[blindkid] Braille instruction for 12 year old

[Bo Page]

Your daughter is supposed to be getting an equal education to her peers.  My daughter is getting out of school this year (age 21 and blind from birth) and the first thing you have to make sure is that an agreed amount of braille instruction is added to her IEP or you won't have a leg to stand on.  Then if they are not following the IEP, you then have the right to fight them.   The problem has been and always will be about scheduling time with a TVI.  TVI's usually have  huge caseload and the more flexible you can be the better. That is the reality unfortunately.  If you accommodate the TVI's schedule, your daughter will be pulled out of her other classes or activities all the time, which means something else has to give.  However, your daughter is able to attend school until age 21 or 22 depending on her birth date so this gives her an extra two years in school to make up instruction that she's missed in any topic.

In hindsight after 21 years I would suggest that anyone in my shoes use an advocate ALL the time.  They are less expensive than lawyers, but having a lawyer is a great idea too.  I didn't use an education lawyer until the later years and most will consult for free to help you decide if it's the path you want to go. Schools don't like lawyers and having one will get their attention. If I were to do it again, I would have used both all the time because this path will have it's struggles that don't seem to diminish.  

But first it all has to be in the IEP or you don't have a case.  Keep a journal of all things you have asked for and your emails.  This is important because if it comes down to your needing a lawyer, you will be asked a lost of questions that you may forget the answers to unless you keep a paper trail.  Know your rights and don't ask--demand!


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On Tue, 5/13/14, Amber Hall <amhall973 at gmail.com> wrote:

 Subject: [blindkid] Braille instruction for 12 year old
 To: "Blind Kid Mailing List" <blindkid at nfbnet.org>
 Date: Tuesday, May 13, 2014, 9:08 AM
 
 Hello, 
 I'm having issues with my 12 year old daughters VI teacher
 wanting to dwindle her Braille instruction time to nothing.
 
 we had our case conference in March and it was to my
 understanding she would be in for 20 minutes a day. It's not
 a lot but hard to find any other time to pull her out of
 class. 
 The problem is the 20 minutes is either being missed, used
 to give a test/ istep, or to come by and say " how r u
 doing? Are u having any problems? " To my daughter. 
 Can any TVI 'a on here give me some things she can work on
 with my daughter? I feel like my problem is her missing or
 not using the time. But my daughter isn't having any issues
 right now. My first thing to say was a the things blind kids
 can't see that sighted kids get by looking at it, could b
 touched on. 
 It just stresses me out, knowing she could b challenged
 instead of " getting by". 
 Any comments  or suggestions are greatly appreciated!
 This isn't a great description of the situation,it's the
 shortened version.  I'm at work. 
 
 
 
 
 Sent from my iPhone
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