[Nfbv-announce] 2011 final fact sheet

[Michael Kasey]

Here are our issues for the General Assembly for Richmond Seminar January
18, 2011

See below and the same attached:

2011 LEGISLATIVE PRIORITIES FROM THE BLIND OF VIRGINIA

 

1. Maintain Separate State Agency Serving Blind Virginians with Adequate
Funding

 

>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 services to blind Virginians into a
mega-agency.  Virginia has successfully maintained a separate and
comprehensive agency for the blind since 1922.

 

We continue to support adequate funding for the Virginia Department for the
Blind and Vision Impaired (DBVI).  This year we urge the General Assembly to
approve the annual $1 million general fund increase for the DBVI as proposed
in the Governor's Budget. 

 

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 non-visual teaching.  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 service delivery to
blind Virginians.

 

2. Reform the SOQ Caseload Formula for Blind Students

 

While we understand the current financial situation faced by the
Commonwealth, we again call attention to the long-recognized need to provide
funding of the Standards of Quality (SOQ) formula for teachers of the blind.
The lack of such a formula must soon be corrected.  Because the current
funding gap continues to grow each year nothing is done, we urge the General
Assembly to work with us as soon as possible.  It is noted that a report by
the Virginia Department of Education to the 2009 General Assembly session
endorsed the urgency of fixing the SOQ formula anomaly.

 

The Department of Education and the Department for the Blind and Vision
Impaired 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.

 

*****

 

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 15 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.   

 

End of fact sheet.

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