TRANSCRIPT
Count Us In! Understanding the Annual VI Registration and Deafblind Child Count
12-15-25

>>Erica: Welcome, everybody, to Count Us In! Understanding the Annual VI Registration and Deafblind Child Count. We know your time is valuable, especially as we enter into the last week of the school year, so we just want to thank you for taking the time to join us. Again, my name is Erica Cairns. I'm the director of Outreach here at TSBVI, and I'm also the coordinator for the Texas Deafblind Project. My background is as a TVI so I have been in your shoes and I know how daunting something as big as the VI registration can be, especially if it's new to you or you haven't had to complete it in a while. Brian. 

>>Brian: Hi. My name is Brian Sobeck and I am the information technology specialist for Outreach and I'm also the register for the VI registration and Deafblind Child Count. 

>>Erica: Brian's going to have a lot of time with you here in a little bit. But before we get started, I want to share a little disclaimer that the information that we're going to share today is specific to Texas. We're delighted that so many of you are joining us from out of state, but please check in with whomever runs your census for specific regional information. And if you're here to learn more about how we do it in Texas to help develop your system, again, we're so excited you're here. Please let us know if you have questions along the way. As Kaycee said, you're welcome to drop them into chat. Because we have so much we want to get through and share with you, we're going to address all those questions at the end. We're going to have some time together to talk through some of those. 

Okay. So before we begin, Brian and I would like you to think about a time you've been given a task that sounded really simple. But the instructions were not entirely clear and maybe as you really got into the task you realized it was much bigger than you had anticipated. And then maybe it's a recipe and it's asking you suddenly to just fold in the cheese. That's a little Easter egg from one of my favorite shows. Drop it in the chat if you know it. If you're not a chef, you're not really into being in the kitchen. Fold in the cheese doesn't make a lot of sense and it may just leave you shaking your head asking what does this even mean. So TSBVI Outreach does not want that for you. That's why Brian and I are here today. We want you to understand the how and why behind the annual census. So this Coffee Hour is designed to provide that so that you have a deep understanding of why you're asked to complete it each year. I'm going to start us off with a history of American Printing House for the Blind and the Federal Quota Program and we're going to talk about the VI registration timeline. Brian is going to take us through the registration steps using both the VI registration platform and the Deafblind Child Count platform. And then, like I said, you're going to have plenty of time to ask some questions and hopefully get them all answered. 

All right. So we're going to start off with the American Printing House for the Blind. It's a nonprofit organization that's existed since 1858 and it has been in Louisville, Kentucky since its origin. All of their work is rooted in creating accessible materials and equipment for students who are blind, low vision, or Deafblind. I'm guessing most of you have landed on APH website at some point in your career and journey. And on their "about" page, they have a really simple statement that sums up what they do. And that is creating accessible learning experiences through educational workplace and independent living products and services. We love our APH. 

So back in 1879, Congress enacted the act to promote the education of the blind, which provided eligible blind students with specialized educational materials such as Braille books and adaptive aids, all of which were manufactured by APH. This legislation that was established is now known as our Federal Quota Program. So this act named APH is the official national source for educational materials. And it ensured that there's a centralized, standardized system for producing materials for our students. And to this day, APH remains the soul organization authorized to produce funded materials. So this is one of the oldest continuously funded federal appropriations in U.S. education law. And it guarantees permanent annual federal appropriation. So basically what that means is that the federal government is going to be appropriating funds to APH for federal quota every single year. These funds are used to create Braille, tactile, and accessible educational materials, assistive technology, and educational aids. 

And what it does is it helps provide long-term stability for schools and states. We know our equipment's really expensive. We know how much it costs to create a Braille book. And it would be a financial burden on our districts if they were expected to take on and absorb that cost for all of their students annually. So the quota funds is a way to help reduce that financial burden on our school districts. 

So as you all know, the census is conducted by APH every January. And each state has agencies that are charged with collecting that required information. The information then helps APH to determine how much funding should be allocated to each state. So the more students who are counted, the more funding for materials and equipment we will receive. 
So Brian and I really want you to think of the VI registration as a bridge between you and your students and APH quota materials and equipment. Without getting accurate counts every January, we may lose access to really important funding. So that's why we're all here today. 

