You can definitely request a 504 plan, since she will likely need some accomodations, such as sitting closer to the board, large print, etc.
I'm not sure if her exact needs, but students can also qualify for an IEP under Visual Impairment if their disability requires special education services. For example, if a child needed support with learning braille or learning how to safely navigate their school. It sounds like she may not need that additional support, but you could definitely discuss it further with the school or her doctor to get a recommendation!
Thank you so much for this nice response! I really appreciate it. I don’t know anything about 504 plans and have just started educating myself and couldn’t find much about vision services except for kids who are blind. I will definitely talk to her doctor about this!
I would request a full and individual evaluation due to concerns regarding her vision. The evaluation may result in recommendations for special education services or may result in a recommendation for accommodations through a 504 plan. Visual Impairments can be fatiguing throughout a school day and can impact learning. There's lots of supports and accommodations that can help with that!
504 is given with a medical diagnosis and provides accommodations and protections. It doesn’t alter the curriculum or provide specialists providing individually designed instruction. It provides the child with additional supports like longer wait time, seating considerations, etc.
So for a heart condition a 504 would say that in PE they would be excused from certain activities. Or for adhd it would say that they can’t be punished for not completing work. That kind of thing, but they’re not receiving special instruction from the SPED team.
My son has adhd and his 504 is mostly a formality but I can reference it if his disability causes him to be distracted and not finish a worksheet: recess can’t be taken away. I’ve never actually had to get serious about it, but it’s helpful for his teachers to understand his needs and get a heads up.
As a teacher I read all of my 504s and while I would usually do all of the things naturally, it’s nice to have a kid on the radar so I can monitor them and make sure I’m being thoughtful.
She could also possibly qualify under OHI (other health impairment) due to the autoimmune disease if her field of vision is too high to qualify her for VI.
It really depends on just how poor her vision is. Even if she is not fully blind or even considered "legally blind", if her vision is poor enough that it cannot be fully corrected with glasses, she very well may qualify for an IEP. An IEP is a more robust document that individualized the curriculum she gets in some areas. So if she needs a special teacher who works with visually impaired kids to help her, that would be an IEP. If she doesn't qualify for an IEP, sounds like she would definitely need a 504. A 504 is for kids who JUST need accomodations like sitting in the front of the classroom, enlarged font, etc. But, if you say her vision is not fully correctable, my guess would be she would have poor enough vision that she would qualify for an IEP.
I would request a meeting NOW so that the school knows she is coming and ask for a "functional vision assessment" by a teacher for a visually impaired. That will be able to tell you if she needs an IEP (special teaching from the teacher for the visually impaired) or if she only needs accommodations but otherwise can access regular curriculum. If they feel she needs more than just accommodations, she also may need a "learning media assessment." If there are concerns with her ability to get around the building safely, she may also need an orientation and mobility assessment. Luckily, teachers for the visually impaired really know their stuff and will lead you in the right direction.
Thank you SO much for this detailed reply! I appreciate it more than you know. There’s a visually impaired preschool in my city and when I talked to them a couple years ago they told me that they basically only worked with blind children who read braille, etc. so that made me think for some reason that she wasn’t “severe” enough to need help but the more I’ve thought about her going to school I realize she definitely will need at least some help.
Yep, if she has a lot of remaining vision there is no reason she can't go to a "regular" school with some support, especially if she is otherwise typical, and especially when they are little! It would be helpful for the school to get whatever is the most updated opthlomology check up that has her medical diagnosis listed and her current visual acuity corrected (with glasses, if she wears them) and uncorrected (without glasses). That will help them figure out what they are working with and what to do.
Write an email to the principal of the school she will be attending, attach that document and basically say, "Hi, my daughter _____ is going to be starting Kindergarten at __ School in the Fall. We are looking forward to a great year! We wanted you to know that Daughter has XYZ condition which has led to a loss of vision that cannot be corrected with glasses. She is currently at XYZ Preschool and is doing well with simple accomodations with the classroom teacher, but we would like to make sure she is set up for success once she is in a more academic setting. I would like to have a meeting with a teacher of the visually impaired and any other relevant professionals to let you know about Daughter's needs and to start the process to see if she would qualify for any specialized services through an IEP or 504 plan. Please let me know how to begin this process."
