The Future Role of Residential Schools for Visually Handicapped Children

Abstract

During a meeting at the American Foundation for the Blind in early 1979, representatives from the federal Bureau of Education for the Handicapped, and from public and private residential schools for visually handicapped children discussed the impact of Public Law 94-142.* Given the philosophy of the new administration in Washington, D.C., the possible elimination of P.L. 94-142, the impact of individual state legislation (which still follows the dictates of federal legislation), and the ever changing needs of the population they serve, residential schools must continually examine new roles and responsibilities for themselves. Because the law requires state and local educational agencies, residential schools, and other organizations dealing with handicapped children to work together to provide a continuum of services, the participants concluded that residential schools would continue to play a vital role in the education of handicapped children. Consequently the participants agreed that unless monitered carefully, the major impact of the federal legislation would be to make residential school programs responsible solely for multiply handicapped visually impaired children. They also agreed that least restrictive environment must not be construed as the physical boundaries to an educational institution, but rather as that setting in which the child will be least restricted in attaining his or her potential for educational growth.