Regents vote will end long-term residential program at Braille school

The state Board of Regents today unanimously approved a plan that will end the traditional long-term residential program for students at the Iowa Braille and Sight Saving School in Vinton by fall 2012.

The seven recommendations, drafted by a study committee formed at the direction of the state Legislature, now must go to the Legislative Council before full implementation.

The plan does not close the Vinton campus, which will remain as a location for summer and short-term programs for blind and visually impaired students and as the headquarters for the Statewide System for Vision Services. But it does end the long-term residential program at the 150-year-old school.

Much of the $2.2 million now used to support the Braille School in Vinton will be used to hire more teachers to provide more and better services around the state, closer to the home communities and schools of blind and vision-impaired students, officials said. The statewide system serves about 400 students, while Braille School enrollment was nine students last year, down from 34 students in 2005.

When students do need the long-term residential services now provided at the Braille School, the system will partner with other agencies in regions around the state to offer those, Braille School Superintendent Patrick Clancy said. He expects that will be a small number, in the single digits.

The plan also changes the name of the Braille School and the statewide system to Iowa Educational Services for the Blind and Visually Impaired.

The changes take into account what is best for students, several regents said.

“I just think it's tremendously well done,” regents President David Miles said. “It puts the needs of blind and visually impaired students in Iowa first.”