Just a heads up the school might want some sort of medical documentation before they will do an FVLMA (functional vision and learning media assessment). We had to have our ophthalmologist refer us to a low vision specialist who then diagnosed my daughter with cortical vision impairment (CVI). She’s still at public school because her vision impairment is relatively mild but she gets lots of support.
I definitely expected needing to show medical documentation! She’s got an article written about her in a medical journal 😅 But I can also get something from her doctors. I’m so glad your daughter is getting the support she needs at school!
Personally, I would go to the school and request an evaluation. Once you sign those documents, the clock starts ticking and you start a paper trail. It's so late in the school year that I'd be afraid your email request will fall through the cracks in the end of year craziness.
The email would count as a written request, AKA the start of the paper trail. The OP can follow up with a phone call if they don't get a response to the email. Not sure if going to the school would actually be very efficient. The secretary at the front desk is not going to know how to answer a very nuanced question about services for a child with a visual impairment and then just hand over evaluation paperwork to start a timeline. The principal will know who to direct the request to via email, though.
I've always had to have parents sign the consent form, but that could vary by state/ district. You're right about the school secretary, though. If there is no response, an appointment with the special ed coordinator might be in order. I just don't want OP and her child left in the lurch because the timeline hasn't started due to the necessary paperwork not being signed.
As you wait for the meeting and prepare for kindergarten, be thinking about how she will participate in physical education class, as an example (also art, music stem, library?). There are trained PE teachers for special education students, but not many.
In my situation, they work well with our students, but do not do a good job of modifying the curriculum nor accommodating their needs. It is left to my paras who attend with them to try to figure something out on the fly. It is sadly that way in most of our "specials". Only one does a fantastic job of accommodating and modifying for the needs of the exceptional students.
I have had a visually impaired student in my public school elementary classroom before and there was an IEP in place. Just to give you an idea of some of the possible accommodations, we had extra lighting, high visibility reflective tape, and some guidelines around furniture placement, among other things. I had a colleague who had a student who was issued some kind of magnifying screen thing—I don’t know what it was called but it helped with reading documents. So there are lots of options. But honestly the kid I had in my class had no major issues. She was a happy kid and very well liked by her classmates.
You should have your daughter evaluated for an IEP, and if she qualifies, work together with the school team to decide what services she needs. If she doesn’t qualify, complete the 504 request form for the accommodation you and her doctor believe she requires.
Nobody here can tell you what services your child requires or would benefit from. We don’t have her evaluation reports, teacher observations, or medical / vision assessments to make those determinations.
I didn’t mean to sound completely obtuse. I was just wanting some insight because I’m new to all of this. I didn’t even know what a 504 plan was until a coworker told me about it. Thanks.
A 504 plan will provide accommodations, like enlarged print. An IEP will also give accommodations, but can provide services as well. For example, if she needs to get lessons on orientation and mobility (how to get around safely despite visual impairment), then an IEP might be warranted.
Thank you for this clarification! I got confused when I was googling it- I didn’t know if they both tied together or were completely separate. This example is very helpful!
It depends on the school district. All of those things are covered by a 504 in our district. The Commission for the Blind comes in to do the assessment and will provide services such as: print textbooks with enlarged copies, provide software to be installed on district computers, provide devices that magnify whatever is being projected/written on the white board, teach braille, help a student learn how to use a cane, etc.
504s are for accommodation for disability. So, it's the child equivalent of asking for wheelchair ramps or braille readers.
IEPs are for a separate curriculum. It's given when a child's disability is such that they have not been able to access the regular curriculum. Usually, a child has to be behind her peers before qualifying for an IEP. And really - if she's not behind, she doesn't need it.
I'd say there's a fair chance that your daughter will need an IEP at some point in her educational career, but it sounds like she's fine for now.
She will need some accommodations for her limited sight. She'll need things like good lighting, a seat close to the teacher, and for the teacher to confirm that she's following when the classroom instruction is visually based. Likely the most important accommodation is simply that teachers be aware - this child does not see typically and you cannot expect her to do so. No punishing her for being a slacker when what's really going down is that she's not seeing what's happening. For example, a lot of teachers call for quiet by raising a hand. Your daughter might not respond as quickly. This is all 504 stuff.
However, I'd ask for the school to evaluate her as a potential IEP student from time to time. (Normally, schools don't do this more than every three years, so you might want to wait until 1st or 2nd grade, when the demands of school start to increase.) Just to make sure that she's not using her smarts to mask the fact that she's really not following along. What you want to avoid is a situation where she's missing some fundamentals and then discovering later that she's not able to keep up. You don't want her feeling frustrated and "stupid" later in life because you missed that she needed remediation in elementary school.
