[Nfbv-announce] 2012 Richmond Seminar Fact Sheet

[potomac NFB]

Please find the fact sheet below and attached as a Word Document. Great job
Charlie. The team assignments will be distributed on Sunday. 

 

2012 LEGISLATIVE PRIORITIES FROM THE BLIND OF VIRGINIA

 

 

1. Reform the SOQ Caseload Formula to Include Blind Students

 

We again call attention to the long-recognized need to provide funding of
the Standards of Quality (SOQ) formula for teachers of the blind.  Because
the funding gap grows each year, the lack of an SOQ formula covering blind
students must soon be eliminated.  We urge the General Assembly to enact the
Budget Amendment proposed by Delegates Brink and Cole, Speaker Howell, and
Senator Howell that will gradually close the current funding gap over a
three-year period - Item 139#1h. 

 

The Department of Education (DOE) and the Department for the Blind and
Vision Impaired (DBVI) currently use different methods to calculate the
State general fund partial salary support to school divisions for special
education teachers.  The DOE's funding is determined by the Standards of
Quality (SOQ) and based on student counts.  The DBVI's funding is based on
full time equivalent (FTE) teachers.  This discrepancy grew out of
administrative assignments dating from the 1950s when most blind students
were in special schools for the blind.

 

Under the current reimbursement system, general funds for DBVI's
reimbursement for teachers of the blind have stayed level for the last 20
years, creating a more than 25% decrease in actual reimbursements.  This
percentage decreases each year.  Meanwhile, DOE receives up to 80% of
maximum general fund reimbursement for special education teachers of
non-blind disabled students.  This means that the general fund reimbursement
to local schools for their blind students is only about one-half of the
minimum payment made for other disabled student populations.  This financial
discrepancy combined with the lack of a caseload SOQ formula for teachers of
the blind result in caseloads of more than 30 visually impaired students.
These high caseloads put Virginia's blind and visually impaired students at
significant risk of receiving an inferior and inadequate education.

 

In 2007, the General Assembly enacted legislation designed to include blind
students in the SOQ formula, but it was dependent on availability of funds.
It is now time to provide the needed funding.

 

2.	Maintain Separate State Agency Serving Blind Virginians

 

>From time to time, we encounter proposals to merge the State disability
agencies into one large, unmanageable agency.  We oppose any agency
consolidation scheme that would merge the Virginia Department for the Blind
and Vision Impaired (DBVI) into a mega-agency.  Virginia has successfully
maintained a separate and comprehensive agency for the blind since 1922.

 

Rehabilitation services needed to restore those with vision loss to
productive lives are unique.  Blindness training and rehabilitation require
teaching non-visual techniques of functioning rather than medical devices or
modifications.  Thus the services needed by blind people differ from
rehabilitation performed by general disability agencies.  We believe that
blind people are best served through an adequately funded agency
concentrating on the unique methods of teaching non-visual skills.  This is
the essence of the DBVI's approach to serving blind Virginians.

 

We take no issue with achieving workable efficiencies.  It is important to
note that the DBVI's back office administrative, procurement, and personnel
functions were consolidated with other disability agencies several years
ago.  However, further consolidation could only dilute program service
delivery to blind Virginians.  

 

*****

 

ABOUT THE NATIONAL FEDERATION OF THE BLIND

 

We are your neighbors, changing what it means to be blind.  The National
Federation of the Blind is America's largest and most active organization of
the blind.  With more than 50,000 members, we are not an "agency" claiming
to speak for the blind; we are blind people speaking for ourselves.  In
Virginia, we are organized into local chapters in major population centers,
and into various special interest divisions.  Through advocacy, peer
support, scholarships, specialized literature, student seminars, free white
canes, and much more, we do whatever it takes to promote full integration of
the blind into society on terms of equality.   

 

    

 

 

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