News : Hainstock discusses future of education at IBSSS

While the possible closing of the residential program at the Iowa Braille and Sight-Saving School (IBSSS) is a current issue that ultimately will be decided by leaders in Des Moines, Mary Jo Hainstock said the changes to Vinton’s historic school for the blind began 35 years ago, in Washington, D.C.

(Hainstock became concerned with the issue of education at IBSSS when she was appointed to the study group assigned to recommend a future plan for IBSSS to the Iowa Board of Regents. That group recently passed an initial proposal that would end the residential program at IBSSS after the 2010-2011 school year. See that story HERE.)

In 1975, Congress passed Federal Law 94-1492, which is officially known as the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). That law requires all states that receive special education funding offer children with disabilities education as close to their home as possible.

That, said Hainstock, is the main reason that now, in 2010, the closing of the residential program of the Iowa Braille School is a possibility.

“Maybe we as a community should have been lobbying the federal government for changes in that law,” she said. “It’s unfortunate that the kids may not have the social experience that IBSSS students had in the 40s, 50s and 60s.”

Hainstock, the Vinton-Shellsburg superintendent, was appointed to the IBSSS study group to represent the school administrators. She said she is not opposed to keeping the residential program open.

“But the first thing we need to consider is what we do to educate those students. Education is my No. 1 priority,” she said.

Hainstock said she has come to understand what IBSSS alumni mean by “social peace,” and its value to students.

Blind students who attend a public school often feel like “the school’s blind kid,” said Hainstock. But those who attended IBSSS blended in because everyone had the same disability.

But on the other hand, Hainstock said that Iowa parents are overwhelmingly choosing to keep their children closer to home.

“It seems to be a lot easier to send them to a camp for a few weeks in the summer than to send them away for the whole school year,” she said.

Hainstock said she hopes the weekend and summer camps at IBSSS will continue, regardless of what happens with the residential program. “They can find some of that social peace at those camps,” she said.

The families who send their students to IBSSS “seem delighted” with the services their children receive, said Hainstock.

Vinton, she said, has a reputation for working with people with disabilities. Many people who have been IBSSS students or parents have moved to the area to be closer to the school and its resources, she said.

Whatever happens to IBSSS in the future, Hainstock hopes that leaders find a way to maintain the history and the tradition of IBSSS, as well as the camp experiences, while finding the best way bring education to the students with visual and other disabilities.