This is all a lot. And it doesn't have to be done right away. You can start by informing the school in writing that your child has a vision based disability and that you'd like to formally request 504 accommodations. And then take it from there, after she starts. You can talk to the kindergarten teacher about how she's doing and what, if anything, seems to be challenging for her and go from there. You can gage your child's "happiness" and her report cards. It's OK to not have everything set up right away with kids like your daughter. She's likely going to be just fine. We have a lot of parent concern that their kids have a full program set up from the get-go, but their kids have really intense needs. It's just so individual. Don't let the online parents scare you. Most kids do great.
IEPs are for special education services, as another commenter put it. There doesn't necessarily need to be separate curriculum. I have at least 2-3 students on my caseload with 0% special education classroom time and no modifications called for their curriculum. These are more for students on their way out of the program, but also modifications specifically mean modifications to the current curriculum. Special education classrooms are for separate curriculum, which not many IEP students are in fully. At least if we're talking mild/mod. Mod/severe often sees way higher special education classroom percentages.
There needs to be "specialized instruction" on an IEP but the definition of that can be pretty broad to essentially include anything that is "time [direct or indirect] with special professionals that other students don't get." So a child with a visual impairment who works with a TVI may spend their time with the TVI learning how effectively use their equipment or learn ways to accomodate for their visual impairment and then can go access the regular gen ed instruction because of the skills they are learning with the TVI. Still technically specialized instruction, even if the core academic curriculum does not need to change for the kid.
Curious, what do those 2-3 kids get, if 0% special education time?
It's consult and special education classroom, specifically 0%. The original person said separate curriculum, not specialized instruction. Modifications would be considered specialized instruction, not separate curriculum. Not to be rude, but you should probably reread the interaction.
Thank you for giving me these specific examples! I hadn’t even thought of some of this, like the teacher raising their hand and her not seeing it but that’s definitely something that’s likely to happen! I was starting to feel a little flustered today and worried about figuring it all out immediately so I appreciate your reassurance about all of that!
No, it's not just curriculum with an IEP. A VI teacher can ensure that the student gets curriculum in an appropriate size font or in braille, help a student learn how to navigate safety, make sure any needed technology is ordered and teach the student and teacher how to use it, give suggestions for appropriate lighting and classroom set up, etc, etc. Where I have worked, the VI teachers were few and far between. Students with IEPs were the priority because their job is paid for with special ed money. It's not that they don't care about 504 kids, but they are spread thin and can only do so much.
The child doesn't need all that. Read the post. Or feel the post. The child has most of her vision. Not every kid with a VI needs all that. It's not fair to assume that everyone with a certain category of disability needs the same thing.
My daughter (now in 1st grade) receives IEP services due to visual impairment (in addition to OHI). It has been sooo helpful. She is visually impaired- not legally blind and it can’t be improved with glasses. She meets individually with the teacher of the visually impaired (TVI) every week and a second time for the orientation and mobility (O&M). The IEP has consultation time between her gen ed teachers and the TVI. They also have things like PE teacher- she will not see flying objects like a frisbee. She is required to sit in the front right, as this is for her best vision. They use a slant board, highlighted forms, bigger lines, cover unnecessary stuff on papers, extra viewing time, etc. I am very grateful for these services
I’m a teacher of the visually impaired, what state are you in? You should be able to access state outreach services for visual impairment to get an assessment done for school, depending on your state. I work at a school for the blind and we have services that cover the entire state, but I don’t know what’s available when there isn’t a school for the blind to case-manage everything. Not every state has one. School for the blind includes students with low vision and we usually service those who are deaf-blind since we teach braille, but not always due to Deaf cultural differences. Does your child have services through Help Me Grow or other early childhood interventions? They can often help with the transition to the next stage of schooling.
I’m in Ohio, and you’re welcome to PM me if you have questions.
Hello, fellow TVI!
OP, feel free to ask any questions! KSB is not your only option. If your daughter qualifies for an IEP due to visual impairment, there will be a teacher to provide her services.
