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Deaf, blind students adjusting to their new schools -- dailypress.com
Classes no longer meet on a historic 75-acre campus in Hampton, once home of the Virginia School for the Deaf, Blind and Multi-disabled.
In its heyday, the 100-year-old school served 500 students. Last year, there were fewer than 42 before it closed its doors in June.
The Hampton school's students scattered to six local school divisions and a state school in Staunton, the end result of an 11-year effort to consolidate Virginia's two residential schools for students with disabilities.
Members of the 11-year-old advisory commission charged with overseeing the consolidation received an update this week as they mulled their next steps and the state's budget crisis.
Staunton school Superintendent Nancy Armstrong said 19 multi-disabled students from the Hampton campus are at the Staunton facility, which retooled a residence hall and classrooms for them. The students have adjusted well, she said.
"We're integrating them as much as we can" into existing deaf and blind education departments, Armstrong told the commission. The 19 are the only multi-disabled students at the Staunton campus, which also serves 87 hearing-impaired and 28 blind students.
The Staunton school has hired 45 additional faculty and staff members to handle expanded education needs and has added a bus to ferry students to and from Hampton Roads on the weekends.
Sixteen students from the Hampton school remained in Hampton Roads, with three in Newport News and the rest in five other divisions. A team of three teachers from the old Hampton school have been working with the local students and their teachers, said state schools Director Karen Trump.
The other students are not currently enrolled, and one passed away, Trump reported.
For the students who now attend local schools, the adjustment process has been mixed, Trump said, reading a report from Phyllise Wilkins, director of outreach services for the Hampton school. The three teachers visit students two or three times each week and work with faculty and staff of the students' home divisions to help with adjustments and make sure the students federally required and guaranteed Individual Education Programs are being followed in their new schools.
The transition program will continue through July 1, but commission members are considering whether to ask for funding to continue transition services, or at least teacher training, beyond that date.
Commission members also talked about the fate of the Hampton campus, which the General Assembly said must be sold.
Last June, there was some question about whether the property would revert to the original owners, based on an early title clause, but State Director of Special Education Douglas Cox said a title search found no clauses, so the state can sell the property.
The Department of General Services is handling the property, and staff members have been talking with Hampton city officials about whether the city wants the land.
No decisions have been made yet, Cox said.
Classes no longer meet on a historic 75-acre campus in Hampton, once home of the Virginia School for the Deaf, Blind and Multi-disabled.
In its heyday, the 100-year-old school served 500 students. Last year, there were fewer than 42 before it closed its doors in June.
The Hampton school's students scattered to six local school divisions and a state school in Staunton, the end result of an 11-year effort to consolidate Virginia's two residential schools for students with disabilities.
Members of the 11-year-old advisory commission charged with overseeing the consolidation received an update this week as they mulled their next steps and the state's budget crisis.
Staunton school Superintendent Nancy Armstrong said 19 multi-disabled students from the Hampton campus are at the Staunton facility, which retooled a residence hall and classrooms for them. The students have adjusted well, she said.
"We're integrating them as much as we can" into existing deaf and blind education departments, Armstrong told the commission. The 19 are the only multi-disabled students at the Staunton campus, which also serves 87 hearing-impaired and 28 blind students.
The Staunton school has hired 45 additional faculty and staff members to handle expanded education needs and has added a bus to ferry students to and from Hampton Roads on the weekends.
Sixteen students from the Hampton school remained in Hampton Roads, with three in Newport News and the rest in five other divisions. A team of three teachers from the old Hampton school have been working with the local students and their teachers, said state schools Director Karen Trump.
The other students are not currently enrolled, and one passed away, Trump reported.
For the students who now attend local schools, the adjustment process has been mixed, Trump said, reading a report from Phyllise Wilkins, director of outreach services for the Hampton school. The three teachers visit students two or three times each week and work with faculty and staff of the students' home divisions to help with adjustments and make sure the students federally required and guaranteed Individual Education Programs are being followed in their new schools.
The transition program will continue through July 1, but commission members are considering whether to ask for funding to continue transition services, or at least teacher training, beyond that date.
Commission members also talked about the fate of the Hampton campus, which the General Assembly said must be sold.
Last June, there was some question about whether the property would revert to the original owners, based on an early title clause, but State Director of Special Education Douglas Cox said a title search found no clauses, so the state can sell the property.
The Department of General Services is handling the property, and staff members have been talking with Hampton city officials about whether the city wants the land.
No decisions have been made yet, Cox said.