So a quick summary of the quota funds. They happen annually to determine how much funding is available for qualifying students in each state for the APH quota. We place the funds into one large pot so they are not allocated to specific students. And there's a reason why we do that. It's around $300 that's generated for each student. So if each student only had access to that $300, that would not cover the cost of our more expensive equipment and materials. And, let's face it, guys, we know that the majority of the things we need for our students cost more than $300. So that's why it all goes into one big pot to be used throughout the state. Here in Texas, the Texas Education Agency is the official fiscal agents of the quota funds, but TSBVI manages those funds to purchase APH quota materials and equipment based on the requests you make of us from our website. So that your students, essentially, get what they need when they need it. So the funding timeline for quota funds aligns with the federal fiscal year, which starts every October 1st. That means every October 1st that we can access that year's funding. Unfortunately, when the funds are gone, they're gone. So if we spend all of the APH quota funds by May, we will not have access to more funds until the next October 1st when the new fiscal year starts. So up until now we've been talking a lot about the funding and the importance of getting these funds into our state. But the VI registration is about more than that. The information that we gather through the census really helps us identify different trends throughout the field of blind, low vision, and Deafblind education. And it was through the census that we realized we needed to focus some efforts on our early child find. Because we knew we were not counting enough of our birth to 3 kiddos. It was through the VI registration that we realized that we needed to focus some efforts on Braille literacy, because our Braille literacy numbers were lower than expected. So these trends are important for us to think about as a state so that we can make sure we're moving forward in the right direction. And that direction may include actually moving towards policy change and going to the legislation to let them know what we actually need. So it's important on both the fiscal side and the trends and policy side. Okay. 

So who qualifies for quota funds? There are basically two ways to be eligible for these funds. Our students who are legally blind and meet the definition of blindness or meet the functional definition of blindness. Brian is going to talk more about these as he gets into the registration platforms. But students can also qualify, if they're not legally blind, if they meet the IDEA definition. And so that is visual impairment, including blindness, means an impairment in vision that even with correction, adversely affects a child's educational performance. This term includes both partial sight and blindness. So this has only been one of the eligibilities for a couple of years, and Brian will chat more about that as well. And so we're not sure how often this actually comes up, but if you're curious, it could be a student who has insufficiency. They are not meeting the definition of blindness or functional blindness but through IDEA they are eligible as a student with visual impairment. That's just one example. 

All right. Now we're going to talk about the National Center for DeafBlindness and the Deafblind Child Count. Much like APH, the National Center for DeafBlindness gathers student data through their own census that compiles data to create the national child count of children and youth who are Deafblind. This serves as a common vehicle to meet federal grant requirements for both the state Deafblind Projects and NCDB. So students with qualifying conditions on the VI registration will also be populated in the Deafblind Child Count. But then there is additional information that's required by NCDB that needs to be completed. Brian's going to show us what that looks like. 

I want to take just a brief minute to talk about Deafblind eligibility. There are four pathways to eligibility in Texas for students who are Deafblind. The first is that they meet eligibility criteria for deaf or hard of hearing and a visual impairment. The second -- sorry. The second is that they meet the eligibility criteria for a student with a visual impairment and has a suspected hearing loss that cannot be demonstrated conclusively, but a speech/language therapist, a certified speech and language therapist, or a licensed speech language pathologist indicates there is no speech at an age when speech would normally be expected. The third pathway is that the student has a documented hearing and visual loss that, if considered individually, may not meet the requirements for deaf or hard of hearing or VI. But the combination of those two together adversely affects the child's educational performance. And then the final is that the child has a documented medical diagnosis of a progressive medical condition that will result in hearing and visual losses that, without special education intervention, will adversely affect the student's educational performance. And so Brian's going to take us through the Deafblind Child Count as well, so you'll see how everything connects together in a little bit. We did include a link in the handout of the let's talk about Deafblind eligibility document that the Texas Deafblind Project created so that you have access to this on a regular basis. Because we know that it is complicated. Okay. Before we shift gears and I hand it over to Brian, I'm going to cover one more really important topic with you. And that is consent. In order to release the information to APH to generate funding for students, we must have consent annually. How you capture that consent is up to you and your district. It can be the consent form that lives on our student data page here at TSBVI Outreach. It can be parent granting consent through an e-mail or it can be obtained verbally, as long as it's documented somewhere. 

