes both partial sight and blindness.

 

 

With regard to the client I mentioned, it's something of an open question at
this point as to whether his vision impairment really does adversely affect
his academic performance.  However, the issue is that the school district
has unilaterally drafted its own numerical cutoffs for whether students can
qualify for services on the basis of visual impairment. i.e., They have
disqualified this kid based on the fact that his vision is better than 20/70
uncorrected in his dominant eye, and that he has a visual field of more than
a certain number of degrees.  This appears blatantly illegal to me, I just
am trying to make sure I'm not missing something.  

 

There are no supplemental state guidelines (I'm in Illinois); I contacted
the State Board of Education, and they informed me that when it comes to
setting eligibility standards, they simply refer local school districts to
the federal standards.  I'm not aware of any supplemental guidelines at the
federal level, either.  As best I can tell, the text I pasted is the sum
total of the guidelines . if the student has a vision problem that adversely
affects academic performance, then the student qualifies for special ed,
simple as that.

 

So, does anyone have any specific knowledge or comments to add on this
matter?  Anyone ever incurred a similar situation?  I think it goes without
saying that this "sounds fishy" or "can't be right," so I'll ask folks to
just share feedback based on personal knowledge, research and experience if
possible.  This seems like a slam dunk to me, but of course I'm hungry for
additional perspectives if there are any.

 

Thanks in advance.

 

Regards,

Andrew Webb