[CT-NFB] Testimony Needed to Ensure BESB Funding! (With an Important Tip for Online Submission)

Thu Feb 27 01:54:05 UTC 2025

Fellow Members and Friends,

Just a reminder that the hearing is this Friday, February 28. Your testimony
to increase fudning for BESB is important and needed. And as a tip for those
choosing to submit testimony online: the online submission form is not fully
accessible. At least one way it's not accessible is that it doesn't show you
errors of going over character counts; this includes the "organization:
field which only allows 32 characters. You will not be able to fit "National
Federation of the Blind of Connecticut" here; if you wish to highlight a
position in the affiliate please just do so in your written testimony which
you can input into the form. Again, feel free to use the model I prepared or
use your own.

Our Connecticut legislative session is in full swing. And now is the time to
ask our legislators for the additional funding that the Bureau of Education
and Services for the Blind needs in order to continue serving our blind
children at the level it has historically. What the Governor asks for in his
budget is not enough; it only covers inflation and cost of living increases.
Without additional funding BESB will have to cut services, placing the
responsibility for them on less experienced local schools.

If you are able to make it to the Capitol on Friday, February 28, your
in-person testimony will be powerful. We can also participate by Zoom.
Either way, you must sign up to testify by February 27 at 3:00 P.M. Just as
powerful would be your written testimony, and it has the advantage of not
being limited to just three minutes. Below the time and location, webcast
information, and information on how to register to testify and also
submitten written testimony is a draft of what you could say. Your written
testimony is an opportunity to include your own story, which often is
powerful with our legislators.

--

friday, february 28, 2025

The Appropriations Committee will hold a public hearing on Friday, February
28, 2025 at 10:00 A.M. in Room 2C of the LOB and via Zoom.  The public
hearing can be viewed via  <https://www.cga.ct.gov/ytAPP> YouTube Live.  In
addition, the public hearing may be recorded and broadcast live on
<https://ct-n.com/> CT-N.com.   Individuals who wish to testify must
register using the
<https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_DQt7rdktR3Wa5RN1leqtUA> On-line
Testimony Registration Form.  The registration form must contain the name of
the person who will be testifying.   A unique email address must be provided
for each person registered to speak.  Registration will close on Thursday,
February 27, 2025 at 3:00 P.M.  Speaker order of approved registrants will
be listed in a randomized order and posted on the Appropriations Committee
website on Thursday, February 27, 2025 at 6:00 P.M. under Public Hearing
Testimony.  If you do not have internet access, you may provide testimony
via telephone.  To register to testify by phone, call the Phone Registrant
Line at 860-240-0033 to leave your contact information.  Please submit
written testimony using the  <https://www.cga.ct.gov/APP/tmy.htm> On-line
Testimony Submission Form.   The Committee requests that testimony be
limited to matters related to the items on the Agenda.  Speakers will be
limited to three minutes of testimony.  The Committee encourages witnesses
to submit a written statement and to condense oral testimony to a summary of
that statement.  All public hearing testimony, written and spoken, is public
information.  As such, it will be made available on the CGA website and
indexed by internet search engines.

--

[Your Name]

[Your Address]

Testimony for Connecticut Legislature, Appropriations Committee Public
Hearing Regarding Human Services Agencies

I am testifying regarding The Bureau of Education and Services for the Blind
(BESB) within the Department of Aging and Disability Services, specifically
BESB's children's services. In summary, additional funding above and beyond
what is in the Governor's budget is needed in order for BESB to continue
providing services at the high level that it has historically and is
currently. The complexity of additional disabilities that many blind
children served by BESB have often cannot fully be captured in the scoring
for determining a BESB teacher's appropriate workload.

[Please insert your personal background, for example: "I am the parent of a
blind child who." or "I grew up blind and am now an advocate for and mentor
to blind children, and I benefited from." or "I myself am served by BESB
children's services, and access technology that is valuable to me
includes.".]

BESB has the greatest expertise and experience in educating blind children
in our state, providing what none of our 169 towns can provide individually.
Though the Governor has asked for increased funding for BESB, his ask only
covers inflation and cost of living adjustments. It does not account for the
additional needs of many children that BESB serves that have complex
disabilities in addition to being blind.

In the slightly longer term, I also ask that the hiring practices for BESB's
teachers of blind students (called "education consultants") be updated to
recognize and reward already experienced teachers that may wish to come to
work for BESB. No experienced teacher with years of teaching who wishes to
move to Connecticut should have to start at the bottom of the education
consultant pay scale.

I thank you in advance for providing the additional appropriations that BESB
needs in order to continue doing its job effectively in the next several
years.

--

My thanks in advance to each of you,

Nathanael

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