So it does not need to be our official form. It can be in any format. Your student information will need to be entered into our system, even if consent is not provided. The consent that you're capturing is for us to release the information that we gather to APH and other stakeholders. So no matter what, you're going to capture your student information in our VI registration, even if you do not have consent. That consent is allowing us to share the information with APH. If we don't have consent, we can't share that information, which means that no funds are being generated, which is very, very sad. We want as much money in our big Texas pot as possible so that we can get all of your students the materials and equipment and instructional aids that they need. All right, Brian, I'm going to turn it over to you. 

>>Brian: Thank you, Erica. So our timelines here, we're talking TSBVI updates. We collect our information from our Education Service Centers. The counts open on January 2. And the counts will close on January 31st. Our superintendent sign-off on the counts will go from the start of February to the middle part of February. February 15th, typically. And during March and April we do our data analysis and our breakdown that we share with everybody on our website and our Education Service Centers. 
Okay. First things first. You're going to get an e-mail from us, if you haven't gotten it already. It contains your log-in credentials, information about the VI registration for SPED and 504. And also get -- it will also have information about the Texas Deafblind Child Count. Also information about our release of confidential information and FAQs and helpful information. 

As I mentioned earlier, the counts will open January 2, close January 31st. And the superintendent signature will end on February 15th/16th. We'll have log-in credentials. There's a username for the two-factor authentication and a unique password for that. Your online applications will also have a unique set of passwords. 

It will have your district number, the password for VI registration, password for 504, and the password for the Deafblind child. Your e-mail will have the direct links to the online application. There's one for the VI registration. And another for the Deafblind Child Count. As Erica mentioned earlier, we reference the information in the e-mail. Other information includes our consent form, which you can use. It also has information that points to our VI registration page, our Deafblind Child Count page. And additional log-in instructions will help you gain access to the online applications. And lastly, we do make mention of our Education Service Centers and their e-mail addresses, if you need to ask questions, we encourage you to reach out to them first via e-mail. 
Real quick, we're going to talk about how you can log into the online applications. This is an instructional document that will help you gain access. Again, the first page you're going to see a login prompt that's going to ask for a username and password. I recommend copying and pasting these in because the passwords are alphanumeric and case sensitive. Don't try to type it in. Copy and paste will always be your friend. Once you get past that first login prompt, you're either going to go to the VI SPED 504 or the Deafblind Child Count, depending on the link you click on. And you're going to enter the password for the account you're trying to access. If you're having trouble getting the pages to load, it may be that you have cache files in your browser from last year that might need to be cleared out. And you need to make sure that you have cookies enabled in your browser. Okay. The first page here is the VI registration count. The top left-hand side you're going to see the name of your school district. 

In this case, I chose a charter school. We'll have the district number, the region number. And it's going to show the status of each count that needs to be completed. There's the VI count. The VI 504 and the Deafblind Child Count. And it will show also if the superintendent signature has been completed or not. But that won't open until February. 
So the students that will be listed in your count will be, if you have any from last year, they will still be there. You can click on "student records." And then look for the student that needs to be updated. Every student has a Texas unique ID number, which is a ten-digit number. If they don't have one yet, if they are under the age of 3, they don't need one. They can just use the last four of their social and their date of birth. If they're over the age of 3 and they don't have a Texas unique ID number, contact me and I can get that set up for you or I can have it approved for you to use the last four of your social and date of birth. 
We're going to go through these quickly and we're going to park on a few things to talk about, their importance, and also tips and best practices. The first section here, first name, last name, middle name. Of course, we want to have the student's legal name as it's presented in your student record system. 