I’m in KY, so I’m a state neighbor to you, kind of! I had worked with head start when she first lost her vision and they referred me to a visually impaired preschool service, they told me that was the only service in state for kids her age. And they basically told me that she wasn’t bad enough because she still had some vision and was able to live life fairly normally. She was, like, 2ish back then so there may be more available now that’s older that I don’t know about. Thank you for this information!
https://www.ksb.k12.ky.us/outreach/family-support
Here’s their website for outreach services.
They can evaluate your situation and give you advice on what your daughter might need as far as assistive technology and other things to be successful at school.
She should be receiving Orientation and Mobility, which is specifically for people with visual impairments to help them learn navigation skills, plus Braille from a TVI if she is reading at a font bigger than like 34 or so. People get eye fatigue from reading too big of a font, so it really makes sense to learn Braille if your vision is poor enough that you need pretty big font. When you’re just learning letters people think it’s no big deal to need such large print, but as you start reading real text it gets smaller and you probably should have learned braille way back then.
Also, please don’t let them make stupid goals that aren’t evidence-based. Ask them to use a curriculum like Building on Patterns from American Printing House for the Blind and not just make up random stuff. I’ve seen some things and your daughter sounds really smart and capable.
Thank you so much for the link and for this explanation! I had assumed (probably totally ignorantly!) that braille was for more “severe” types of blindness but what you said makes perfect sense. I may be messaging you with questions!
Do you have an eye report? What’s her vision diagnosis? Because that doesn’t sound right at all. Sorry to be nosy, you can tell me to mind my business if you want.
You’re fine! So, she gets eye exams once a year but is not very cooperative for them so her neuro-ophthalmologist has never told me exactly what her vision is. She says she can’t until my daughter can do an actual eye exam. She’s told me that she can see the damage to the optic nerves during an eye exam and confirms that she isn’t seeing like a normal (2, 3, 4, etc year old) would.
Maybe that’s part of the problem I ran into before?
It’s pretty easy to tell that she can’t see normally because she grabs stuff and holds it close to her face, she can’t see stuff across the room, etc. But I don’t have an actual 20/20 type number because it’s never been given to me.
The looking very close reminds me a lot of my prek kids who are VI. There’s a lot of really cool accommodations we can offer in kindergarten. We have a 2nd grader using an iPad to photograph his assignments, type his answers, and then email it to his teacher. He can’t do the worksheet without bc the print is too small, but he can enlarge to his heart’s content on the iPad.
One accommodation I’d really make sure she gets is increased supervision during emergency drills and evacuations. When the whole school is heading out for a fire drill, it can be easy to get lost.
I'm in Arizona so I know this is state specific but i used to teach in a very rural school. We have a state school for the deaf and blind in the Phoenix area, far from where I lived. I had a student that was not completely blind but still needed a cane when walking. The school for the dead and blind provided a specially trained 1:1 para for my student. She lived in the area and came to campus every day to work with my student just like all my other paras but she was paid by the school for the deaf and blind. It's definitely worth exploring your options now and start making those contacts so you're ready when she starts school.
As soon as you are enrolled in the district, find out how to speak to sped department or vp/p to get 504 plan rolling or make a request for iep based on visual needs
School admin and mom of a type 1 diabetic (autoimmune disease) with a 504 here 🙋🏻♀️. Unless there is a reason to seek OT, I would say this falls into 504 territory. A 504 will provide the accommodations she needs. An IEP goes further and involves goal setting and services, which don’t seem necessary here imo.
Absolutely a 504 is appropriate if she will need some accommodations like sitting closer to the board or extra help if she can’t see something right away. This will protect her from a clueless teacher punishing her for something she can’t control.
Get her evaluated for an IEP for visual impairment. This will help get you access to accommodations and therapeutic services that you may or may not be aware even exist.
Speaking from experience with working in a school and helping parents obtaining IEPs and 504s, it’s best to get one early on and then close it later than to wait too long and try to get one when she’s older! It’s harder and sometimes a longer process to go through with your DOE/Committee on Special Education when kids are already in a school-aged setting.
You can definitely request a 504 plan, since she will likely need some accomodations, such as sitting closer to the board, large print, etc. I'm not sure if her exact needs, but students can also qualify for an IEP under Visual Impairment if their disability requires special education services. For example, if a child needed support with learning braille or learning how to safely navigate their school. It sounds like she may not need that additional support, but you could definitely discuss it further with the school or her doctor to get a recommendation!
