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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=purple><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal>Fellow Members and Friends,<span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'>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.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal>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.<span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>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.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>--<o:p></o:p></p><p class=bulletinsheader2 align=center style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:12.0pt;margin-left:0in;text-align:center'><b><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black;text-transform:uppercase'>friday, february 28, 2025<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class=bulletinsbody style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:6.0pt;margin-left:0in;text-align:justify;text-indent:.5in;font-variant-ligatures: normal;font-variant-caps: normal;orphans: 2;widows: 2;-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;text-decoration-thickness: initial;text-decoration-style: initial;text-decoration-color: initial;word-spacing:0px'><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>The Appropriations Committee will hold a public hearing on <b>Friday, February 28, 2025</b> at <b>10:00 A.M.</b> in <b>Room 2C</b> of the LOB and via <b>Zoom</b>. The public hearing can be viewed via <a href="https://www.cga.ct.gov/ytAPP" target="_blank" title="YouTube Live"><b><span style='color:black'>YouTube Live</span></b></a>. In addition, the public hearing may be recorded and broadcast live on <a href="https://ct-n.com/" target="_blank" title=CT-N.com><b><span style='color:black'>CT-N.com</span></b></a>. Individuals who wish to testify must register using the <a href="https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_DQt7rdktR3Wa5RN1leqtUA" target="_blank" title="On-line Testimony Registration Form"><b><span style='color:black'>On-line Testimony Registration Form</span></b></a>. 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 <a href="https://www.cga.ct.gov/APP/tmy.htm" target="_blank" title="On-line Testimony Submission Form"><b><span style='color:black'>On-line Testimony Submission Form</span></b></a>. 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.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=bulletinsbody style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:6.0pt;margin-left:0in;text-align:justify;text-indent:.5in'><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=bulletinsbody style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:6.0pt;margin-left:0in;text-align:justify;text-indent:.5in'><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>--<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal>[Your Name]<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='text-indent:.5in'>[Your Address]<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Testimony for Connecticut Legislature, Appropriations Committee Public Hearing Regarding Human Services Agencies<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>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.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>[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…”.]<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>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.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-top:12.0pt'>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.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-top:12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-top:12.0pt'>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.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=bulletinsbody style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:6.0pt;margin-left:0in;text-align:justify;text-indent:.5in'><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>--<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=bulletinsbody style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:6.0pt;margin-left:0in;text-align:justify;text-indent:.5in'><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=bulletinsbody style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:6.0pt;margin-left:0in;text-align:justify;text-indent:.5in'><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>My thanks in advance to each of you,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=bulletinsbody style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:6.0pt;margin-left:0in;text-align:justify;text-indent:.5in'><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>Nathanael<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div></body></html>