What Is the Most Appropriate Placement for Children Who Are Blind or Low Vision?

There is a wealth of information and opinion available on the subject of the “best” school placement for children who are blind or low vision. I offer a word of caution and advice as you are wading through the vast information sources that give what may be contradictory advice. Each child (and family) is unique in their needs for accommodations and types of programs. What works well for one may fall flat for another. The best environment includes both time with sighted peers to develop community social skills, and time with others who are blind or low vision, to avoid isolation.

Educational Services

Residential/state schools for the blind
Resource room program in neighborhood schools specifically designed for students with blindness or low vision
Itinerant model, where teachers of students with visual impairments (TVIs) travel to the students’ local schools to provide instruction.

All three models have advantages and disadvantages. Let’s take a closer look at each.

Schools for the blind have trained teachers for academic and non-academic subjects, including the expanded core curriculum for visual disabilities. They provide specialized equipment for students with blindness or low vision. These schools are state-funded and don’t charge families for their services. Funding comes from the state department of education and the local education agency in your child’s community.

In some instances, there may not be a school for the blind in your state. In this case, your child may attend a school for the blind in a neighboring state. For example, Oregon recently closed its school for the blind and now has an agreement that allows Oregon students to be served at the Washington School for the Blind. In addition to state residential schools, there are private schools for the blind that accept students from anywhere for a fee. Most often payment is made by the student’s local school district.

Schools for the blind involve specific advantages and disadvantages. The advantage of schools for the blind is the opportunity to participate in fully-accessible educational, social, and recreational activities with peers who are also blind or low vision. The ability to identify with and learn from their peers with blindness or low vision typically provides a comfortable learning environment. These opportunities would likely be far more limited in the student’s neighborhood school districts. On the other hand, the disadvantages include a false sense of the general world where most people your child will encounter are sighted. Additionally, students attending a school for the blind residentially sacrifice much family time, as they are bused to school for the week and bused home for the weekends.

Resource Rooms

Some school districts cluster all of their children with blindness or low vision into one elementary school, one middle school, and one high school. This method maximizes teaching time, as the TVI spends minimal time driving between schools. Each child will visit the resource room for blindness-specific instruction in the expanded core curriculum and will spend the majority of time in a regular classroom. Alternatively, some schools will have resource rooms for general special education services. These environments will most likely be in your neighborhood school, and the various professionals will be of the itinerant model.

Resource rooms involve specific advantages and disadvantages. The advantages of the resource room include a great deal of time spent with the general population while retaining the possibility to receive daily blindness-specific instruction and easy access to materials that make the core curriculum accessible.

Additionally, the resource room allows students with blindness or low vision to socialize with each other in the environment. It also allows for the general staff to become trained and accustomed to working with our students. The disadvantages to being bused to a school with a resource room lie with not attending school with the child’s neighbors, which can make forging friendships a bit more challenging and may result in more drive time to attend social and academic events and parties.

Itinerant Teaching

In this model, the students with blindness or low vision attend neighborhood schools, and the TVI travels to them. The TVI provides the students with training in the expanded core curriculum, coach the general education teachers in providing accessible instruction, and guide the process of ordering and creating accessible textbooks and lesson materials. In many instances, there may only be a few children with blindness or low vision in the school district, making itinerant teaching the only option other than residential schools.

Itinerant teaching involves specific advantages and disadvantages. Itinerant teaching offers benefits like attending local schools, making local friends, joining community events, and integrating into the neighborhood. However, drawbacks include not having daily instruction from a TVI and limited access to necessary materials. Additionally, itinerant teaching provides little to no opportunity to interact with other children with blindness or low vision.

The Most Appropriate Placement

The nature and amount of teacher of students with visual impairments and orientation and mobility (O&M) services is individually determined. It is also driven by the Individualized Education Program (IEP) process or 504 Plan.

The IEP meeting discusses placement options. It suggests a placement that ensures proper instruction and peer interaction for those with blindness or low vision. Some students begin in one program. They may change placements as they progress through school to adapt to evolving needs for specialized support.

The elementary school years involve a great deal of specialized instruction in training such as braille and O&M. High school most often progresses to more accommodations (how are we going to handle geography or dissecting the frog in biology?!) with perhaps a reduced need for direct TVI instruction. On the other hand, certainly, the world of technology, which changes rapidly, will present opportunities for substantial direct instruction.

As to the question of attending a state school for the blind, whether private or state-run, each child has his or her unique reasons for attending the school. The goal is almost always to address the reasons and return the child to the local school program in months or more likely years. Very few children exclusively attend a school for the blind for all of their school programming.

Different School Options

When searching for the best schooling method for your child, consider which is the most appropriate environment for your child in this particular year. It is best to discuss your needs and options with the professionals on your child’s IEP team, other parents you have come to know, and by exploring your options. In my opinion, there is not one ideal method for instructing students with blindness or low vision, but options that each have advantages and disadvantages. The important point is striving for a balanced set of experiences that contribute to educational and social growth.

What are the choices or ingredients for creating a balanced mix? The two most prominent are placement within a school setting and after-school programs. The current trend leans towards inclusive environments, which means including your child with sighted peers. You can opt for options like a resource room or itinerant teaching. Additionally, consider utilizing short-term programs at your state school for the blind. These programs introduce your child to peers with blindness or low vision. Summer and weekend programs, in particular, offer opportunities to network with peers. They also provide a platform to discuss issues, tips, and techniques for dealing with vision loss in a sighted world.

A combination of environments will offer your child a greater variety of activities to help him or her develop appropriate social skills for use in the general community and the specialized skills needed to compensate for vision loss. The goal is to allow your child to maximize his or her personal, educational, and employment potential.