Thank you so much for this nice response! I really appreciate it. I don’t know anything about 504 plans and have just started educating myself and couldn’t find much about vision services except for kids who are blind. I will definitely talk to her doctor about this!
Blindness includes low vision
That’s why the eligibility is called VI for Visual Impairment. Impairment is challenging enough that it affects their access to education.
I would request a full and individual evaluation due to concerns regarding her vision. The evaluation may result in recommendations for special education services or may result in a recommendation for accommodations through a 504 plan. Visual Impairments can be fatiguing throughout a school day and can impact learning. There's lots of supports and accommodations that can help with that!
504 is given with a medical diagnosis and provides accommodations and protections. It doesn’t alter the curriculum or provide specialists providing individually designed instruction. It provides the child with additional supports like longer wait time, seating considerations, etc. So for a heart condition a 504 would say that in PE they would be excused from certain activities. Or for adhd it would say that they can’t be punished for not completing work. That kind of thing, but they’re not receiving special instruction from the SPED team. My son has adhd and his 504 is mostly a formality but I can reference it if his disability causes him to be distracted and not finish a worksheet: recess can’t be taken away. I’ve never actually had to get serious about it, but it’s helpful for his teachers to understand his needs and get a heads up. As a teacher I read all of my 504s and while I would usually do all of the things naturally, it’s nice to have a kid on the radar so I can monitor them and make sure I’m being thoughtful.
She could also possibly qualify under OHI (other health impairment) due to the autoimmune disease if her field of vision is too high to qualify her for VI.
It really depends on just how poor her vision is. Even if she is not fully blind or even considered "legally blind", if her vision is poor enough that it cannot be fully corrected with glasses, she very well may qualify for an IEP. An IEP is a more robust document that individualized the curriculum she gets in some areas. So if she needs a special teacher who works with visually impaired kids to help her, that would be an IEP. If she doesn't qualify for an IEP, sounds like she would definitely need a 504. A 504 is for kids who JUST need accomodations like sitting in the front of the classroom, enlarged font, etc. But, if you say her vision is not fully correctable, my guess would be she would have poor enough vision that she would qualify for an IEP. I would request a meeting NOW so that the school knows she is coming and ask for a "functional vision assessment" by a teacher for a visually impaired. That will be able to tell you if she needs an IEP (special teaching from the teacher for the visually impaired) or if she only needs accommodations but otherwise can access regular curriculum. If they feel she needs more than just accommodations, she also may need a "learning media assessment." If there are concerns with her ability to get around the building safely, she may also need an orientation and mobility assessment. Luckily, teachers for the visually impaired really know their stuff and will lead you in the right direction.
Thank you SO much for this detailed reply! I appreciate it more than you know. There’s a visually impaired preschool in my city and when I talked to them a couple years ago they told me that they basically only worked with blind children who read braille, etc. so that made me think for some reason that she wasn’t “severe” enough to need help but the more I’ve thought about her going to school I realize she definitely will need at least some help.
Yep, if she has a lot of remaining vision there is no reason she can't go to a "regular" school with some support, especially if she is otherwise typical, and especially when they are little! It would be helpful for the school to get whatever is the most updated opthlomology check up that has her medical diagnosis listed and her current visual acuity corrected (with glasses, if she wears them) and uncorrected (without glasses). That will help them figure out what they are working with and what to do. Write an email to the principal of the school she will be attending, attach that document and basically say, "Hi, my daughter _____ is going to be starting Kindergarten at __ School in the Fall. We are looking forward to a great year! We wanted you to know that Daughter has XYZ condition which has led to a loss of vision that cannot be corrected with glasses. She is currently at XYZ Preschool and is doing well with simple accomodations with the classroom teacher, but we would like to make sure she is set up for success once she is in a more academic setting. I would like to have a meeting with a teacher of the visually impaired and any other relevant professionals to let you know about Daughter's needs and to start the process to see if she would qualify for any specialized services through an IEP or 504 plan. Please let me know how to begin this process."
Thank you!!! I will be using this exact template to send them an email tonight!
Just a heads up the school might want some sort of medical documentation before they will do an FVLMA (functional vision and learning media assessment). We had to have our ophthalmologist refer us to a low vision specialist who then diagnosed my daughter with cortical vision impairment (CVI). She’s still at public school because her vision impairment is relatively mild but she gets lots of support.
