[nfbmi-talk] ohio get more aph funding

[joe harcz Comcast]

Ohio gets more funds for teaching blind

By

Kyle Nagel,

Staff Writer 12:30 AM Thursday, July 5, 2012

 

Ohio school districts and learning centers for students with disabilities are reporting more blind and visually impaired students — an increase driven by

an effort to ensure all vision-impaired students get access to federally funded books and education materials.

 

Ohio’s share of the federal quota funding that helps districts pay for braille, audio and other materials increased from $429,039 in 2007 to $561,475 in

2011. The increase coincided with a 14 percent boost in the number of Ohio students counted in the federal quota system, which allots an amount per student

to help pay for materials.

 

The funds — last year, $340.29 per student — are placed in an account for orders to the American Printing House for the Blind in Louisville, Ky.

 

The funds are important for districts because a relatively low number of blind or visually impaired students and the high cost for materials can make it

difficult for districts to fund them, officials said.

 

The Ohio Department of Education’s Office for Exceptional Children said the boost in students and funds signals the department’s increasing awareness and

efforts to count eligible students in the state. Some districts would not report students as visually impaired if they had multiple disabilities, while

others did not consider the process worth the effort to count just a student or two, said Wendy Stoica, assistant director for specialized services and

procedural safeguards for the Office for Exceptional Children.

 

Individual districts are responsible for counting and reporting blind or visually impaired students, whose materials are costly because of specialized procedures

and relatively small levels of production.

 

“I think this is showing we’re doing a better job,” Stoica said. ?“But I still know we’re missing kids.”

 

The federal quota system was created as part of the Act to Promote the Education of the Blind in 1879. Since, the American Printing House for the Blind

has served as the national source for the materials provided by the system.

 

APH receives about 70 percent of its revenue from the federal quota system, while last year selling $23.2 million in products. The company produced about

17.4 million braille pages, 16.7 million large-type pages and 448,000 minutes of audio recordings in 2011.

 

To qualify, a student must meet program criteria of visual impairment, including 20/200 or less vision in the better eye. The state registered 1,650 students

for the 2011-12 school year, including 286 in Butler, Champaign, Clark, Greene, Miami, Montgomery and Warren counties.

 

“We talk about low instances (of blind students), but it has a high impact on their education and social development, and it costs a lot to educate a child

who is visually impaired,” said Janie Blome, director of field services at the American Printing House for the Blind. “I think we’ve been better at identifying

students who are visually impaired and helping them receive the materials they need.”

 

The education of a blind or visually impaired student goes beyond classroom materials, said Dawn Peifer, a National Association for Parents of Children

with Visual Impairments representative for the region that includes Ohio. But those materials are particularly important in classes in which visual aids

are important, such as science.

 

“It gives them some form of access,” Peifer said. “Someone trying to verbally walk them through something that is visual can be meaningless without the

right materials.”

 

Beyond funding, states should continue to pool lightly used materials that can be used by other districts instead of buying new materials, Blome said. Last

year, APH sold $5.5 million in large-type products, $3.7 million in braille products and $2.4 million in recording products as part of its educational

aids.

 

Once students receive the materials, it’s important for teachers to know how to educate by using them, said Margaret Burley, executive director of the Ohio

Coalition for the Education of Children with Disabilities. While Ohio has increased its attention to counting students and working for funds, proper use

of the materials can lag, she said.

 

“The teachers need the skills to teach the subject matter to these students,” Burley said. “The materials are a step, but there’s more we can do.”

 

Contact this reporter at (937) 225-7389 or kyle.nagel at coxinc.com.

 

Source:

http://www.daytondailynews.com/news/dayton-news/ohio-gets-more-funds-for-teaching-blind-1400628.html