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How will schools for the blind meet the challenge of the National Agenda?

Phil Hatlen, Superintendent Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired and Co-Chair, The National Agenda

It was my pleasure and privilege to attend, along with other superintendents, the celebration of the 150th birthday party of the Mississippi School for the Blind (MSB). It was a wonderful event, full of pride, hope, and enthusiasm. Not only did we celebrate MSB's birthday, but the occasion honored and celebrated the history and accomplishments of all schools for the blind. Thank you, John Parrish, your staff, and your students for giving us this rare opportunity to stand tall and be counted among those who deeply value the past, present, and future of schools for the blind. I talked for the first time to fellow superintendents about what I believed our schools should be doing with the National Agenda.

Rarely has any movement in the education of students with visual impairments captured the imagination and the commitment of parents, consumers, and professionals as has the National Agenda for Blind and Visually Impaired Youths, Including Those with Additional Disabilities. A kernel of an idea in 1993 has exploded into a national movement, as national groups and individual states work to achieve the eight goals. The effort that hundreds of parents and professionals are making to ensure the success of the National Agenda must include schools for the blind, if we are to walk our talk as being a viable option among other educational placements. I’d like to share with you the eight goals of the National Agenda, and give you some suggestions as to how you might assist in meeting these goals by using the resources of your school for the blind.

1. Students and their families will be referred to an appropriate education program within 30 days of identification of a suspected visual impairment.

The issue of timely referral from the medical profession has been with us as long as I can remember. I ask you to consider today whether the school for the blind should be a clearing house for referrals of children throughout your state. Our role as a "hub" in the state might make us the logical place for doctors, social workers, and others to refer a newly diagnosed visually impaired child. We could then direct the parents to a local school district or agency that would provide direct service. If timely referral were not a lingering problem, it would not have become one of the eight goals. If local "search and serve" efforts are not working, perhaps it's time for us to provide some solutions for early referral. One idea that I have entertained, but will have to wait for funding to implement, is listing the school in the yellow pages of every telephone directory in the state, under "Blind or Visually Impaired Child". The listing would be an toll-free number that any parent could call for information about services for children who are visually impaired. It also might be particularly valuable to the grief-stricken mother or father who has just learned that her/his baby is visually impaired.

2. Policies and procedures will be implemented to ensure the right of all parents to full participation and equal partnership in the education process.

It was surprising to me that this goal also rose top when we surveyed the country to determine the final goals of the National Agenda. Obviously, many parents do not have a truly equal role in the education of their children. I think that the primary role of a school for the blind, with regard to this goal, is to assume responsibility for all parents in its region to become informed advocates. There are a few examples of the wonderful gifts parents can bring to the IEP meeting, when they can really be equal planners of the education of their children.

One director of a school for the blind has suggested that the result of effective parent education and advocacy training is that parents learn about the full continuum of placement options. When they have thorough and accurate knowledge of the needs of their children, then we no longer need to be the primary advocates for our schools.

Gene McMahon, who is conducting research on parents’ knowledge of placement options, tells us that a shockingly small number of parents in his sample have been informed about placement options other than the one the local district recommends. The need for parent education is clear and overwhelming. The role of schools for the blind in providing this service to parents is one that each of us has to consider.

3. Universities, with a minimum of one full-time faculty member in the area of visual impairment, will prepare a sufficient number of educators of students with visual impairments to meet personnel needs throughout the country.

There was a time when almost all teacher preparation programs had some sort of tie to a school for the blind. I don't necessarily think that's true any more. While I acknowledge that many rural areas in the U.S. have a very difficult time recruiting teachers for blind and visually impaired students, schools for the blind also have a chronic and sometimes desperate need for certified teachers.

So, what should we do about it? John Parrish brought the Distance Learning program from the University of Louisville to Mississippi. As a result, perhaps Mississippi will be one of the first states to achieve Goal 3. In Texas, the School for the Blind and Visually Impaired has formed a coalition with the two universities that offer personnel preparation in visual impairment and in orientation and mobility. This coalition has recently been funded by the Texas Education Agency. The outcome should be the elimination of a serious teacher shortage in Texas.

What about your state or region? Is your school actively involved with ensuring that your entire state has enough teachers to meet the needs of blind and visually impaired students? If or when it is necessary, should schools for the blind take a leadership role in teacher preparation? I think we can do this when it is necessary or expedient, and such a move should not be viewed as a threat to any university-based program. Just as we are allies with local school districts, so should we be allies with university personnel-preparation programs.

4. Service providers will determine caseloads based on the needs of students and will require ongoing professional development for all teachers and orientation and mobility instructors.