Have the date of birth. 03-01-2015. Using that format. The grade level. Race. We're going to from American Indian, Asian, Black or African American, Hispanic/Latino. White, follow-up question for ethnicity. Not Hispanic, Hispanic, Latino. You have a language of instruction, which is used during the classroom. And then their home language. 
I forgot to mention earlier next to each of these questions there's going to be a question-mark icon. So if there's ever any question about a datapoint that's being filled out, make sure to click on that. That's going to be your first place to go to get any kind of question answered. It's also up here in your tool bar, if you want to spend some time on that. For this particular count, it's a charter school. Some charter schools have campuses that are in multiple parts of the state. So you want to select the region where that student is, where the campus is at. School districts, you're not going to see this question. I just chose this account for anybody who might be a charter school teacher. 
The next section is regarding visual acuity. So we have right eye and left eye. You get to choose one of the following. Either a visual acuity. You can enter in, for example, 20/150. Or you can enter in the visual field loss. Or you can choose from other, which would include no vision, counts fingers, hand movements, light perception, object perception, functions of the definition of blindness, undetermined legally blind. Undetermined other visual handicap. The next section is regarding level of vision. So you can choose meets dressings of blindness, meets functional definition of blindness, or not legally blind. FYI, there is some programming in place here so that if you, for example, have 20/150 in both eyes and you select not legally blind, the application is going to flag it. It's going to catch it and say, no. That's not right. Go back and check your acuities again. Our glossary. Defines meet definition of blindness with an acuity of 20/200 or less. Functions as definition of blindness when visual function meets the definition of blindness as determined by an ophthalmologist or other medical doctor. 
You're going to see a follow-up question: Does the following pertain to the student? Do they qualify under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, IDEA, definition of blindness, impairment of vision that even with correction adversely affects the child's educational performance. I'll note here that the visual impairment does not need to be the primary disability. The next question will ask if there is a current eye report. This is not required to generate funding from APH. But we do still want to know if there is a current eye report on the student. An eye report is considered current if it's within three years. Our next section is regarding consent. So we have three different flavors of consent. The first one is, yes, consent was provided to all entities on our consent form. That is an affirmative response to everything across the board. The next one is: Yes, consent was provided only for APH. So if a student's parents or guardians just want to provide consent for APH, they have that option. Finally, the last option is: No, consent is declined to all other entities. Disability conditions. We have four. There's primary, secondary, tertiary, primary is required. Secondary, third, and fourth are not required. If Deafblind or deaf and hard of hearing is not selected as any of the disability conditions listed above, you're going to see a follow-up question and it's going to ask: Does the student have a suspected or documented hearing loss or is it suspected that the student is Deafblind? No, if a student can be added to the DBCC but testing must be done for the count to remain. So if you have a student that you can answer yes to on that question, they will be populated over on the Deafblind Child Count and they can remain there for one year. Between now and next year, testing has to be completed in order for them to remain on the count. Our next section is regarding reading media. We've got primary, secondary reading medium, and the grade level options are visual, Braille, auditory, pre-reader, symbolic reader. 
For secondary we have visual, Braille, auditory, and symbolic reader. This next question is a new one this year. And they're asking you to select a range of time your student is receiving weekly Braille instruction from the TVI. You must make a selection even if they do not yet receive classroom instructional materials in Braille. This is a required question. Every student will be asked this. And the ranges below that are as follows: Not applicable. Braille is not appropriate at this time. NA, the student has been -- has basic mastery of UEB and Nemeth Code. There's 15 to 30 minutes. [ Reading screen ] Erica, I don't know if you wanted to take a moment to talk about why we are asking this question. 

>>Erica: This is Erica. Thank you, Brian. This kind of refers to what I was mentioning earlier about identifying trends. Braille literacy has been a focus for several years. There was a governor's subcommittee that addressed Braille literacy, and they're working on that final report right now. And that report could lead to legislation. And so we want to make sure that we have additional data regarding our Braille students and the types and amounts of instruction they are receiving in Braille. If they're not necessarily primary Braille readers. Again, this is a way to help us gather information to learn more about the trends that we're seeing in the field. 

