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Administrators? Toolbox Visual Impairments:
A collection of resources to support programs for students with visual impairments

Developed and edited by KC Dignan, Ph.D. with Chrissy Cowan, M.A.
(view the contributors to the toolbox)

Administrative Toolbox: Introduction

Administering a program for the education of children with visual impairments presents some singular challenges for the ablest of administrators. Visual impairments pose unique issues. It is through vision that we gather the vast majority of information about the environment. Even a mild limitation in functional vision will have an impact on gathering and using information about people and the world around us and interactions between them.

Visual impairments range in severity from very mild (but still below typical visual abilities) to no vision. A child may acquire a visual impairment at birth or at any point throughout his or her life, with each situation having a different impact on development. Visual impairments can and do happen in conjunction with all levels of physical, emotional, and cognitive abilities. These factors combine to make the population of children with visual impairments an extremely heterogeneous group.

The incidence of children with visual impairments is low compared to other disabilities. About 1% of the children receiving special education services have a visual impairment. Disability-specific services blend medical and educational information and cover an extremely broad range of pedagogy. A majority of professionals in visual impairments (VI teachers or orientation and mobility specialists) serve these children through an itinerant model. The scarcity of students and VI professionals to serve them, combined with the unique characteristics of the itinerant model, serves to provide administrators with unique challenges. As a result, many administrators may have limited information about visual impairments or have questions about the hiring and supervision of VI staff.

In addition, the Texas Education Agency recently initiated a decentralized function focusing on low incidence populations. This includes students who are medically fragile, deafblind, and/or have severe cognitive disabilities. These students are at a high risk for having an unidentified visual impairment. As a result, caseloads of students with visual impairments may be changing and/or growing, necessitating hiring additional personnel or reallocating the time of currently employed VI professionals.

What is an Administrative Toolbox?

This Administrative Toolbox is a collection of tools which can assist special education directors in:

This Administrative Toolbox is intended to provide directors with information in a flexible frame- work for hiring and retaining VI professionals that will accommodate modifications necessary to meet existing district standards.

Why design an Administrative Toolbox?

In May 1997, all district special education directors in Texas received a survey about recruitment of VI professionals. In that survey, directors were asked which types of information would be useful in helping them to recruit VI professionals to the VI field and/or to their districts. Respondents indicated a strong desire for data about caseloads and best practices to help justify the need for new/additional VI personnel and these were rated as extremely desirable. This Toolbox is intended to help directors develop disability-specific resources and data for hiring and supervising VI professionals.

How was it developed?

The intent was to develop a set of resources which would be useful to administrators with an array of experience in visual impairments, be pedagogically sound, and be considered valid by the people who will use it. To that end people in many roles were consulted: special education directors in Texas, VI consultants at regional service centers, and VI specialists from around the country.

What assumptions does the Toolbox make?

Every resource has limitations and makes some assumptions. The Toolbox makes the following assumptions that should be considered when evaluating the use of its resources.

How to use the Toolbox

Each section is designed to be used independently of other sections, however, each section is related to other sections. Each section is intended to expand on current information, strategies, and resources used by administrators. For further information, consult your regional education service center (ESC) special education director and/or VI consultant, TSBVI outreach staff, and/or other district resources.

The best way to illustrate how to use this Toolbox may be through a scenario of a district that is anticipating a change in its VI population or service delivery options.

Scenario

Sunshine ISD has been a part of a special education co-op or shared service arrangement (SSA) which has now been restructured. Sunshine ISD is no longer part of the shared service arrangement. Services from the VI teacher had come from the fiscal agent for the co-op/SSA, through a shared service arrangement; O&M services came from the ESC. Sunshine ISD was the most distant district in the co-op/SSA. The original VI teacher will continue to serve the students through what used to be the fiscal agent. Because of a new industry in the Sunshine area, many people are moving to the district, resulting in changes in the population of children who receive services from special education.

As the new director for the special education program in Sunshine ISD, you are responsible for ensuring that the needs of the students with visual impairments are being met. However, your experience with these students has been limited and you are not sure you understand who the students are and what their needs are. To assist you in fine-tuning the VI program you could complete the activities listed below:

  1. In order to determine the extent and amount of VI services needed, conduct a caseload analysis. To do this, refer to the Caseload section. Additional documents in the Resource section may assist you, as well.
  2. Based on the caseload analysis, you find that your district needs a full-time VI teacher immediately. O&M services can continue from the service center for the time being, but it seems clear that you will need (at least) a half-time O&M specialist within the next two or three years. Growth patterns indicate that additional VI staff may also be needed at that time. Your options include training an existing staff person or recruiting and hiring a new person from outside of the district. You decide to hire a VI teacher from outside of the district, and, because it will take two to three years to train an O&M specialist, you identify an existing staff person to start O&M training next spring. Because you realize that it may be easier to identify and recruit a full-time O&M specialist, you decide to develop a cooperative arrangement with the neighboring districts who had been part of the original co-op/SSA. (See Hiring Options and Job Bank sections)
  3. To clarify the roles and responsibilities of the new positions, you select the job description that matches your district's philosophy. (See Job Description section)
  4. Now you will need to identify how you are going to find your new VI teacher. (See Hiring Options and Job Bank sections)
  5. Before you begin interviewing your pool of applicants, review the sample interview questions. (See Interview Questions section)
  6. You recall that, after having a student with a visual impairment and working with an O&M specialist from the ESC, a special education teacher expressed a strong interest in becoming an O&M specialist. You review the Training Options section with her.
  7. Depending on the new VI teacher's level of experience, you may want to participate in a mentor program. If the new VI teacher is a recent graduate, or from another state, the mentor can help her adjust to her new position. The teacher who is the O&M training program will also be involved in a mentorship program. (See Mentor section).

It is hoped that this scenario helps you to see how to use the information in the Toolbox. If you want additional information in any area, the VI staff at your ESC may be helpful.

Contributors

This document would not be possible without generous contributions from many people and organizations. In addition to those listed below, many people provided information and feedback in areas such as the Job Descriptions and the Interview Resources. Kudos to all!

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This page last modified 30 Jul 2002
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