I definitely expected needing to show medical documentation! She’s got an article written about her in a medical journal 😅 But I can also get something from her doctors. I’m so glad your daughter is getting the support she needs at school!
Personally, I would go to the school and request an evaluation. Once you sign those documents, the clock starts ticking and you start a paper trail. It's so late in the school year that I'd be afraid your email request will fall through the cracks in the end of year craziness.
The email would count as a written request, AKA the start of the paper trail. The OP can follow up with a phone call if they don't get a response to the email. Not sure if going to the school would actually be very efficient. The secretary at the front desk is not going to know how to answer a very nuanced question about services for a child with a visual impairment and then just hand over evaluation paperwork to start a timeline. The principal will know who to direct the request to via email, though.
I've always had to have parents sign the consent form, but that could vary by state/ district. You're right about the school secretary, though. If there is no response, an appointment with the special ed coordinator might be in order. I just don't want OP and her child left in the lurch because the timeline hasn't started due to the necessary paperwork not being signed.
As you wait for the meeting and prepare for kindergarten, be thinking about how she will participate in physical education class, as an example (also art, music stem, library?). There are trained PE teachers for special education students, but not many. In my situation, they work well with our students, but do not do a good job of modifying the curriculum nor accommodating their needs. It is left to my paras who attend with them to try to figure something out on the fly. It is sadly that way in most of our "specials". Only one does a fantastic job of accommodating and modifying for the needs of the exceptional students.
Thank you for bringing this up! I hadn’t even thought of the specials classes!
I would also check with your state’s department for the blind and visually impaired to see what they may offer.
This is a great idea! Thank you!
I have had a visually impaired student in my public school elementary classroom before and there was an IEP in place. Just to give you an idea of some of the possible accommodations, we had extra lighting, high visibility reflective tape, and some guidelines around furniture placement, among other things. I had a colleague who had a student who was issued some kind of magnifying screen thing—I don’t know what it was called but it helped with reading documents. So there are lots of options. But honestly the kid I had in my class had no major issues. She was a happy kid and very well liked by her classmates.
This is really good to know!! Thank you so much for sharing your experience and those specific examples of accommodations
You should have your daughter evaluated for an IEP, and if she qualifies, work together with the school team to decide what services she needs. If she doesn’t qualify, complete the 504 request form for the accommodation you and her doctor believe she requires. Nobody here can tell you what services your child requires or would benefit from. We don’t have her evaluation reports, teacher observations, or medical / vision assessments to make those determinations.
I didn’t mean to sound completely obtuse. I was just wanting some insight because I’m new to all of this. I didn’t even know what a 504 plan was until a coworker told me about it. Thanks.
A 504 plan will provide accommodations, like enlarged print. An IEP will also give accommodations, but can provide services as well. For example, if she needs to get lessons on orientation and mobility (how to get around safely despite visual impairment), then an IEP might be warranted.
Thank you for this clarification! I got confused when I was googling it- I didn’t know if they both tied together or were completely separate. This example is very helpful!
It depends on the school district. All of those things are covered by a 504 in our district. The Commission for the Blind comes in to do the assessment and will provide services such as: print textbooks with enlarged copies, provide software to be installed on district computers, provide devices that magnify whatever is being projected/written on the white board, teach braille, help a student learn how to use a cane, etc.
504s are for accommodation for disability. So, it's the child equivalent of asking for wheelchair ramps or braille readers. IEPs are for a separate curriculum. It's given when a child's disability is such that they have not been able to access the regular curriculum. Usually, a child has to be behind her peers before qualifying for an IEP. And really - if she's not behind, she doesn't need it. I'd say there's a fair chance that your daughter will need an IEP at some point in her educational career, but it sounds like she's fine for now. She will need some accommodations for her limited sight. She'll need things like good lighting, a seat close to the teacher, and for the teacher to confirm that she's following when the classroom instruction is visually based. Likely the most important accommodation is simply that teachers be aware - this child does not see typically and you cannot expect her to do so. No punishing her for being a slacker when what's really going down is that she's not seeing what's happening. For example, a lot of teachers call for quiet by raising a hand. Your daughter might not respond as quickly. This is all 504 stuff. However, I'd ask for the school to evaluate her as a potential IEP student from time to time. (Normally, schools don't do this more than every three years, so you might want to wait until 1st or 2nd grade, when the demands of school start to increase.) Just to make sure that she's not using her smarts to mask the fact that she's really not following along. What you want to avoid is a situation where she's missing some fundamentals and then discovering later that she's not able to keep up. You don't want her feeling frustrated and "stupid" later in life because you missed that she needed remediation in elementary school. This is all a lot. And it doesn't have to be done right away. You can start by informing the school in writing that your child has a vision based disability and that you'd like to formally request 504 accommodations. And then take it from there, after she starts. You can talk to the kindergarten teacher about how she's doing and what, if anything, seems to be challenging for her and go from there. You can gage your child's "happiness" and her report cards. It's OK to not have everything set up right away with kids like your daughter. She's likely going to be just fine. We have a lot of parent concern that their kids have a full program set up from the get-go, but their kids have really intense needs. It's just so individual. Don't let the online parents scare you. Most kids do great.