>>Brian: Thank you. Our next section is regarding orientation and mobility. Does the student receive O&M services? Yes or no. This is a test count. NA wouldn't be there. I apologize for that. If you select "yes," we will ask for the first name, last name, and e-mail address for the COMS who is serving that student. The next question is regarding orientation and mobility. We want to know if there's a current evaluation or if it's been accepted by COMS, via review of the existing evaluation data, REED. Next question is regarding assistive technology. Yes or no. Is the student receiving instruction remotely from a TVI? Yes or no. And that also the same for COMS. Our next section is regarding primary causes -- or cause of vision loss. Primary/secondary. We have a rather lengthy list of etiologies to choose from. We want you to focus on the primary cause of vision loss. Some people in the past will select "other" and then they'll write something in and daisy-chain a long list of etiologies together. We want to know what is the student's primary vision loss. And if there's a secondary loss, cause of vision loss, you make that known in the secondary cause of vision loss data field. And lastly, we have information regarding the TVI. We want to know who is serving the student. Not somebody who may be a lead for the school. We want to know what's the name of the TVI who is serving the student. So first name, last name, e-mail address. Lastly, the last statewide assessment that was taken. Once you have all of your information in place, you can click "accept." And it will save. Just want to note that if you start a profile, you want to make sure that you end it. You want to make sure you complete it. Don't get partway through the form and then walk away because eventually the session will time out and whatever work that you had put in, it will go away. So make sure, if you're working on a student, see it all the way through the to the end. Click "save." If you need to leave and go do something else, do that then. 
Don't walk away and leave the session to time out. 

>>Erica: This is Erica. Brian, we have had several questions and I think I'll hold most of them to the end. I have been answering in the chat as we go. But Suzanne Martin asked what should they put if the student does not have a current teacher? And Emma followed up with: If a contractor is serving that student, do we put their name? 

>>Brian: If there isn't a teacher -- if there isn't a teacher serving the student, is that the question? 

>>Erica: Yes. 

>>Brian: I'm not sure I have an answer for that. That's never come up before in the past. I'll have to think about that and give you an answer later, Suzanne. E-mail me and we'll discuss that. 

>>Erica: Great. One more question before we move on. If we have students at TSBVI, do we get consent and then have those students included? Or does TSBVI do that? 

>>Brian: If you have students at TSBVI, they will be -- firstly, they will be reported at TSBVI and TSBVI will be responsible for collecting that consent. You're not responsible for that. 

>>Erica: And those students show up separately as well. So TSBVI receives their own list with students who are a part of comprehensive programs. 

>>Brian: Sorry. Go ahead. 

>>Erica: Go ahead. 

>>Brian: They may have been on your count previously, but when the counts open and everybody starts working, the folks here at TSBVI are going to be entering in those Texas unique ID numbers and they're going to be pulling those students over to the account. 

>>Erica: And then, again, regarding teachers' names. If it's a 504 student, do we enter the Gen Ed teacher's name? 

>>Brian: You can. 

>>Erica: Yeah. That would be fine. And just a level of reassurance. So Brian checks through all of this information before sending it to APH. And then APH does another check to make sure that we don't have students counted more than once. There are several layers to make sure that everything is captured as accurately as possible. So it's not all on you. 

>>Brian: Right. Every student has a unique identifier so there's no possible chance. 

>>Erica: Brian, that was something else that came up in the chat that I addressed. You know, if the student doesn't have the unique Texas ID and we are unable to obtain the last four digits of the Social Security number, I let them know to reach out to you so that we can create a unique ID. 

>>Brian: Yes. I'll do that for you. Yeah. No problem. Let me know. E-mail me. I'll get you set up. 

>>Erica: And then one last question came in, as you shift over to the Deafblind Child Count. Our district has a 504 coordinator who enters their data. Are the 504 questions the same as VI? 

>>Brian: All the questions are the same as the VI registration SPED with the exception of the disability conditions. That's not populated in the 504 form. You're going to see a question about whether or not they are getting other accommodations under Section 504. Yes or no. And you'll also be given a comment box, about a 2,000-character limit, where you can talk about what the student is receiving as far as accommodations. So that could be they need additional time for testing or they may need to sit on a certain side of the room, so on and so forth. Other than that, the online forms are pretty much identical. And also they have a separate login. So they're not going to be in the same place. Make sure you're not logging into the VI SPED and putting in your 504 kid and vice versa. 

