[blindkid] blindkid Digest, Vol 59, Issue 29

[Andi Borum]

Hi Beki,

I wanted to take a moment to introduce myself to you.  I am the current 
president of Virginia Parents of Blind Children and have two girls that are 
deaf blind.  We live in Virginia Beach.  I have the name of several NFB 
members who would be happy to share with you any information they might have 
regarding the school districts you are asking about.  I would share their 
contact information with you privately.  I can also provide you with a 
family who lives in that area that could possibly provide in depth knowledge 
about their experiences.  I know that Fairfax Public School system is the 
second largest in the state.  They were the largest for many, many years and 
this past year Virginia Beach surpassed them.  Please let me know if I can 
facilitate any additional help for you.

Sincerely,
Andi Borum

> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 5
> Date: Sat, 28 Mar 2009 20:10:20 -0700
> From: "Chad & Beki Melone" <cbmelone at sbcglobal.net>
> Subject: [blindkid] Anyone out there living in Northern VA?
> To: "'NFBnet Blind Kid Mailing List, \(for parents of blind
> children\)'" <blindkid at nfbnet.org>
> Message-ID: <004701c9b01b$e53bd900$afb38b00$@net>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
>
>
> Hi,
> Does anyone have any experience or information regarding the Fairfax 
> County,
> Loudoun county, or Prince William county schools? I know those are very
> large school districts, but any information would be appreciated. We have
> three boys, 1 who is VI and will be in the middle of 8th grade when we 
> move
> out there in December. We will most likely be living in Chantilly, but
> haven't ruled out the surrounding areas. I have heard that Fairfax county
> has the best services and resources, but not from other VI families.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Beki
>

>
> Message: 9
> Date: Sun, 29 Mar 2009 08:05:52 -0600
> From: Rene Harrell <rjharrell at gmail.com>
> Subject: Re: [blindkid] Anyone out there living in Northern VA?
> To: "NFBnet Blind Kid Mailing List, (for parents of blind children)"
> <blindkid at nfbnet.org>
> Message-ID:
> <b25cf0c50903290705k69c1fd9fi9eb8d3d8f80bf7b3 at mail.gmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
>
> Hey Beki,
>
> We lived in Loudoun County for 4 years (my husband is military and I'm
> suspecting you are too). Specifically, we lived in South Riding. My 
> husband
> worked in Chantilly and it took him about 10 minutes with traffic to get 
> to
> work every day.
>
> I cannot say enough good things about the VI Department for Loudoun County
> schools. My daughter worked with two separate TVIs while we were there and
> they were absolutely fantastic. My daughter was in the preschool program
> there but the TVIs split their caseloads and work with kids of all ages.
> Clare's TVI routinely spent above and beyond the time specified in her IEP
> working with her and with her classroom teacher to make sure things were
> appropriately set for her. I'd say easily double the time. When it came 
> time
> to write an IEP for her kindergarten IEP, even though we understood that
> Clare had significant developmental delays and would not be doing most 
> work
> on par with her peers, her TVI agreed with me that Clare deserved every
> chance to learn her alphabet and to learn to read on par with her peers 
> and
> her IEP was written for 2 hours of direct TVI time per school day, with
> additional indirect consult time written in for working with her classroom
> teacher per day (I can't remember now if it was an hour per day).
>
> We had some significant issues with the special education department when 
> we
> got started (my daughter was nonverbal and they didn't bother to invite a
> speech therapist to her IEP meeting nor make any speech related goals for
> her IEP, they only listed her disability as VI when she has multiple other
> needs, didn't provide adequate notice for the meetings among other 
> things),
> but when I was assertive we did get their noncompliance issues sorted out
> and when it came down to the brass tacks of the people who were actually
> *working* with her, honestly I could not have cherry picked a better group
> of people. In fact, two and a half years later I still regularly talk to
> both Clare's classroom teacher and her TVI. We're homeschooling now and
> we're half a country away, but they still like to hear how she is doing 
> and
> what kind of progress she is making.
>
> The VI department in Loudoun County is pretty big. When we lived there,
> twice a year they would have an open parent meeting where they'd invite 
> all
> the parents of VI children and they would not only give an overview of the
> VI department but they would invite the Virginia Department of the Blind 
> and
> Voc. Rehab and some other people to give overviews of other services
> available and to get people to prepare for life outside of school. It was 
> a
> nice networking opportunity as well. The times I went there were at least 
> 25
> families in attendance. Because Loudoun County was one of the fastest
> growing counties at the time, they were in the process of hiring several
> more TVIs because their population was rapidly growing.
>
> I can't speak to Fairfax Public Schools. We lived *right* on the border
> between Fairfax and Loudoun (Chantilly is actually in the Fairfax Public
> School District). I do know that Fairfax is much, much, MUCH bigger school
> district than Loudoun, and Loudoun had 50,000 students! I know they
> centralize things differently than Loudoun does, but that's all I know 
> about
> them.
>
> If you'd like any more information about Loudoun County, feel free me to
> email me directly. I'd be happy to share the names of Clare's TVIs off 
> list,
> as well as the VI department and specific middle schools and any other
> resources that you'd like.
>
> Rene in Colorado Springs....formerly of South Riding, VA