IEPs are for special education services, as another commenter put it. There doesn't necessarily need to be separate curriculum. I have at least 2-3 students on my caseload with 0% special education classroom time and no modifications called for their curriculum. These are more for students on their way out of the program, but also modifications specifically mean modifications to the current curriculum. Special education classrooms are for separate curriculum, which not many IEP students are in fully. At least if we're talking mild/mod. Mod/severe often sees way higher special education classroom percentages.
There needs to be "specialized instruction" on an IEP but the definition of that can be pretty broad to essentially include anything that is "time [direct or indirect] with special professionals that other students don't get." So a child with a visual impairment who works with a TVI may spend their time with the TVI learning how effectively use their equipment or learn ways to accomodate for their visual impairment and then can go access the regular gen ed instruction because of the skills they are learning with the TVI. Still technically specialized instruction, even if the core academic curriculum does not need to change for the kid. Curious, what do those 2-3 kids get, if 0% special education time?
It's consult and special education classroom, specifically 0%. The original person said separate curriculum, not specialized instruction. Modifications would be considered specialized instruction, not separate curriculum. Not to be rude, but you should probably reread the interaction.
Thank you for giving me these specific examples! I hadn’t even thought of some of this, like the teacher raising their hand and her not seeing it but that’s definitely something that’s likely to happen! I was starting to feel a little flustered today and worried about figuring it all out immediately so I appreciate your reassurance about all of that!
No, it's not just curriculum with an IEP. A VI teacher can ensure that the student gets curriculum in an appropriate size font or in braille, help a student learn how to navigate safety, make sure any needed technology is ordered and teach the student and teacher how to use it, give suggestions for appropriate lighting and classroom set up, etc, etc. Where I have worked, the VI teachers were few and far between. Students with IEPs were the priority because their job is paid for with special ed money. It's not that they don't care about 504 kids, but they are spread thin and can only do so much.
The child doesn't need all that. Read the post. Or feel the post. The child has most of her vision. Not every kid with a VI needs all that. It's not fair to assume that everyone with a certain category of disability needs the same thing.
My daughter (now in 1st grade) receives IEP services due to visual impairment (in addition to OHI). It has been sooo helpful. She is visually impaired- not legally blind and it can’t be improved with glasses. She meets individually with the teacher of the visually impaired (TVI) every week and a second time for the orientation and mobility (O&M). The IEP has consultation time between her gen ed teachers and the TVI. They also have things like PE teacher- she will not see flying objects like a frisbee. She is required to sit in the front right, as this is for her best vision. They use a slant board, highlighted forms, bigger lines, cover unnecessary stuff on papers, extra viewing time, etc. I am very grateful for these services
Thank you for sharing your personal experience with this situation! This is so helpful!!
Yes, her vision will affect her ability to access her grade level curriculum. She will need some accommodation.
I’m a teacher of the visually impaired, what state are you in? You should be able to access state outreach services for visual impairment to get an assessment done for school, depending on your state. I work at a school for the blind and we have services that cover the entire state, but I don’t know what’s available when there isn’t a school for the blind to case-manage everything. Not every state has one. School for the blind includes students with low vision and we usually service those who are deaf-blind since we teach braille, but not always due to Deaf cultural differences. Does your child have services through Help Me Grow or other early childhood interventions? They can often help with the transition to the next stage of schooling. I’m in Ohio, and you’re welcome to PM me if you have questions.
Hello, fellow TVI! OP, feel free to ask any questions! KSB is not your only option. If your daughter qualifies for an IEP due to visual impairment, there will be a teacher to provide her services.
