OUTREACH DEPARTMENT
DESCRIPTIVE PROFILE
Recommendations of On-Site Team,
1997
·
Hire a Director of Outreach
·
Evaluate the outreach function of the school and strategically use data
in the modification and expansion of services
·
Continue to expand and develop partnerships with districts with the
message “we are here to assist you in
improving your services”
·
Outreach Services should be expanded to place all outreach functions
under one department
·
Outreach Services should be evaluated by customers on a regular basis
·
Increase marketing of Outreach Services
·
Continue to expand in the coordination of services with other state agencies and organizations
Outreach Services
1. Describe the nature and scope of all Outreach
Services.
Outreach
Services are an important part of the overall mission of the school, which is
to serve as a statewide resource center providing direct and indirect services
to visually impaired children and youth throughout the state. Whenever the
school extends service outside the normal functioning of the on-campus
educational program, programs and services are considered Outreach. We provide leadership to the state in all
areas regarding the education of blind and visually impaired children and set
the standard for best practices, caseload size and quality services for these
children and their families. Collaboration with a variety of agencies,
organizations and business is an integral part of this department. The Outreach Department consists of the
following:
A. Vision Itinerant Program (VIP). We offer
direct and consultative services to local school districts. Through contractual arrangements we provide
both Teachers of the visually Impaired (TVI) and Orientation and Mobility
(O&M) services to students who are visually impaired or blind, age birth to
21, and attending public school in their local districts. Currently, WSSB provides TVI services to 38
school districts and O&M services to 22 school districts throughout the
state of Washington. This translates into over 160 students/month
receiving direct or consultative services.
The type and amount of service provided is determined by the needs of
the districts. If service needs decrease
in a district we revise our contract to reflect the decreased need. If service needs increase, we make every
effort to provide increased service, depending on the availability of
staff. Currently we have a total of
eight people in the department. They
include one O & M specialist, three TVIs, three dual certified people and
one vision assistant.
B. One-time
consultation. This service provides school districts with assistance
in programming needs. These outreach visits are a shared opportunity of both
teachers in the Outreach Department and the on-campus program. This collaboration promotes a close working
relationship between Outreach staff and WSSB educational staff. We do not charge for this service.
C. Coordination of on-site (WSSB campus)
evaluations. WSSB receives 15 to 20 requests for evaluations each school
year to assist local districts in program planning and possible residential
placement. The outreach staff often
make initial visits to help determine appropriate placement and to guide the
process for on-site evaluations. Once
all the paperwork is in and a determination is made by all parties concerned as
to the appropriateness of the placement, the process is turned over to the
on-campus program.
D. Statewide in-service training. Outreach staff assists in the
coordination of state-wide in-services. These trainings are either initiated by
our school or by local services providers who see a need and request a
workshop. Presentations are at the
local, state, or national level. Trainings include low vision aids, literacy,
braille (literary, Nemeth and music), anatomy and eye conditions, transition,
and technology to name a few. Our
distance learning capability has greatly expanded this year and we continue to
increase our use of this technology to offer a wider array of workshop opportunities
and to a larger audience.
E. Collaboration
with other agencies serving the VI/blind population. We (both the on-campus and Outreach
Department) have a close working relationship with Department of Services for
the Blind and the State Vision Consultant and this relationship is formalized
by a Co-op meeting with representatives from these agencies. We meet once every six weeks. Through this Co-op we can better provide
seamless services to children with visual impairment and their families as well
as do some “big picture” planning in the state.
F. WSSB Summer Institute. For over 20 years we have provided an
opportunity for public school teachers and a variety of support staff to attend
a week-long institute to learn about visual impairment and blindness. We understand that because visual impairment
is such a low incidence disability, most public school personnel have little
experience with or understanding of the
impact of vision loss on learning and how to meet the unique needs of the visually
impaired or blind student. This intense
institute offers public school personnel who have VI/blind students in their
schools a “crash course” on the subject.
