Should the Oregon School for the Blind be Closed?

Last week the Oregon House Committee on Education voted 8 to 2 to close the Oregon School for the Blind by this August. Sara Gelser, the head of the committee believes that the more than 3 million dollars being spent at the school could be better spent serving all the blind students in the state of Oregon, not just the 32 that attend the school. I've decided to write about this issue because I am actually in favor of the school being closed. From the information that I've learned I do believe that the school is doing a great job of teaching students vital skills for them to be successful, but I do not believe that it is necessary for children to be taken out of their homes and sent to a special school simply because they have visual impairments. I will start with some facts about why the legislature has decided to look into closing the school, than supply some reactions by students and other blind oregonians opposed to the closure, than talk about my experiences as someone who did all of my schooling in “normal” public school classrooms in Nevada where there is no school for the blind, and finally some ways to make sure that blind students in Oregon still get all the necessary services for them to be successful without an official school for the blind.

Thanks to Betsy Hammond of the Oregonian here are some figures about the Oregon School for the Blind
and it's role in educating blind students:

The school no longer is accredited to give out high school diplomas
The total number of students in Oregon whose primary disability is blindness or low vision is 330
The number of students who attend the School for the Blind is 32
The cost per child to operate the school is over 125,000 dollars per year
The number of students in Oregon with vision impairment who receive services from a regional specialist is almost 900
The cost per student to provide those services is 20,000 dollars per year

If all you're looking at is the numbers, than it is pretty obvious that the money spent at the school is excessive, but I realize that this is not about numbers, it's about people. So now that you know some of the facts, here are some responses from the blind community as to why the school should stay open.

Before the Education Committee voted on the issue, they heard testimony from students and parents about why they wanted the school to stay open. According to an article in the Oregonian, “Blind and visually impaired students told horror stories of how they were treated in their local schools. Students reported having to stand at copiers and make their own large print copies because teachers refused to do it for them. A teacher told of finding one student placed alone in a closet sized room in his local school. Parents testified their children were subjected to low expectations, lackluster instruction, and social isolation at their local schools, but blossomed at the sate school in Salem.”

To hear more reactions and reasons for why the school should stay open, please listen to Chris Lehman of OPB's report on the proposed school closure.

I agree that most of these complaints are very valid, and as someone who spent all of my schooling in the public school system I can understand why students might want to be at a place where they can identify with and feel accepted by their peers. Even with that knowledge though, I want to tell you my story of success in the public school system and why I think blind students have every opportunity to thrive at regular schools.

I want to start off by saying that my education may not be the norm for visually impaired students. My vision for the most part was correctable for quite a few years because I have RP which is degenerative. I read regular print until my sophomore year in high school, I was mostly able to participate in physical education, and I didn't start using a cane until college. That being said though, I had an IEP or Individual Education Plan from the time I was in pre-school I did have teachers that sometimes didn't want to follow my IEP, and I had to do a lot of education to help my teachers help me to be successful. In Nevada, if a child needs help learning skills like reading braille or using a cane, a specialist comes to their school and teaches them in 2 to 3 hour blocks. I personally learned braille during my freshman year in high school. For children who are born blind, they start pre-school around 3 and are taught as many skills as possible before they get older. They also have summer programs where they focus on life skills. Finally, if parents want their children to be with other blind kids, and their district is large enough, than they can send them to the dedicated school that has the visually impaired program. I did this for middle school. The visually impaired programs within the regular schools are their to ensure that students get access to all that they need, and if they need special assistance, than the specialist is always available. I think this system is really effective and it is a good way to make sure that visually impaired students get to be a part of the whole community, not just the blind community.

Since I realize that no system will ever be perfect, and every student is going to have a different experience, I think that there are some good strategies that Oregon's teachers, parents and students can use to make sure that visually impaired children are successful in school.

1. The Oregon School for the Blind's website provides some great tips for parents and teachers on how to work with blind children.
2. To go along with this resource, I believe that teachers need to be given special instruction on how to work with children who have special needs. For many children with disabilities, their disability is only physical not cognitive. That means that they simply may need to communicate and be taught in a different way. All teachers have a responsibility to treat all their students the same, and that means taking time to make sure every child is successful regardless of disability.
3. Parents need to be offered a support network. Most parents don't ask to have a child with a disability, but once they have one, to be successful having other parents to talk to is usually one of the best things. They also need to be firm with teachers and administrators about what their child needs.
4. Finally, children with disabilities should be offered the same level of support as their parents. I didn't know a lot of blind kids when I was growing up and I still don't, but I think that if I had it may have made my schooling experience less stressful. The state could offer this support through social media, workshops, and summer programs.

What do you think about the school for the blind potentially closing? What do you think is the best way to support blind students without an official school? If the school were to stay open, what could be done to improve the facilities and education without breaking the state's bank? What was your education like, did you go to a school for the blind or were you mainstreamed?