[il-talk] Glenn Ellyn School for the Deaf-Blind in Jeopardy

[Bill Reif]

The below appeared today on the site chicagobreakingnews.com, which is 
afiliated with the WGN news sites.  The school could be out of money by 
mid-April.  If these children are placed at ISVI, it will certainly be a 
bad fit for them, and could overwhelm the program at ISVI.

Bill Reif


Glen Ellyn school for blind and deaf students in jeopardy
April 7, 2010 6:35 PM
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Katherine McCarrick is 14 but has the cognitive development of a 3-year-old.
The Peoria teen is blind and deaf, making her needs so profound that her 
parents
enrolled her two years ago at the Philip J. Rock Center and School in 
Glen Ellyn
-- the state's sole public facility serving children like her.
But now, the west suburban facility may be forced to close in coming 
weeks because
of the state's financial crisis.
Peggy Whitlow, chief administrator of the Rock Center, said the state 
owes the facility
about $1.7 million, or about half its annual funding, meaning she will 
not be able
to pay her staff beyond April 15.
"Our funding is basically exhausted," Whitlow said.
State officials say they are discussing alternative placements for 
Katherine and
the 13 other students who live at the facility. Opened in 1978, the Rock 
Center was
named after the former president of the Illinois State Senate, a 
Democrat from Oak
Park who played a key role in passing legislation to establish the school.
Philip J. Rock, who is now 72 and runs a law firm in
Chicago
, said he hoped his former colleagues in Springfield could come to the 
facility's
financial rescue.
"I think it would be a tragedy for it to close," he said. "They're 
making great progress
with these unfortunate people who have the double malady of being both 
blind and
deaf."
The facility offers housing to people ages 6 to 21 from across the state 
who are
legally blind and deaf, as well as severely disabled. The center also 
offers support
and training to 428 deaf and blind children, many of whom live at home 
and receive
educational services through local schools or special education co-ops, 
Whitlow said.
Students are placed at the Rock Center as part of their individual 
education programs.
They live at the center but frequently attend classes at Keeneyville 
School District
20, which contracts annually with the State Board of Education to 
administer state
funds for the center.
Many students at the Rock Center are so profoundly disabled they rarely 
go home because
their parents are unable to care for them. Maria McCarrick said she and 
her husband
bring Katherine home about once a month for visits but are simply unable 
to provide
the constant care and attention their daughter needs full time while 
working and
raising their 7-year-old son.
"The demands of caring for a child who is multiply impaired is very 
difficult," Maria
McCarrick said. "It's an enormous burden."
The Rock Center is one of many schools being stung by a recession that 
has diminished
state revenue and property taxes, forcing numerous teacher layoffs. But 
while traditional
school districts are able to fall back on property tax revenue for 
funding, the Rock
Center relies entirely on the state.
Illinois comptroller spokesman Alan Henry said the office is doing its 
best to pay
all state schools what they are owed.
"The current bill backlog exceeds $4.5 billion, and a backlog that large 
makes it
very difficult to address even emergency situations," he said.
Matt Vanover, a spokesman for the Illinois State Board of Education, 
said the agency
is working to find additional funding to keep the Rock Center open for 
the rest of
the fiscal year. Vanover said his agency would not allow the students to 
be sent
anywhere without making sure their individual programs are going to be met.
"They can't just be sent home," Vanover said.
The agency is also discussing other scenarios in the event the Rock 
Center is forced
to close, he said.
Those scenarios include moving students to other state facilities, such 
as the Illinois
School for the Visually Impaired and the Illinois School for the Deaf, 
both in Jacksonville,
about 30 miles west of Springfield. Both facilities are run by the 
Illinois Department
of Human Services.
But Maria McCarrick said the unique communication challenges her 
daughter faces are
unlikely to be met at a school designed to support just one handicap. In 
addition,
she worries that Katherine may lose the friends she has made at the Rock 
Center.
"She's a very social girl," she said. "Her peer group is going to go away."
Katherine also suffers from mental retardation and Infantile Refsum 
disease, a rare
genetic disorder that damages the brain and affects motor skills.
Her mother called the Rock Center "the one bright light in deaf-blind 
education in
Illinois."
"And I'm sick that it might go away," Maria McCarrick said.
--
Gerry Smith