BILL NUMBER: AB 662 INTRODUCED
BILL TEXT
INTRODUCED BY Assembly Member Dutra
FEBRUARY 19, 2003
An act relating to special education.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
AB 662, as introduced, Dutra. Special education: blind and
visually impaired pupils.
Existing law requires educational agencies to develop an
individualized education program for pupils with exceptional needs,
including, but not limited to, visually impaired pupils, and requires
that a functional vision assessment be conducted to determine the
appropriate reading medium for the pupil and an assessment of braille
skills. Existing law requires the Superintendent of Public
Instruction to form an advisory task force to develop standards for
mastery of the braille code by pupils and to report to the Governor
and the Legislature by June 30, 2004. Existing law provides for the
adoption and selection of quality instructional materials for use in
elementary and secondary schools, and imposes requirements upon
publishers and manufacturers, including, but not limited to, the
requirement that they provide to the state, at no cost, computer
files or other electronic versions of each state-adopted literary
title and the right to transcribe, reproduce, modify, and distribute
the material in braille, large print, recordings, or other
specialized accessible media for use by pupils with visual
disabilities.
This bill would make legislative findings and declarations
concerning the ability of blind and visually impaired pupils to have
the same opportunity as any other pupil to acquire the highest
quality education possible and the various educational related
problems that adversely impact the ability of these pupils to receive
the highest quality education. The bill would declare the intent of
the Legislature to address those problems.
Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: no.
State-mandated local program: no.
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
SECTION 1. This act shall be known and may be cited as the Blind
and Visually Impaired Pupil Education Improvement Act of 2003.
SEC. 2. The Legislature finds and declares all of the following:
(a) A blind or visually impaired pupil should have the same
opportunity as any other pupil to acquire the highest quality
education possible.
(b) There are a number of problems specific to the educational
needs of blind and visually impaired pupils that adversely impact the
ability of these pupils to receive the highest quality education.
Many of these problems, along with solutions, were identified in a
2002 report by the California Blindness Advisory Task Force,
appointed by the Superintendent of Public Instruction, entitled "A
Future View: Quality Education Of All Students Who Are Blind and
Visually Impaired." These problems include, but are not limited to,
all of the following:
(1) Teachers of the blind and visually impaired have
extraordinarily high caseloads, far in excess of guidelines
promulgated by the State Department of Education.
(2) There exists a shortage of teachers of the blind and visually
impaired, as well as a shortage of postsecondary programs that
provide specific training in this field.
(3) School district personnel, including administrators and
classroom teachers, lack the knowledge to adequately address the
needs of their blind and visually impaired pupil population,
especially those with multiple disabilities.
(4) Many school districts, in both urban and rural areas, are not
providing braille instruction to many pupils whose visual acuity is
such that braille is clearly their most appropriate mode of reading,
thus causing many of these pupils, who should be performing at grade
level or above, to lag far behind their sighted counterparts.
(5) Many blind and visually impaired pupils lack access equal to
that of fully sighted pupils to technology, notwithstanding the
availability of assistive devices that can equalize this access.
(6) Testing materials required for use throughout the state are
often either unavailable, or not available in a timely manner, in
formats accessible to blind and visually impaired pupils.
(7) Transition programs are woefully inadequate in their capacity
to meet the special needs of blind and visually impaired pupils.
(8) The State Department of Education has little data on the blind
and visually impaired pupil population in each school district.
(9) An ongoing mechanism does not exist for the Legislature, the
Governor, and the State Department of Education to procure
stakeholder input on the needs of blind and visually impaired pupils
and the statutory or regulatory changes required to meet those needs.
(c) It is the intent of the Legislature, in enacting this act, to
address the problems set forth in subdivision (b).

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