Without exception, people attending the institute come away with the
knowledge that VI/blind children can be independent, competent learners and
that they, as teachers, are capable of providing these students with
appropriate education with the support of TVI and O & M staff. This institute is a combination of lecture,
self-directed learning, hands on activities and experiences under the sleep shade or low
vision simulation goggles. People go
away from this institute saying that it was the most informative, fun and
life-changing institute they have had as educators. We see the impact of this new knowledge in
better school experiences for VI/blind children in public schools where staff
has attended our institute. The WSSB
Summer Institute is held on the WSSB campus and the participants are housed in
the cottages here on campus. Facilitators
include WSSB staff and itinerant teachers who are employees of public schools
throughout the state.
I. Low
Vision Clinic – The WA Lions Low Vision
Clinic is a secondary care clinic designed to serve the visually impaired and/or
multi-handicapped client. It is not the
clinic’s intent or capability to provide full-scope primary care. This clinic is an adjunct to and does not
replace the family’s primary care provider. The goal of the clinic is to enable
the clients to achieve maximum use of their remaining vision while maintaining
as independent a lifestyle as possible through the use of low vision devices.
J. Statewide Technology – Provide assessment and recommendations for
assistive technology and devices, including hardware and software needed for
the blind/VI student to be able to input and output text and to be able to
access computers through the provision of programs such as screen readers and
print enlargement. Students and their
teachers and assistants are trained on the use of these devices and programs so
that the student can be competitive with his/her classmates in the production
of class materials and access to the internet and information found on CDs.
2. Identify by title all WSSB positions on and off
campus which provide or support outreach
services and briefly describe the responsibilities of each position.
A. Director of Outreach Services - 1 FTE The Director of Outreach Services supervises the Vision Itinerant Program, Instructional
Resource Center, Braille Access Center, Statewide Technology Program and the
Lions Low Vision Clinic. This position
is located on the campus of WSSB.
Periodic on-site visits with outreach teachers and administrators of
each district are scheduled to assure quality of programming and to answer
questions that local districts may have in regards to scheduling and costs.
Developing new contracts with districts that may be in need of service is an
ongoing responsibility of the Director. Working with other agencies to develop
new strategies to deliver goods and services and to better use resources is a
primary responsibility. The director manages the budgets of the VIP, BAC and
IRC and oversees the daily operation of the Outreach Department as a
whole.
B. Itinerant
Vision Teachers - 5 FTE Two of the five teachers are
dual certified, having certification in Orientation and Mobility, as well as
the TVI credential. One TVI is located
in Mt. Vernon, two teachers are in Olympia and two teachers live in
Vancouver. These teachers provide
consult and direct vision services to contracted districts. Services cover a geographic area from near
the Canadian border to Vancouver, from the coast over to Mt. Rainer. Type and
amount of services varies with the needs of the students and districts.
C. Orientation and Mobility Specialist - 1.5 FTE We
have 1 full-time Orientation and mobility specialist living in Olympia and 1
part-time living in Vancouver. Both
these folks cover the west side of the state providing O & M consultations,
evaluation and direct service, as requested.
D. Vision
Assistant - 1 FTE This person lives in Vancouver and provides material adaptation and braille
transcription services to several local districts that have high needs braille
students. Additionally, this person
provides consultative services to two districts regarding their
multi-handicapped / VI /blind students.
E. Manager of
IRC and BAC - 1 FTE This person manages the daily
operations and budget of both the IRC and BAC, plans and delegates work
performed by 3 permanent employees, temporary employees and volunteers, manages
the APH Quota funds and the WA Correctional Center for Women Braille Project at
Gig Harbor. This person collects data
for the Board of Education, APH, WSDS and WSSB and prepares respective
reports. This person is responsible for
the correction and scoring of B.L.U.E. exams and these scores are reported to
the Board of Education (State Braille Competency Test).
F. Publication
Specialist - 1 FTE Coordinates transcription from private sector and
school district requests with WCCW and volunteer transcribers, transcribe
documents into braille, coordinates
braille production; i.e. embossing, collation, tactile graphics and coordinates
production of and produces large print books for the IRC.