>>Erica: Great. While you switch over, I'm going to answer the last question that came in. Regarding homeschool students who are VI in your district, we have a separate Google Form that will go out for homeschooled students and those who are receiving services in a private school setting. We do not capture them in this overall platform but we have a way to do that. That will be sent out by Brian as well and you can distribute that to the kiddos that you know of who are being homeschooled or who are receiving services in a private school. We know that this is something we need to probably look at in the future. We know we're missing students here. And so those have been conversations that we've been having at the statewide level so that we can make sure that we are capturing those students in a way that makes sense for everybody. 

>>Brian: Thank you, Erica. Real quick, before I move over to the Deafblind Child Count, I want to make sure that everyone is aware that if a student has disability conditions that qualify them to be moved over or populated in the Deafblind Child Count, all of this information up here at the front is going to be moved over to the Deafblind Child Count. You don't have to enter that again. I'll show you that right now. Real quick. I'm sorry. If you need to drop a student, scroll all the way down to the bottom of the student profile and click on that blue link. It's going to give a dropdown where you can give the reasons for the drop. If there's another reason you want to highlight, you can do that. You can write that in the box right there. This is what happens when you walk away from your screen. One second. So the Deafblind Child Count is on a separate page. It's going to be a light turquoise/blue color. It will function the same way as the VI registration application, with just a few differences. 
Of course, the questions are different. The student that we are working on earlier is going to be populated here. And as I mentioned earlier, all of the same information is going to be pulled over from the VI registration and populated in the Deafblind Child Count. There are different questions that aren't in the VI registration, so gender, you can select male, female, other. For race and ethnicity, we ask that question separately because the federal government has different definitions for race and ethnicity. For specifically race. On the VI registration we have Hispanic listed as a race. And on the Deafblind Child Count we have it just listed as an ethnicity. The first question that you will have to populate on the Deafblind Child Count is the year the student was first identified as Deafblind. Do your best to determine that. It's just selecting a year from the dropdown . The first section that's required is regarding parent guardian information. The last name, first name, city, state, ZIP, phone number, e-mail. This helps the Texas Deafblind Project, if we need to do a mailout to the families. The second section is optional to list another parent/guardian. The next section is regarding the living setting. So home, birth/adoptive parents, home birth, adoptive parents, [ Reading screen ] If you select "other," there's a text box you can enter that in. The Deafblind Child Count, the etiologies are handled a little bit differently than the VI registration. They are broken up into groups. [ Reading screen ] If you select "other" for any one of those three groups there, it will prompt you to name that etiology. It might be something that isn't on one of our dropdowns. Our last two selections are related to complications of maturity or no determination of etiology. Our next section is regarding visual impairment. Documented vision loss. Select one. There's a range of selections here. Normal, near normal vision with progressive loss expected. Listing better than 20/200. Legally blind of 20/200 or worse. Light perception only, totally blind, unknown, further tested needed, documented functional vision loss. If you select unknown, they still need to remain one year on that status. Between now and next count there needs to be testing done. Does the student have diagnosed progressive vision loss? Yes or no. Do they have CVI? Yes or no. Or unknown. Corrective lenses? Yes, no, unknown. Vision loss in one eye online? Yes, no, unknown. Humanitarian. Documented hearing loss. Again, we have a similar range of options. Mild, up to 40 DB. Moderate, 41-55 decibels. 
[ Reading chart ] And we have additional questions regarding hearing impairment. Do they have central auditory processing disorder? Do they have auditory neuropathy? Do they have a cochlear implant? Do they have hearing loss in one ear only? Do they have hearing aids and/or assistive listening devices? . This stands for Regional Day School Program for the deaf. Do they attend an RDSPD? Yes, no, unknown. The last question is regarding interveners. Do they have a designated paraprofessional or intervener. The first one is no. The student does not have a paraprofessional or intervener. The next question, does the student have a professional paraprofessional or intervener? And the last one, the student has a designated paraprofessional/intervener certified. The last is unknown. 

>>Erica: As Brian moves to the next page, it's just a reminder, we know these are a lot of words and acronyms and so we hope you take advantage of the glossary. 