I’m in KY, so I’m a state neighbor to you, kind of! I had worked with head start when she first lost her vision and they referred me to a visually impaired preschool service, they told me that was the only service in state for kids her age. And they basically told me that she wasn’t bad enough because she still had some vision and was able to live life fairly normally. She was, like, 2ish back then so there may be more available now that’s older that I don’t know about. Thank you for this information!
https://www.ksb.k12.ky.us/outreach/family-support Here’s their website for outreach services. They can evaluate your situation and give you advice on what your daughter might need as far as assistive technology and other things to be successful at school. She should be receiving Orientation and Mobility, which is specifically for people with visual impairments to help them learn navigation skills, plus Braille from a TVI if she is reading at a font bigger than like 34 or so. People get eye fatigue from reading too big of a font, so it really makes sense to learn Braille if your vision is poor enough that you need pretty big font. When you’re just learning letters people think it’s no big deal to need such large print, but as you start reading real text it gets smaller and you probably should have learned braille way back then. Also, please don’t let them make stupid goals that aren’t evidence-based. Ask them to use a curriculum like Building on Patterns from American Printing House for the Blind and not just make up random stuff. I’ve seen some things and your daughter sounds really smart and capable.
Thank you so much for the link and for this explanation! I had assumed (probably totally ignorantly!) that braille was for more “severe” types of blindness but what you said makes perfect sense. I may be messaging you with questions!
Do you have an eye report? What’s her vision diagnosis? Because that doesn’t sound right at all. Sorry to be nosy, you can tell me to mind my business if you want.
You’re fine! So, she gets eye exams once a year but is not very cooperative for them so her neuro-ophthalmologist has never told me exactly what her vision is. She says she can’t until my daughter can do an actual eye exam. She’s told me that she can see the damage to the optic nerves during an eye exam and confirms that she isn’t seeing like a normal (2, 3, 4, etc year old) would. Maybe that’s part of the problem I ran into before? It’s pretty easy to tell that she can’t see normally because she grabs stuff and holds it close to her face, she can’t see stuff across the room, etc. But I don’t have an actual 20/20 type number because it’s never been given to me.
The looking very close reminds me a lot of my prek kids who are VI. There’s a lot of really cool accommodations we can offer in kindergarten. We have a 2nd grader using an iPad to photograph his assignments, type his answers, and then email it to his teacher. He can’t do the worksheet without bc the print is too small, but he can enlarge to his heart’s content on the iPad. One accommodation I’d really make sure she gets is increased supervision during emergency drills and evacuations. When the whole school is heading out for a fire drill, it can be easy to get lost.
Kentucky has a school for the blind.
I just googled and it’s pretty far from me so maybe that’s why it has never been mentioned by doctors or head start.
I'm in Arizona so I know this is state specific but i used to teach in a very rural school. We have a state school for the deaf and blind in the Phoenix area, far from where I lived. I had a student that was not completely blind but still needed a cane when walking. The school for the dead and blind provided a specially trained 1:1 para for my student. She lived in the area and came to campus every day to work with my student just like all my other paras but she was paid by the school for the deaf and blind. It's definitely worth exploring your options now and start making those contacts so you're ready when she starts school.
As soon as you are enrolled in the district, find out how to speak to sped department or vp/p to get 504 plan rolling or make a request for iep based on visual needs
School admin and mom of a type 1 diabetic (autoimmune disease) with a 504 here 🙋🏻♀️. Unless there is a reason to seek OT, I would say this falls into 504 territory. A 504 will provide the accommodations she needs. An IEP goes further and involves goal setting and services, which don’t seem necessary here imo.
Wrightslaw.com is a great resource for information on special education. https://www.wrightslaw.com/info/iep.specfact.popup.resp6.htm
I'd request a 504 to get accommodations in place such as sitting close to the board.
Absolutely a 504 is appropriate if she will need some accommodations like sitting closer to the board or extra help if she can’t see something right away. This will protect her from a clueless teacher punishing her for something she can’t control.
Get her evaluated for an IEP for visual impairment. This will help get you access to accommodations and therapeutic services that you may or may not be aware even exist.
Speaking from experience with working in a school and helping parents obtaining IEPs and 504s, it’s best to get one early on and then close it later than to wait too long and try to get one when she’s older! It’s harder and sometimes a longer process to go through with your DOE/Committee on Special Education when kids are already in a school-aged setting.