>> Glover: [Slide start] Some of the students that probably never would have been referred before but now we are picking them up for service are students like those that need bus travel. You know we have some of those high school kiddos that do just fine at school. The O and M or the VI may even consider dismissing them. They’re reading regular print perhaps. They’re certainly traveling around the building just fine. But they may not drive; they may not get a driver’s license. Well that’s an important travel skill. What are they going to do? How are they going to get around once they graduate? So we have found a huge increase in the number of students that we’re training on public transportation. You may be sitting there thinking, 'Wait a minute, we don’t have buses in our district.' [Slide end] [Slide start] We don’t either, really. We have- In Cy-Fair we have a tiny sliver that receives metro bus in their area but the great majority of the students in our district do not have a bus running through their neighborhood. So what we had to do was find some strategies for making that work and making sure that we served those kids. So we’re talking about students that are high school age, that are probably intelligent. Those academic type kids that can make those public transportation travel decisions safely. They're non drivers or restricted drivers. What we chose to do in our district is serve them in the summer. You know we could not get those kids out of academic high school classes and to a bus stop and take all day doing the bus without you know them missing homework and missing important information. So we have chosen to serve them in the summer. That has helped us to not have to drastically increase our number of Orientation and Mobility Specialists on staff is by serving them in the summer. We also chose to serve them in groups- that just makes it fun. If you have that opportunity- if you have enough students to where you get them together in the summer, they’ll really enjoy it. They’ll really enjoy being around another student who's going through what they are going through. They may feel like they're the only ones in the world. So that’s been nice. We include everything. We go to downtown Houston and it takes all day. And we ride the bus, the park n ride, the light rail, the taxis. So if this is something you're not doing in your district you really may want to think about [Slide end] [Slide start] getting that implemented and how are those students going to function once they leave you. We have also seen a huge increase in the number of students with deafblindness or multi-impairments that we are seeing and that we are picking up for service now. Often times the VI just never referred them. You know, they’re in a wheelchair or it’s just too much. [Slide end] [Slide start] They just couldn’t imagine what we would do with those students. And we happen to have the regional day school for the deaf in our district so we have a huge number of students with deafblindness. You may not have that many. But some of the things that we've been doing with those type of students is calendar systems, and destination cards, routines. Just going in and telling the teacher that they needed a consistent room layout. It was kind of scary to me to start doing all of these orientation and mobility evaluations on so many students with multi- that have multiple impairments because we knew it was going to be a lot of students. And these students are often times the kind that don’t qualify. So one thing that we’ve started doing is using bullets in our evaluations. Instead of writing a full on narrative sometimes we will just use bullets for what that student can and can’t do within the body of the orientation and mobility evaluation. And I kind of went into that kicking and screaming and wasn’t too sure but everybody loves it. It’s easier to read and that may or may not work for you but when we were looking at how we were going to do evaluations on so many students we found that that saved us a lot of time. [Slide end] [Slide start] Some other students that we’re really seeing an increase and one of the reasons we believe in doing an orientation and mobility evaluation on everyone is those low vision students. [Slide end] [Slide start] You know things like telescope training in the community, preparing them for bioptics for driving, just learning about sign identification. All of those types of things. You know orange signs typically mean this. Triangular signs typically mean this. Those types of things. We all have students that have a telescope that it’s hidden away in a drawer and nobody can find it and there is no way they are pulling that thing out and using it in class. But if you can get them out in to the community often times you can get them interested as an O and M in using that low vision device. So we have really found that our numbers have jumped in that area and we're doing some good work with those students now. [Slide end] [Slide start] We saw a huge increase in babies. Babies are often one of those things that some VIs may not refer a baby until they walk, well I want them much before that. So we implemented- you know, when you think about the law, that first part of the law says, when a student is going- is trying to gain a qualification as a student with a visual impairment on that initial intake testing to see if they are going to be a student with a visual impairment often times that happens on babies so we’re going out with babies a lot. What we’re doing is the VI and the O and M will go out to meet that new family, to meet that baby together. Now that may mean that I’m out there with a student that’s three months old and they’re not doing anything. And often times those are babies that I won’t qualify at that time. But I’m going to take my opportunity to inform that family about what orientation and mobility is, that I’m going to come back at least every three years, and look at their student to see if as time has changed as they have grown and changed if they now need orientation and mobility. We’ve seen it as a great opportunity. But again [Slide end] [Slide start] we had to develop how were we going to evaluate them. And this is what worked in our district. We’re big enough that we’re served by two separate early childhood intervention agencies within one district. So what they wanted us to do is come to an arena assessment and sit down right then and write up an evaluation right then and tell them right then that day if that student qualified or not. Well what we had done in the past was go back to the office, type up a narrative, but that didn’t work for us for babies. So we developed this evaluation form that we use you should develop yours whatever works in your district, your situation. So this is just an informational cover sheet [Slide end] [Slide start] that we use. Then I am literally writing down with my pen the observations that I see on that student. And then this is our recommendation page [Slide end] [Slide start] and all I have to do is circle that this child does or does not need an orientation and mobility service at this time. You’ll notice in that last sentence of this paragraph  it says, ‘Changes in visual functioning, motor skills, age or environment may necessitate a new Orientation and Mobility evaluation to assess current needs.’ So again I am telling them that I may need to come back in. This is not a one shot deal just because they don’t qualify now. We’re basing our qualification off of the Oregon project, you should do what works for you, but that’s just what we’re doing. [Slide end]