If a five-year-old, potential braille reader has only the services of an itinerant teacher for one hour every two weeks, that child will grow up illiterate. In cases such as this, the school for the blind has a responsibility to diplomatically and sensitively assist the local district to better understand necessary services and work with them to find local solutions. If necessary, suggest that placement in a school for the blind might be the best alternative.

Our responsibility is to strongly support and advocate for appropriate caseloads. We must do this without any semblance of recruiting and with only the best interests of students and their families in mind. We must stand up and be counted wherever caseloads are so large that services cannot be based on the needs of students, and whenever we know that students are not receiving the education they require.

5. Local education programs will ensure that all students have access to a full array of placement options.

Let's be honest—in most of the U.S., there are only two viable placement options available: itinerant services and schools for the blind. "A full array of placement options" will be hard to deliver, considering the low prevalence of blindness and visual impairment. But one thing we can do is to not let the full array of settings disappear because of philosophical reasons. Where the population warrants, we must be advocates for resource rooms, self-contained classrooms, and other settings. We at schools for the blind need to be active participants in maintaining or creating a broad array of placement options. If we are a "hub" in our state, we must work just as hard for placement options at the local level as we do for placement at our specialized schools.

6. Assessment of students will be conducted, in collaboration with parents, by personnel having expertise in the education of students with visual impairments.

How many of you have reviewed assessment information on a child and discovered that the only material available was a functional low vision examination and the results of an achievement test? Sadly, this is often the case. Assessments must be comprehensive or they are practically worthless. They must include, but are not limited to: functional low vision; learning media; compensatory skills; and all areas of the expanded core curriculum (see goal 8).

Where is it possible for a child to receive a comprehensive assessment provided by qualified personnel? In large, urban districts? Probably. In suburban and rural districts? Probably not. What is the role of the school for the blind in assessment? Some of our schools provide assessment services for all children in their states. Some provide it on campus, while others have traveling assessment teams. Should schools for the blind offer comprehensive assessment services to all children in their state of region? Are we the only place with the expertise to conduct a comprehensive assessment? Is this an appropriate role in the emerging future role of schools for the blind? There are more questions than answers with regard to assessment and its role the future of schools for the blind. We must actively participate in decisions about this topic.

7. Access to developmental and educational services will include an assurance that instructional materials are available to students in the appropriate media and at the same time as their sighted peers.

Who in your state monitors the timely delivery of instructional materials and books to students throughout the state? If you have an Instructional Materials Center (IMC), then you may not need to be involved. If you don't, or if you are the IMC, then timely delivery might need to be your responsibility.

The national IMC group were the National Goal Leaders for this goal. Their data indicates a continuing, serious problem in delivery of books and materials to ensure that blind and visually impaired students have access at the same time as sighted classmates. Do you have a responsibility to look into this problem and offer to assist in solving it? What about the quality of materials prepared for blind and visually impaired students Who monitors this. Should you?

8. Educational and developmental goals, including instruction, will reflect the assessed needs of each student in all areas of academic and disability-specific core curricula.

As all of you know, this goal deals with the curriculum topic that has occupied much of my time for over 25 years. Our first real awareness of the disability-specific needs of blind and visually impaired children began as the retrolental fibroplasia-blinded young people began to graduate from high school beginning around 1969. Since that time, we have been aware of the need for an expanded core curriculum, as defined by the National Agenda.

What is, or will be, the role of schools for the blind in addressing the expanded core curriculum? Surely, we have a responsibility to disseminate information to all teachers in our state. These instructional areas in the expanded core curriculum are not electives to be offered as time permits. They must be assessed, often by a team from a school for the blind, and they must be taught. Since these curricular areas are added onto the core curriculum expected of all students, there may be no time in the school day to teach the expanded core courses.

Almost every referral received at the Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired suggests that the child needs instruction in one or more of the areas of the expanded core curriculum. Schools for the blind, then, are already being called on to provide services to students when local districts lack the resources of time and personnel.

For now, I believe that schools for the blind must assist teachers and parents to understand the urgency of assessing and teaching the expanded core curriculum. Then, on an individual basis, determine where the instruction can best be provided. We must be open to the possibility that districts will call upon us to help them meet these needs for blind and visually impaired students.

Schools for the blind should be on the cutting edge of the National Agenda movement. Our commitment to quality education for all children who are blind or visually impaired requires us to become active leaders in achieving the goals of the National Agenda. We should also be examples of how to partner with parents so that children will thrive and grow.

If schools for the blind are the hubs of expertise in their states, if they have a true leadership role in achieving the National Agenda goals, then they first should be models of implementation of the National Agenda.

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