Spring 2003 Table of Contents
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Interesting Facts from the Year 2003 Annual Registration of Students with Visual Impairments

By Nick Necaise, APH Materials and VI Registration Coordinator, TSBVI Outreach

The Annual Registration of Students who are Visually Impaired (VI) is the count of eligible students who are visually impaired in each school district of Texas as of the first Monday in January. The "as of" date for this year's Annual Registration was January 6, 2003. This count is done for a number of reasons.

It determines the amount of funding the state receives to get materials from the American Printing House for the Blind.
Each region's State Supplemental Visually Impaired (SSVI) funds are portioned out according to the number of VI students they have. These SSVI funds can help pay for things like Vision Specialists at the Education Service Centers, salaries of VI teachers and O&M Specialists, training workshops, family support and other VI-unique needs as determined by plans within each region.
It is a tool for statewide and regional planning.
It is a federal requirement.

Here are some interesting facts from the 2003 registry that give us a picture of students in Texas with visual impairments.

Total number of students registered - 7104, plus 4 students who are enrolled in non-public schools
Number of students who were on the 2002 registration but not on the 2003 registration - 1006
Number of new students (not previously on 2002 registration) added to the 2003 registration - 1165
Braille readers - 366
Large print readers - 1417
Regular print readers - 1526
Auditory readers - 407
Pre-Braille readers - 144
Pre-readers - 1438
Non readers - 2857
Number of legally blind students - 4649
Number of infants - 602
Number of preschoolers - 761
Number of kindergartners - 398
Number of districts with 1 or more VI students - 737
Number of districts with only 1 VI student - 207
Number of districts with 3 or less VI students - 395
Number of students whose primary handicapping condition is visually impaired (VI) - 4128. (The first handicapping condition listed is VI. The students may or may not have additional handicapping conditions listed.)
Number of students whose secondary handicapping condition is VI - 1675 (The primary handicapping condition listed is other than VI.)
Number of students whose third handicapping condition is VI - 1032 (The first two handicapping conditions listed are other than VI.)
Number of students who are VI only - 2387 (No other handicapping conditions are listed.)
Number of students with 2 or more handicapping conditions - 4717
Number of students with AI/VI (Auditorially Impaired/Visually Impaired) or DB (Deafblind) - 427
The region with the most VI students on the Annual Registration (Region 4 / Houston area) - 1420
The region with the least VI students on the Annual Registration (Region 9 / Wichita Falls area) - 97
There are 50 Braille reading students at the Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired.
1805 or 25.94% of the students on the 2003 Annual Registration receive instruction in Orientation and Mobility.

Distribution of VI students in Texas based on the 2003 Annual Registration:

1 VI student - 207 districts or 28%
2-3 VI students - 188 districts or 26%
4-7 VI students - 161 districts or 22%
8-11 VI students - 49 districts or 7%
12-15 VI students - 33 districts or 4%
16-19 VI students - 18 districts or 2%
20-29 VI students - 19 districts or 3%
30+ VI students - 62 districts or 8%

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Last Revision: August 21, 2003