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Services for Students who are Blind and Visually Impaired

Wise County Public Schools serves students who are deaf or hard of hearing from grades PK-12. 

The mission and purpose of Wise County Public Schools' deaf and hard of hearing services are to provide and serve students who are deaf, deaf-blind, and hard of hearing with an exemplary education. We utilize, focus on, and implement strategic goals for each individual student’s unique learning needs. We have a strong commitment to educational excellence for all students who are deaf, deaf-blind, or hard of hearing and believe that each of our students can and will learn. We want to ensure that our students have the appropriate goals, help them develop and maintain high self-advocacy skills, become independent, and literate. We want to inspire our students to be lifelong learners and become productive citizens. Students who are deaf, deaf-blind, or hard of hearing have needs that are considerably different from other groups of students and may have significant delays with basic language skills which can greatly impact their ability to function in the educational setting. They may wear hearing aids, have cochlear implants, or wear a bone-anchored hearing device. 

The itinerant teacher of the deaf and hard of hearing is a professional educator with specialized certification and training who travels to individual school sites and provides instruction and consultation for students who have hearing loss. Students who may be served are students with conductive hearing loss, sensorineural hearing loss, or mixed hearing loss. Hearing loss in school-aged populations is highly variable and students may have identical audiograms, but function very differently. Wise County Public Schools identifies and provides for the educational needs of deaf and hard of hearing students through establishing services that will support students and help them in the classroom.

Wise County Schools works to accomplish our mission and purpose for students with hearing loss by providing the following: 

• Providing services from the Teacher for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing.

• Using the best educational practices for deaf/hard-of-hearing students.

• Consultation services 

• Maintaining high expectations/goals for all students and providing goals as related to the student’s specific hearing needs.

• Creating individual plans to help deaf/deaf-blind/hard of hearing students succeed academically.

• Supporting self-advocacy/self-determination skills.

• Communication support

• Amplification support

• Transitioning support for students toward planning for post-secondary goals.

State Agencies that Provide Services for Deaf, Deaf-Blind, and Hard of Hearing Students:

Virginia School for the Deaf and the Blind (VSDB)-- The VSDB is located in Staunton, Virginia, and provides a K-12 educational day program, outreach services, and residential services exclusively for students who are deaf or hard of hearing, blind or visually impaired, or deaf-blind. 

Virginia Department for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing (VDDHH)- The VDDHH provides standards for educational interpreting services and other services to reduce the communication barriers between persons who are deaf or hard of hearing and their families and the professionals who serve them.

For more information contact Cari Braddock, Director of Special Education and Student Services, at 276-328-8017