G. Publication
Specialist - .625 FTE Proofreads all braille (average 1600 braille pages per
week) produced by the BAC and write proofreader reports, citing rule
violations, answers customer calls for
IRC and BAC, corrects the transcribing portions of the B.L.U.E. (State
Braille Competency Test).
H. Warehouse
Manager - 1 FTE Manages the IRC warehouse inventory, receives incoming freight and checks into
database, prepares orders for out-going shipment, assists in supervision of
student and seasonal workers, maintains inventory levels and make
recommendations for purchases.
I. Administration Secretary - .4 FTE The person in this position is responsible for writing up
and mailing contracts, contract revisions and cover letters to districts requesting
services. She compiles and mails all
requests for evaluation packets and keeps
an updated database of all contracts and keeps the Director of Outreach current
on the billing status of districts. She
is the clerical point of contact for the Outreach Department.
J. Statewide Technology Services – .5 FTE provides assessment and direct service to VI/blind children
who attend school in their local districts.
Maintain all equipment that goes into the state. The person in this
position sets the standards for technology in the state for V I/blind children
and attends and teaches at nationally recognized assistive technology
conferences. There is no fee for this
service.
K. WA
correction Center for Women – 10 positions These inmates produce braille, primarily textbooks, for the
BAC. Over the past two years, these
women have produced $250,000 worth of quality braille at an actual cost to the
state of $12,500. The program has
recently expanded from five to 10 inmates and received the Governor’s Quality
Award.
3. Describe the populations served by the outreach
services.
Outreach
serves children in their local communities, either in public schools, private,
non-parochial schools, developmental centers, or in their homes. We serve
children birth to 21 years old or students taking classes at less than college
level, with a wide range of ability levels. Some students served have the
single disability of low vision or blindness. However, many of our students
have multiple disabilities that may include developmental delays, motoric
involvements, speech and language delays/deficits, fine motor difficulties
and deafness, to name the most common.
Some of the children have diagnosed syndromes of which vision is a part. We
serve children who are blind, have low vision, or are cortically visually
impaired.
Because
the Braille Access center is a fee-for-service enterprise, the BAC transcribes
braille upon request. So, in addition to
textbooks for students, we also provide access to braille documents such as the
Voters Pamphlet, bus schedules, manuals for private companies, to name a
few.
Our
Low Vision Clinic serves visually impaired persons of all ages at no
charge.
4. Provide
information about the numbers of persons who receive outreach services by
program option(s).
A. Information
Services - The School provides
information upon request to innumerable educators and others throughout the
state. It is impossible to record the number of phone calls staff
receives. In 2003, the IRC alone handled
over 3200 incoming calls.
B.
Assessment/Evaluation Services - All students are assessed initially when identified as
needing service. Functional Vision, Learning Media, Orientation and Mobility
and technology assessments and evaluations are done regularly as new students
are identified and already identified students are reassessed. Although TVIs will work with school districts
to make standard assessment materials accessible academic cognitive testing is generally
left to the school districts. Many students
are also assessed for the use of low vision devices and visual functioning
ability (multi-handicapped students) through the Lions Low Vision clinic. During the 2002-2003 school years, 103
persons were assessed through this clinic.
C. Direct Services: This
would include services provided by the VIP and technology programs. We
currently serve approximately 160 students/month through
contractual services.
D. Consultation
Services - Provided by outreach staff
and technology staff, school staff, and others as requested. Many phone
consultations occur which are immeasurable. These consultation services are
offered on a fist-time basis free of charge (other than travel expenses).
E. Staff
Development/Family Education Services - In-services
provided to school psychologists, nurses, teachers and regular education
students. Outreach staff is always available when needed to talk with school
district staff, students, and parents. Workshops are held by individual
teachers as requested. Additionally, distance
learning classes are being taught. In
the last 2 years we have had approximately 45 people take a braille class
through distance learning. This type of
staff development for districts - particularly if they are remote or rural has
changed the face of how we do business.
Up-coming classes offered through distance learning include advanced
braille and music braille. Staff are
often asked to present at conferences in the state and nationally.
