[blindkid] IEP and cane help needed
Barbara Cheadle
bacheadle at msn.com
Sat May 30 15:42:17 UTC 2009
Hi Holly and Doreen:
The right for blind people (no age restriction, so far as I know) to use their canes and/or guide dogs in public facilities (like schools) is protected under Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act. Section 504 guarantees access to blind/disabled persons to public facilities and to programs available to the public. (That's a simplistic explaination, but I think it's accurate). Your children meet the definition of disabled (blind) under the section 504 clause, so they are covered--their eligibility for 504 protection is not linkied to IEP's, special education, or the IDEA. So, even if the school prevailed in saying that they do not need to provide O&M instruction, I do not believe that they can tell your child that he/she cannot bring their cane to school and use it to get to the playground, move about on the playground, move about independently within the building, etc. In other words, I don't believe they have the legal right to tell you that your child is not "eligible" to carry and use a cane. They do have authority under IDEA to participate in the process of evaluating and determing through the IEP process if the school shall provide O&M service, but that is not the same as the authority to tell you that your child can't use a cane. Not the same thing.
Section 504 does not provide for special education instruction or related services--just access and access in the broad sense; not just physical access (ramps, elevators, etc.) but access to the programs available at the public facility. O&M by the way, is a related service---not a special education service. So, in order to get O&M instruction from the school, the child must be eligible for and receiving special ed services and have an IEP)
Violations of Section 504 are investigated and handled by your regional Office of Civil Rights upon receipt and review of complaints from individuals. NOt every complaint is accepted, and they do have a backlog. However, it is a much easier procees than due process. A trained investigator collect the facts, contacts and inteviews people as appropriate, and then if they find that the complaint was legitimate, issue a ruling with specific steps that the offending agency has to take to remedy the violation and to make sure they change the offending practice.
There is a document about 504 on the NOPBC site www.nfb.org/nopbc<http://www.nfb.org/nopbc> --I want more information about---IEP process ----section 504
http://www.nfb.org/nfb/NOPBC_LA_IEP_Process.asp?SnID=1551671820<http://www.nfb.org/nfb/NOPBC_LA_IEP_Process.asp?SnID=1551671820>
Good Luck!
Barbara Cheadle, President Emerita
National Organization of Parents of Blind Children
bacheadle at msn.com<mailto:bacheadle at msn.com>
(410) 747-3472
----- Original Message -----
From: holly miller<mailto:hollym12 at gmail.com>
To: NFBnet Blind Kid Mailing List,(for parents of blind children)<mailto:blindkid at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Friday, May 29, 2009 2:46 PM
Subject: Re: [blindkid] IEP and cane help needed
Oh Doreen, I feel your pain.
There is something in IDEA under related services about O&M for VI kids.
It's more of a definition of what O&M is, not who qualifies but it does
mention
(B) To use the long cane or a service animal to supplement visual travel
skills or as a tool for safely negotiating the
environment for children with no available travel vision;
http://www.wrightslaw.com/idea/law/idea.regs.subparta.pdf<http://www.wrightslaw.com/idea/law/idea.regs.subparta.pdf>
scroll down to page 8, item 7
My son is in 2nd grade & has Albinism. We are being blocked at every turn
by both the school and the Comission for the Blind on both braille and cane
usage. For those who remember our saga, yes, we have finally retained a
lawyer. Yes, the school knows that and no, it hasn't made them any more
cooperative. I'm expecting we will have to go all the way to due process.
The district had been telling us he doesn't "qualify" to use a cane (he is
legally blind, 20/200 best corrected)
In April, Carol was kind enough to lend us a cane & give us a demonstartion
(Carol, the one I ordered *finally* got here, I need to get yours back to
you!) It's only been a few weeks and so far he only uses it when we go out
as a family but he's doing great with it. We went to our towns little
carnival last week. That's a situation where he'd normally have a death
grip on our hand. Not only was he *not* holding our hands, I had to keep
telling him to slow down and wait for us because he was ranging so far
ahead. Other places have been the same experience. His confidence level
with the cane is amazing and he's actually seeing what's going on around him
instead of staring at his feet. That's with no formal training.
