[il-talk] Fw: State’s only school for blind and deaf students in jeopardy

[Deborah Kent Stein]

>From today's Tribune online:

State’s only school for blind and deaf students in jeopardy
Lack of funding means Rock Center may soon close doors
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.