F. Specialized
Books, Materials, and Equipment Services - Specialized books, materials, and equipment are provided to public
school students throughout the state through the Instructional Resource
center. In 2003, the IRC processed 1031 orders, distributed a
total of 2952 materials and equipment for 1147
students with visual impairments
to 725 different schools in the State of WA. The Technology Project
loans technical equipment and support to school districts upon request with
follow-up consultation by phone when needed. Outreach teachers individually
prepare specialized books and materials for their students on an ongoing basis.
The Braille Access Center provides braille and large print materials for many
government and private sector organization as well as students.
5. Describe
program evaluation procedures and provide significant information learned from
recent evaluations results.
A one page form is
distributed to all school district staff that work with the itinerant teachers.
This form is called the "Itinerant Vision Services Survey" and gives
the districts we serve a chance to tell us about our service delivery and
changes they might suggest. This is distributed near the end of the school
year. The Director of Outreach also meets with each district special education
director to discuss our service and to plan for the following year. During the
school year, the Director of Outreach may meet with district Special Education
Directors as needed to resolve any issues that may need immediate resolution. Recent
evaluations have indicated a high level of satisfaction from all districts
served. We find it difficult to have them define an area that we need to work
on. Most districts would like to get more of our itinerants' time.
6. Describe any
significant changes in this service since the last accreditation review.
There
have been significant changes to this Department. The Vision Itinerant Program has doubled in
the number of teachers as well as numbers of students served. We now have teachers living in parts of the
state other than Vancouver. We have 1.5
full-time positions focusing only on Orientation and Mobility. Through Outreach, students served by WSSB as
a whole have increased by 500%.
The
Instructional Resource Center database was redeveloped to accommodate an
on-line ordering system incorporating barcode technology. The Instructional Resource Center has a new state
of the art solar building which also hosts the Braille Access Center and these
two entities are now under the umbrella of Outreach. The Braille Program at WA correctional Center
for Women did not exist at the time of the last accreditation.
The
Lion’s Low Vision Clinic has become a part of Outreach and plans are in the
works to transition the clinic over to a database that will allow for better
record keeping, more useable documentation of information and the ability to
query the system for demographic and
etiology information.
Distance
learning opportunities have increased substantially in the last seven years and
we now offer classes across the state to a wider variety of people that
otherwise would not be able to take classes.
We are doing a much better job of networking with other agencies and we
are having an impact at a state level regarding policies and funding that
effects the educational of blind and visually impaired children. We have progressed from being viewed as a
place where VI/blind children can come to learn to a statewide service that
meets the students in whatever location is necessary to meet their needs.
Outreach Department Goals
Vision Itinerant Program:
·
Provide direct
assistance to various areas in the state to help develop appropriate and
sustainable vision and orientation and mobility services through regional
program development, where appropriate.
·
Refine the needs
and satisfaction surveys to reach a broader population including Special
Education Directors, teachers and other related school personnel, parents and
students.
·
Continue to hire and place more TVIs and
O&M specialists around the state to meet the shortages for these positions,
particularly on the east side of the state.
·
Develop a
preschool program at WSSB
·
Market our
services through meetings with ESDs and create and embrace other opportunities
to present about who we are and what we offer.
Braille Access Center:
·
Continue to
provide support for the Braille Program at the Washington Corrections Center
for Women with the goal of having at least 50% of the inmates in the program certified
in literary and Nemeth (braille math) through the Library of Congress.
·
Broaden the
customer base by advertising services to community colleges throughout the
state.
·
Assist school
districts and ESDs in finding local braille transcription services to meet
their needs for braille materials when such materials are not available through
the Instructional Resource Center. Examples of this may include student
worksheets needed on a daily basis.
Instructional Resource Center:
·
Continue to
refine new on-line database system
·
Increase
collection to include items not available from the American Printing House for
the Blind. Examples would include eye
models, vision simulation kits and science and human anatomy models.
·
Do annual
customer satisfaction and needs surveys.
·
Increase JAWS
site licenses.
Statewide Technology:
·
Continue to
provide assessment and trading to students and teachers throughout the state.
·
Use of the K-20
system to provide technical assistance as appropriate. This will not replace on-site visits, but can
provide a more timely service, particularly in problem solving regarding
hardware and software.
