-----Original Message-----

Sent: Friday, February 23, 2007 9:11 AM

To: boe@fcps.org

Cc: Susan & Ed Polansky; DonnaC4BOE@adelphia.net

Subject: TBVI Information

Dan Becker spoke to you Wednesday evening during the Budget Feedback Meeting to consider the staffing needs for our blind and visually impaired students; in particular, the required number of highly trained Teachers of the Blind and Visually Impaired (TBVI).

My husband was speaking to you Wednesday night, not just for our family, but also for several other families. In attendance with us one Wednesday was, our daughter, Rachel, an 11th grader; Susan Polansky and her son, Jason, a fifth grader who will enter middle school next year; Traci Musgrove representing her 8-year-old daughter who was just diagnosed in November with a degenerative eye disorder; and the family of Mirhi, a young lady who along with a vision disability, is in a wheelchair--the board did not see Mirhi or her parents last evening as the wheelchair lift in the building was not working. Mirhi has consult services and evaluations on her IEP, and yet is not receiving those. (Mirhi's parents did take turns in the room, but one of them stayed with Mirhi downstairs.)

Please understand that those who were able to make the meeting were not all of those who are concerned about the over-committed status of our current teachers. Some other examples are:

Rachel, going from Pre-K to Kindergarten next year, which will change her current requirements from consult services to direct services, and also an increase in hours per week.

Zoe, has already experienced a cut in direct hours of service to the point of one-half of the hours that the IEP states.

Jen, a senior in Urbana has not been able to adequately address transition needs due to the time limitations

We as individual families, and as a unique group of parents of wonderfully great students, ask, that you, the Board of Education of Frederick County carefully consider the staffing needs of Teachers of the Blind and Visually Impaired on the basis of PROJECTED IEP hours for the 2007/2008 school year, NOT on current staff availability.

Typically, as a student advances through the school grades, their vision instruction requirements increase. In order to review the needs of our students effectively, you should contact Ina Wolf who is the Central Coordinator for Special Education. Her contact number is 301-644-5284.

The BOE should also be aware that the time a TBVI needs for each student is not limited to direct contact or consult hours. The hours that each student requires must also include, tri-annual testing, transitional services, technology assessments, attendance at IEP meetings, and planning time.

Thank you for your attention to this matter.

Sincerely,

Danielle Becker

301.695.7657

710 Angelwing Lane

Frederick, MD 21703

***************************************************************************************************************************************************

From: Danielle Becker [mailto:Danielle@BeckerConsultants.com]

Sent: Friday, February 23, 2007 9:25 AM

To: DonnaC4BOE@adelphia.net

Cc: Susan & Ed Polansky

Subject: Additional Information

Dear Mrs. Crook,

Thank you for introducing yourself to us last evening. I just sent you an email with more details on the status of TBVI requirements in FCPS. However, I had a few other thoughts that I wanted to share with you. I am not sure that this is appropriate for the entire board, but thought you may give us guidance on that. First, I would like to state that we are very happy with the quality and dedication of the current TBVI staff. Rachel has received excellent training during her "career" at FCPS. However, we are very concerned at the current TBVI staff availability. Over the past few years we have noticed their time become increasingly overloaded.

We have in fact seen that in the past two years TBVI staff have been required to miss their normally scheduled direct consult time with various students to accomodate other students requirements. For example, attendance by a TBVI to an IEP meeting, evalutation consult, technology assessments, or tri-annual testing.

By law, they are actually required to make up any missed direct consult time. However, currently it is impossible for them to accomplish this with their over-commited case loads. If this situation is not corrected, we believe that parents will be forced to use legal methods to ensure their students get the training required by their IEPs. However, we really believe that if it comes to legal action then FCPS and the parents have already lost the battle.

If you have any thoughts on the appropriate way to share this information please let us know.

Sincerely,

Dan & Danielle Becker

301.695.7657

710 Angelwing Lane

Frederick, MD 21703