BoE Approves Braille Instructional Assistant Position

A full-time Braille instructional assistant position was approved by the Ledyard Board of Education this week – just one of several accommodations provided by the district to help children with special needs.

“We make every reasonable accommodation to allow children with any sort of disability – whether vision- or hearing-impaired, or whatever – to have a meaningful educational experience,” Graner said.

Graner said the Braille assistant will work with a visually impaired elementary school student.  Using a machine that produces embossed characters, she will transcribe curriculum material into Braille for the student.

“It’s a very inspiring story,” said Graner. He said the assistant was already on staff as a full-time paraprofessional before taking additional, specialized training over the summer. “We merely recognized the specialized training by elevating the position,” he said.

In other business this week, the board heard a presentation on the national curriculum standards adopted by the state of Connecticut in 2010, which will be phased in over several years.

Graner said the good news is that the state’s standards were already about two-thirds aligned with the national standards. The big focus areas, he said, will be in math and language arts.

For example, the district taught narrative writing through fourth grade, expository writing in fifth and sixth grades, and persuasive writing in seventh and eighth grades, Graner said. Under the national curriculum standards those areas of study are likely to be combined.