CONCERNING BLIND STUDENT EDUCATION
WHEREAS
the Florida School for the Deaf and Blind was established in
the 1900's to
address the needs of the State's blind youth for general education
and to teach
the special skills of blindness and has done so successfully; and
WHEREAS
the school has a history of providing braille and mobility training
not available in
many school districts, thus making those essential skills freely available
only by
sending children away from their families, friends and communities;
and
WHEREAS
local school districts are now required under the Individuals with
Disabilities
Education Act and the Florida Braille Leteracy Act to provide education
in the
skills of blindness in their local school programs; and
WHEREAS
it has been well established in elementary, middle and high schools
that blind
students receive a better academic and social education as mainstreamed
students, participating in regular school classes and local community
activities;
and
WHEREAS
most youths, including those who are blind, do better in the warmth
of their
families and home communities rather than in residential programs;
and
WHEREAS
regretfully, many school districts continue to send their students
whose only
disability is blindness to the Florida School for the Deaf and blind,
refusing to
provide certified instructors in the children's own schools disregarding
the IDEA
THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED
that the National Federation Of The Blind Of Florida assembled in convention
this
30th day in May, 2005, in Boca Raton voice our strong objection to
any school
district that avoids its'responsibility by not offering both braille
and mobility
training for all blind students in their community, taught by certified
blindness skill
teachers; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED
the National Federation Of The Blind Of Florida categorically deplores
the
practice of sending blind students to residential school programs out
of the
student's County, shirking the moral and ethical responsibility to
teach the skills
of blindness to student's in their home communities.