BROWARD COUNTY SCHOOLS (Ft. Lauderdale, FL)

Broward County began the 2011-12 school year in a new home, Wingate Oaks Center, with new administration, support staff and an additional TVI. In the midst of all this change, we used our student database to assist in the development of our caseloads and to determine which students were coming up for 3 year re-evaluation, to assure our VI assessments were up-to-date and completed according to the quality standards that have been established. In October, we will receive training from Nancy on the use of the SLK as a learning media assessment for students having multiple impairments. We will also be looking at creating procedures for O&M referrals, evaluations and low vision units.

Allen Valentine, Intern Principal, is the current administrator for Broward County's Teachers of the Visually Impaired. He has eagerly stepped up to the challenge of guiding our growing and fast changing program with welcomed enthusiasm. Valerie Scott, our former supervisor is missed, but not forgotten and we wish her all the success and happiness she deserves in her work as an AP at Lake Forest Elementary. She and Lead VI Teacher, Jeffery Schwartz, began facilitating the QPVI process in conjunction with Nancy Toelle during the 2009-10 school year. Through a combination of onsite visits and webcasts, Broward County completed Key Components #1 & #2. At the end of the year there was a Master List database, which was housed on their district web server, a huge accomplishment made possible by a very tech savvy in house data person, Louis Ryan. The VI staff had also set standards of practice for eye reports, Functional Vision Assessments, and Learning Media Assessments for the county. In year 2, Key Component 3 was our focus. We established a process for all students to be screened for O&M during the process of initial and 3-year re-evaluations. We also implemented use of the Iowa ECC screening tool as a standard of practice for determining priority instruction.

Broward County Public Schools is based in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, in the southeastern part of the state. Their services for students with visual impairments was started in 1968. There are currently 264 students identified with a visual impairment receiving services.