Declining enrollment puts state School for the Blind at risk
By DARCY WELLS
State lawmakers who recently visited the state School for the Blind in Batavia
saw students laughing, learning and interacting.
Inside one classroom, children used special materials to identify the day of the
week, the season and current weather conditions at the urging of their teachers
and assistants.
Down the hall in gym class, other students were bowling. A swim class was
scheduled in the afternoon.
“Wonderful things are happening at this school,” said PEF President Ken Brynien,
who toured the facility in May with Assembly Member Steve Hawley and an aide to
Sen. Mary Lou Rath to raise awareness about the concerns at the school.
“If the state Education Department (SED) has its way, the school will no longer
exist as we know it,” Brynien said.
“SED wants to abandon the school and its students, and it is achieving this by
allowing enrollment to dwindle,” he added.
Downward spiral
A state Office of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities (OMRDD)
inspection in 2005 resulted in a deficiency report against the seven-day
residential programs at the school.
In response, SED Commissioner, Richard Mills transferred operation of the
housing program to OMRDD.
It soon became clear OMRDD had no intention of continuing to operate the
residential program.
“The seven-day program is now scheduled to be completely phased out at the end
of June 2008,” said PEF Division 298 Council Leader Deborah Stamp.
“That has made it challenging to build enrollment at the school,” she added.
Bottom falling out
Dropping enrollment levels this year reduced the number of classrooms from 12 to
nine.
The school’s resource center and outreach program, which once provided vital
services to school districts statewide, became a target.
“We had a staff of professionals who provided training in the school districts,
but that no longer exists,” said Sharyl Courter, admissions coordinator.
“SED has been standing off to the side, allowing the resource center to bleed to
death. It’s a tragedy,” she said.
Kids lose
What’s worse, according to Courter, is many children and their parents don’t
know what they’re missing because they’ve never heard of the school.
“Those programs were the link the school needed,” Courter said.
“If parents knew about the resource center through the outreach program, they
knew about the school,” she said.
“It’s frustrating to realize we are unknown to many parents and districts,” said
Laraine Caton, head of related and support services at the school.
“This keeps us out of the continuum of educational services offered to parents
of children who are blind and visually impaired,” Caton said.
Parents have begun to see the writing on the wall according to Stamp, who
recalled a recent conversation with a parent of a boy enrolled in the school.
“The parent asked if a certain assistant would be with her son this fall when he
returned. I explained that assistant was being laid off, due to declining
enrollment. It was heartbreaking to see the concern on her face and her son’s.
The bond between staff and students is an essential part of development. She
wanted to know what she could do to help,” Stamp said.
Fight back
“Seven or our members recently got layoff packets and it has created great
concern over the future of the school,” Stamp said.
“It’s SED’s job to make sure the educational needs of blind students with
multiple disabilities are met,” Brynien said.
“Clearly, it is walking away from that responsibility, which we’ve pointed out
in two letters to the commissioner and most recently in a letter to the state
Board of Regents.”
A public relations campaign has also been developed which includes informational
post cards, brochures, an ad in Exceptional Parent magazine (a nationally
recognized resource guide for parents of blind and disabled children) and an ad
in the Legislative Gazette in Albany.
“The school is an educational asset for the state and its blind and disabled
children,” Brynien said.
The school’s survival is of vital concern to us and to our members.”
The Communicator
July/August 07
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