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http://www.crgazette.com/2006/02/22/Home/News/iowabrailleschoollaw.htm
VINTON, IA - State officials will violate federal disability laws if they close the Iowa Braille and Sight Saving School in Vinton, according to a memo sent to the Iowa Board of Regents.
The Legal Center for Special Education sent the memo, which said reducing residential services for visually impaired Iowa students would constitute a violation of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.
Legal precedent exists for maintaining the facility in Vinton, wrote Curt Sytsma, legal director of the Des Moines center, a nonprofit group that provides legal advice and advocates for parents of disabled children.
"The law mandating a full continuum of placement options, including specialized residential schools, has been the established law of the land for more than three decades," Sytsma wrote in the memo.
The future of the school, which opened in 1862, has concerned the school's supporters for some time. State Rep. Dawn Pettengill, D-Mount Auburn, said she was concerned the regents had done little to boost the school's enrollment.
There are 34 students living on the 55-acre Vinton campus during the school year, nearly half the number that attended the school 20 years ago.
The school receives approximately $4 million in state aid. The majority of that money is spent at the Vinton campus, with about $1 million going toward services to the 525 other Iowa students who are blind.
The regents also oversee the Iowa School for the Deaf in Council Bluffs. That school, with a budget of $9.8 million, has 103 students.
Forty-one states offer schools for visually impaired students. In 13 of those states, schools for the visually impaired and deaf share facilities.
VINTON, IA - State officials will violate federal disability laws if they close the Iowa Braille and Sight Saving School in Vinton, according to a memo sent to the Iowa Board of Regents.
The Legal Center for Special Education sent the memo, which said reducing residential services for visually impaired Iowa students would constitute a violation of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.
Legal precedent exists for maintaining the facility in Vinton, wrote Curt Sytsma, legal director of the Des Moines center, a nonprofit group that provides legal advice and advocates for parents of disabled children.
"The law mandating a full continuum of placement options, including specialized residential schools, has been the established law of the land for more than three decades," Sytsma wrote in the memo.
The future of the school, which opened in 1862, has concerned the school's supporters for some time. State Rep. Dawn Pettengill, D-Mount Auburn, said she was concerned the regents had done little to boost the school's enrollment.
There are 34 students living on the 55-acre Vinton campus during the school year, nearly half the number that attended the school 20 years ago.
The school receives approximately $4 million in state aid. The majority of that money is spent at the Vinton campus, with about $1 million going toward services to the 525 other Iowa students who are blind.
The regents also oversee the Iowa School for the Deaf in Council Bluffs. That school, with a budget of $9.8 million, has 103 students.
Forty-one states offer schools for visually impaired students. In 13 of those states, schools for the visually impaired and deaf share facilities.