According to the law, school for the visually impaired can't be shut down!

Federal disability laws would be violated if state officials close the Iowa Braille and Sight Saving School in Vinton, according to a memorandum sent Tuesday to the Board of Regents.The memo from the Legal Center for Special Education says that restricting residential services to visually impaired Iowa students would violate the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.

Curt Sytsma, legal director of the Des Moines center, a nonprofit group that provides legal advice and advocates for parents of disabled children, wrote that legal precedent exists for maintaining the Vinton facility."The law mandating a full continuum of placement options, including specialized residential schools, has been the established law of the land for more than three decades," Sytsma wrote in the memo, a copy of which was provided to The Des Moines Register.

Concerns have been mounting that state officials will close the school for Iowa students who are blind. The fate of the school, which opened in 1862, has been under study for more than 18 months by the regents. No decisions have been made regarding the school.State Rep. Dawn Pettengill, D-Mount Auburn, said she is concerned that the school will close.

She said the regents have done little to boost the school's enrollment."They wouldn't allow declining enrollment like that at the University of Iowa," Pettengill said.Thirty-four students live on the 55-acre Vinton campus during the school year. Twenty years ago, 66 students attended the school.Gary Steinke, the regent's executive director, said about five students at the Vinton facility have blindness as their only handicap. Others have two or more disabilities, some severe, he said.

The school receives $4 million in state aid, the bulk of which is spent at the Vinton facility. About $1 million goes toward providing services to the 525 other Iowa students who are blind."The regents have to look and see if that's a responsible way to spend money," said Steinke, who hadn't seen the memo from the legal center.The regents also oversee the Iowa School for the Deaf in Council Bluffs. That facility, with a budget of $9.8 million, has 103 students.

All but nine states and the District of Columbia offer schools for visually impaired students; in 13 of those states schools for the visually impaired and deaf share facilities.Ellyn Ross, president of the Division on Visual Impairments, said that while officials in some states have considered closing facilities for blind students, none has been shuttered.

The regents appointed a coordinating council to review the services that support the education of students who are blind or visually impaired.Among the ideas being considered by the coordinating council:• Developing an academic program at the University of Northern Iowa for middle and high school-age youngsters.• Locating the schools for the blind and deaf on the same campus, either in Council Bluffs or a central location.• Providing regional resource centers with comprehensive vision services including training for teachers and parents.• Creating a group home for visually impaired students who struggle in public school settings but who, when they become adults, could live independently.