capped children. These 1,350 systems, however, enrolled nearly 45 percent of all public school pupils in the United States. Regional Differences Some distinct regional differences appeared when estimates of pupils served in each were compared. Nearly 75 percent of the pupils in the North Atlantic Region of the United States were enrolled in school systems served by special teachers of visually handicapped children while less than 25 percent of those enrolled in the Southeastern Region had such services available at the local level. Such teachers were readily available in the home communities of about half the pupils in the West and Southwestern Region and to more than one-third of those in the Great Lakes and Plains Region. The distributions of special teachers in local and residential school programs in the four regions of the United States are illustrated in figure 7. The enrollment of public school pupils is divided almost equally among these four regions while only about 20 percent of the special teachers are employed in the Southeast Region. The fact that many more of the teachers in this region are employed in residential schools is rather apparent, particularly as compared to those in the West and Southwest Region. Grade Levels Served Details collected about grade levels served by programs for visually handicapped children appear in appendix B, tables II and III. It is apparent that specialized instruction is offered more consistently to these children in grades 1-6 than in other grades. About 60 percent of the 353 local school programs reported their special programs were designed to serve all of the same grades as the general school programs. The other 40 percent however, limited their special services to only a portion of the grades served by the general school programs. Figure 8 illustrates the similarity between the availability of educational services to all children and of special services for visually handicapped children through grade 6. At and beyond grade 7 the services of full-time special teachers diminish rather substantially. Appendix B, table III, reveals that certain types of organizational patterns are much more popular than others at the upper grade levels in local school programs. Nearly all of the teacher-consultants reported by these programs, for instance, served children in grades 10, 11, and 12. Almost 90 percent of the itinerant teachers also served these grades as compared to only about 40 percent of the teachers in resource rooms and approximately 25 percent of those in special classes. North Great Lakes West and Southeast REGION FIGURE 7.-Number and percent of the 2,358 special teachers, Children on Waiting Lists Information from representatives of the special schools and programs participating in the study concerning children on wait FIGURE 8.-Percent of all school systems enrolling 300 or more pupils' and percent of the 353 special local programs for visually handicapped children, by grade served; United States: 1962-63. about children in school systems not presently served by special programs for visually handicapped children or about children not considered eligible to be put on waiting lists because of multiple handicaps. Multiply Handicapped Children There has been a substantial increase in recent years in special school services for children who have one or more major handicaps in addition to their visual loss or impairment. Information presented in chapter III about factors considered important in determining pupil eligibility reflected a willingness on the part of 1 Education Directory 1963-64, Part 2, Public School Systems Enrolling 300 or More Pupils. TABLE 9.-Number and percent of visually handicapped children reported on waiting lists in residential schools and local public school systems, by classification, United States: 1962-63 administrators of programs for visually handicapped children to accept pupils with a broad range of disabilities. In the past, many of these programs automatically excluded children with other serious physical or mental handicaps. As indicated in tables 10 and 11, only about one-fourth of the local school programs and about 6 percent of the residential programs still follow this practice. Seventy-three percent of the 353 local programs and 94 percent of the 54 residential schools participating in the survey reported they served visually handicapped children who also had one or more additional handicaps. Upper range mentally retarded children with I.Q.'s of approximately 50-70 were reported enrolled in 85 percent of the residential schools and 54 percent of the local public school programs. Visually handicapped children with speech TABLE 10.-Percent of special local school programs which served visually handicapped children with additional handicaps, by type of handicap, and rank order of frequency, United States: 1962-63 TABLE 11.-Percent of special residential school programs which served visually handicapped children with additional handicaps, by type of handicap, and rank order of frequency, United States: 1962-63 impairments were reported by 74 percent of the residential schools and by 52 percent of the local programs. A substantially higher percentage of residential schools reported enrolling multiple handicapped children during the 1962-63 school year than did local programs. 789-078 0-66-6 |