·
Offer more
assistive technology classes such as Jaws, Braille Note, Duxbury and
Intellitools.
·
Refine the use of
the Global Positioning Satellite device (GPS).
This device, working with the Braille or Voice Note allows a blind
traveler to know with precision, where he is.
Lions Low Vision Clinic:
·
Expand hours and
days of operation.
·
Advertise this
service so that more senior citizens can have an opportunity to be evaluated
for and access low vision devices.
·
Create a database
system to replace the pen and paper system now in place for keeping client
records.
·
Have a low vision
store in which aids and devices can be purchased.
OUTREACH
DEPARTMENT
STUDENT REFERRAL
PROCESS
Process
for enrollment in on-campus educational program, both residential and day
student:
1.
Initial referral/request to attend WSSB is communicated to the Director
of Outreach Services. This may come from
an LEA, parent, or in some cases a student.
2.
A conversation between the parties is had to learn more about the student
and circumstances leading up to the request for placement and to communicate to
the parent or district the type of services and programs available at WSSB. If
there are still questions regarding whether the parent should apply to WSSB, a
team from WSSB may make a visit to the LEA to gather additional
information.
3.
If after this conversation or visit to the LEA it is felt that placement
may be an option, an evaluation packet is sent out to the family and
notification is sent to the district that this has occurred.
4.
Once the completed packet is returned to WSSB and the LEA has sent school
records, the Administrative Team will determine if placement at WSSB is
warranted and if so letters will go out to the parents and LEA notifying them
of the start date of the 30-day evaluation.
5.
All students start at WSSB with a 30-day evaluation. After this time representatives from the LEA,
parents and WSSB staff will meet to review how the 30 day evaluation went and
determine if the child will return to the LEA or attend WSSB.
6.
If the determination is made that the child will continue to attend WSSB,
a change of placement is done, an IEP is written and the student becomes a
student of WSSB.
7.
The appropriateness of continued placement at WSSB is reviewed
annually.
There
is no charge to the parent or LEA for a child to attend WSSB. However, parents
are required to pay for their child’s school lunches and the parent or LEA is
required to provide transportation to and from the drop-off point to the
student’s home.
Process
for requesting services/consultation from WSSB Outreach Department for VI/blind
students attending public school:
1.
One-time on-site visits to the LEA
consist of observations and recommendations and are designed to:
·
assist a district in determining what, if any, assessments may be needed
·
lay the foundation for what an appropriate program for the student should
consist of
·
help the team understand the nature of the vision loss, implications of
additional handicapping conditions and the overall potential impact on learning
·
determine if there is a need for on-going vision services
If
we have not previously served a district requesting consultation of this type,
we do not charge for this one-time service.
However, if the consultation requires an overnight stay, per diem,
airfare and hotel accommodations may be charged to the district. While this service is provided only upon
availability of staff, we make every effort to accommodate districts,
recognizing and appreciating their desire to gain more information so that they
can provide the best program possible.
2.
If some level of on-going vision or orientation and mobility services is
needed:
·
Contact us and we will be able to help determine if services are already
available locally and can help access these services for you.
·
If services are not available, the LEA requesting services can enter into
a contractual agreement with WSSB to provide these services. The amount and type of services provided are
based on the location and needs of the student. Often services begin with a
Functional Vision Assessment, Learning Media Assessment, Orientation and
Mobility Assessment and any other assessments needed in order to determine the
type and level of vision services required
·
Vision services can be direct, consultative or both and can be provided
as often as needed. The team at the LEA and the WSSB Outreach teacher together
will make this determination, based on the results of assessments and best
practices.
·
While contracts are established based on the availability of WSSB
Outreach teachers, we are continually adding teachers to our staff in order to
meet the growing need for vision services in our state. Additionally we believe that it is through
positive collaborative relationships with other agencies, businesses and groups
affiliated with visual impairment and blindness that the most appropriate and
comprehensive services can be offered to meet the needs of the student and LEA.
·
Contracted time includes direct and consultative services, travel and
office time. We charge $460/day and bill
quarterly.