[blindkid] School placement question

[Carol Castellano]

Hi Stephanie,

I guess you have also visited the classroom in your neighborhood 
school that Kendra would be in and felt that you could picture her 
there.  I like the idea of the neighborhood school, too.  It seems 
that the problem you will be facing is this:  if you succeed in 
getting Kendra placed in her neighborhood school, will the district 
do what will be necessary for her to succeed?  Might they just do the 
minimum and wait for her to fail so that they can prove to you that 
she belongs in the school with the resource room?  From their 
perspective all the work has already been done and things are all 
ready in the other setting.  To them, a decision to place Kendra in 
another school will seem unreasonable.  Very difficult indeed.

Carol

At 10:48 AM 12/12/2008, you wrote:
>I should have stated that my husband and I did visit the resource room
>school twice, in two different school years.  We did the same with the
>other school we want her to attend.  Kendra's TVI was with us for the
>most recent visits to both schools as well.  For confidentiality
>reasons, I did not want to disclose everything but I will quote some
>sections from a letter I wrote to the head of TVIs after our last visit
>to the resource room school:
>
>1.  We did not observe any Braille signage in the building.  Doors were
>not labelled with the Braille room numbers, nor with the teachers'
>names.  In order for children to develop independence in orientation and
>mobility, it is helpful for them to have such information.
>
>2.  There were no Braille books in the kindergarten classroom we
>observed but there was a shelf of print books.  When I questioned the
>TVI about this, I was told that the children could walk to the resource
>room for a Braille book.  Blind children should have the same access to
>reading materials as the sighted children have.
>
>3.  The children did not initially have a Perkins brailler in their
>classroom.  When it was commented upon, one was brought into the room.
>Blind children should have the same access to writing materials as the
>sighted children have.
>
>4.  The two blind/visually impaired children we observed were seated
>separately from the sighted students in the classroom.  Whether this was
>by their choice or not, they did not seem to be integrated into the
>classroom activities.  We observed them working with a separate teacher
>at separate tasks.
>
>5.  The most upsetting thing we observed at our last visit was a
>para-pro placing a printed worksheet in front of a blind child, telling
>her "here is a fence, color it in" and then placing a crayon in her hand
>and putting the child's hand over the picture.
>
>When we visited (SCHOOL X) two years ago, we brought up many of these
>concerns (lack of Braille signage and lack of Braille classroom books,
>in particular).  It was disheartening on our second visit to see that
>none of these issues had been addressed.  These were not surprise visits
>so our conclusion was that the things we observed were typical of how
>things are run at that school.  I would be happy to talk with you,
>either in person or on the phone, if there is any other information I
>can provide about our visits.
>
>
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