HB 56 -- Blind and Visually Impaired Students

Sponsor:  Boucher

The Division of Special Education must develop a program to
provide a vision educator and service coordinator at each
regional professional development center.  The vision
coordinator will be a resource for visually impaired children,
making recommendations to schools using assessments provided by
the state school for the blind, overseeing a short-term loan
program for assistive equipment, and maintaining a regional list
of people qualified to work with visually impaired students.

The bill permits blind and visually impaired students to receive
instruction in computer-aided reading as part of their
individualized education plans, supplementing rather than
substituting for braille instruction.  Instruction in assistive
computing technology must be sufficient to enable students to
communicate effectively at the level of comparable sighted
students.  The bill directs that a student's individual
education plan must specify how such technology is to be
employed, the period of instruction, and the goal for reading
competency.  For any blind student not receiving such
instruction, the plan must also contain the reason for omitting
it.  No blind or visually impaired student may be denied
instruction solely because the student has some remaining vision.