Earlier this month, the CoB did an O&M evaluation that consisted of him
walking around the flat, dim hallways in the tiny school and up and down the
flat, perfectly maintained sidewalks outside the school, up and down yellow
painted curbs. On a very cloudy, overcast day. Nothing more challanging
than that. She had him try walking with a 32" cane, he had lean over to get
it to touch the ground. When she asked him if he liked using *that* cane,
he of course said no. She knew we already had a cane at home, she
conveniently didn't ask him if he liked using that one...
So she wrote her report saying Hank is a confident, independent traveler.
That he doesn't like using a cane and using a cane would be detrimental to
him!! Yes, in writing, it would be *bad* for him to use a cane. I wanted to
spit nails. She didn't test him on anything that's difficult for him, she
didn't include any concerns I expressed about other travel conditions. She
did however, write he's legally entitled to use a cane due to his level of
vision. That's about the only thing positive in the report. That he is
entitled to use one even if no one will train him on it.
I'm not giving up on the O&M issue, that's part of the package the lawyers
working on. He honestly doesn't need a cane day to day at school but I will
be insisting at the very least, his IEP includes he be allowed to use it on
any future field trips.
If anyone does have the actual law that allows cane use by VI individuals,
I'd love to have that for my war chest binder.
Rock...crawling under it
Holly
On Fri, May 29, 2009 at 1:45 PM, Doreen Franklin <theconelady at yahoo.com>wrote<mailto:theconelady at yahoo.com%3Ewrote>:
> Your help is needed again for our 4-1/2 yr old who will be going to the
> pre-K class in August.
>
> We are in the process of having 8 individual evals done for the
> Comprehensive Psych Eval in her IEP. One of the evals is for O&M, but I have
> not gotten a call for the eval yet. (Our schools are out June 10). We feel
> strongly that our daughter needs a cane and we have gotten one thru NFB. We
> also were at the state convention this last weekend and cane and Braille
> were reinforced many times! (And I have just been sent an email indicating
> that even with the evals done, the reports will not be done even for our IEP
> meeting on June 8. We do need to have the meeting to do a few other items,
> one of which will be a placement at an ESE-inclusive pre-K class).
>
> At our last IEP in April, it was suggested that I get her pediatrician to
> write a note for the cane, take it to the nurse and then get an
> Individualized Health Care plan written for the cane; it would then be an
> addendum to the IEP. Long story short, I am being told the doc cannot do it
> (it is not a medical issue) - but school board cannot cite a law/statute
> which prohibits it from happening or not happening. At this point, I am not
> even sure the cane will be discussed at our next IEP on June 8 without the
> O&M eval being done.
>
> If you talk to our daughter, she will even tell you she does not trip or
> hit as many things with her cane in her hand. She FEELS safer with the cane
> and IS safer with the cane, but the school board is not seeing it. Other
> parents of blind and VI children can see the need for the cane, but other
> people are not seeing her need. Even at home, she is like the "pinball
> wizard" - sometimes hitting one chair, to a 2nd chair on her way to her
> room. She has not gotten seriously hurt, but she has hit her face about a
> half dozen times.
>
> Question is ... can we provide private instructions for her (thru a friend
> who is blind and uses a cane) so that she can use the cane in school when
> she goes to school in August without the school board saying she cannot use
> it without proper instruction by them? Is there a law I can give to them for
> the cane? What are our recourses, besides threatening a law suit should
> something happen to her?
>
> Any and all help will be appreciated .... MANY thanks!!!!
> Doreen and David Franklin
>
>
>
>
> Doreen
> Please support Braille literacy & programs for our youth by sponsoring me
> in
> the Motor City March for Independence!
> www.marchforindependence.org/goto/doreenf<http://www.marchforindependence.org/goto/doreenf>
>
>
>
>
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