[blindlaw] Special education question

Fri Apr 19 19:42:24 UTC 2013

Andrew,
I do some spec ed advocacy in New Mexico.  Its very common in NM as well for
school districts, even our own school for the blind, to assist the school
districts in ensuring that many low vision students are cut off from
services. This has included even students that are legally blind (20/200 or
worse).  

I recommend three steps (1) obtain a functional vision evaluation from
someone you know is licensed/qualified and you can trust to thoroughly
determine the student's impairments, inability to read, or function, etc.;
(2) write a letter to the Director of Special Education for that school
district, citing ;laws they are violating, recommending the accommodations
the student needs, and threatening to file a grievance with state if the
school district does not provide needed services within set deadline, ie. 30
days (copy the letter to superintendent, student's principal, and state
education agency; and (3) if district does not comply by deadline, file a
grievance with your state department of education, after obtaining the
evaluation.

You are right that the standard in IDEA is based on whether the student can
function, learn, read, etc.  You can email me directly at law at cordovaesq.com
or call if you have more questions.

Sincerely,
Marina A. Cordova
Attorney at Law
1000 Cordova Place, # 234
Santa Fe, NM 87505
Office (505) 467-8395
Fax (505) 467-8746
PLEASE NOTE MY CHANGE OF EMAIL ADDRESS TO: law at cordovaesq.com

-----Original Message-----
From: blindlaw [mailto:blindlaw-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Andrew Webb
Sent: Thursday, April 18, 2013 2:19 PM
To: 'Blind Law Mailing List'
Subject: [blindlaw] Special education question

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

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