>>Brian: Yes. 

>>Erica: That's included with these questions. Even folks who have been doing this for a long time it's like, wait, what does that mean again? So you can just click on that glossary to get a quick update. 

>>Brian: I know. I feel like I'm moving through things quickly, but definitely take advantage of the glossary. It's going to answer a lot of your questions. Our next section is regarding other impairments. Yes, no, unknown. We want to know do they have physical impairments, cognitive impairments, also identified as intellectual disability. 
Do they have a behavioral disorder? Do they have complex healthcare needs? Do they have communication, speech, language issues? Are there other impairments that aren't listed here? Yes, no, unknown. If so, tell us about it. Write it in that text box. I will ask again if the student is receiving assistive technology. The last known statewide assessment taken. We have our IDEA funding code. So IDEA Part B is 3 to 21. IDEA Part C is 0 to 2. There's a third option. So your student's stage is going to be calculated up here at the top. In this case, the student is 10 years old as of January 2, 2026. So this is going to populate questions that are specific to your student's age. So 3 to 21 we have a question regarding instructional status. The next question is concerning the category code. You can list intellectual disability, hearing impairment, speech or language impairment, visual impairment, other health impairment, specific learning disability, DeafBlindness, multiple disabilities, autism, traumatic brain injury, developmentally delayed. Non-categorical and not reported under Part B of IDEA. Our student is 10 years old, so he falls into 6-21 years. We want to know what is the instructional setting. Inside a regular classroom 80% or more of the day. Inside the regular class 40% to 79% of the day. Inside the regular class, less than 40% of the day. Separate school, residential facility, homebound or hospital. Correctional facility, parentally placed in a private school. Home school remote learning, not at public expense. Unknown or not served in IDEA Part B. And we'll ask again for the TVI information. First name, last name, the agency they work for. Their e-mail address and phone number. Optionally, you can include the teacher of the TDV if you have information to share. And at the bottom it will save all your work. Again, don't start a profile and walk away. Finish it all the way. Go start to finish in one sitting. Don't leave it unattended because you will lose your work. 

If you need to drop a student from the Deafblind Child Count, you have to go back to the VI Registry. If you need to drop that student or change their disability condition or other qualifying information, that would have brought them over to the Deafblind Child Count to begin with. And it's 3:53, I feel like I moved really quickly. Do we have some Q&A? 

>>Erica: Brian, if you want to stop sharing, I'll put up our last slide. 

>>Brian: Sure. 

>>Erica: Some questions have come in. I'm pretty sure you have addressed them but I'll just throw it out there again. We had one come in: Do we include birth to 3? Absolutely. We need that data as well. If a student is VI and DHH but has not been identified as Deafblind, how do we list them? 

>>Brian: If they're VI and DHH? 

>>Erica: So they're still going to be on the Deafblind Child Count because they meet one of those four. 

>>Brian: One of the four pathways that Erica discussed earlier. On their VI registration they have Deafblind or DHH listed as a disability condition, it's going to pull them over to the Deafblind Child Count. Also, if they have a documented or suspected hearing loss or suspected Deafblind. 

>>Erica: I think there was another question again about consent. If a parent selects "no," they do not give consent, then you're still going to complete the VI registration for that student. We will just not share the information with APH. And they will then not generate APH quota funds. Correct. 

>>Brian: They still want it counted, no matter what. 

>>Erica: Stan asked if a school district provides prop share funds for a VI at a private school, should we include them in our VI count? No. That will be the Google Form that Brian will share. We keep those counts separate. But we're definitely exploring a better method for that homeschool prop share side of things. Julia has asked, out of the curiosity, have you counted homeschool students? I'm wondering how you find them. LEA has no responsibility. Correct. That's one of the challenges and conversations we're having statewide with the Ed Action Committee. If you guys have ideas on that, we would love to hear it. If the student is dually enrolled, is that for our preschool kiddos? Yes. They would be counted in the VI registration if they're receiving services. And then Emma asked about a contractor. Yes, you can use contractor names if they're serving the student. That information is helpful. If our district has a contracted TVI and an O&M -- yes. Anybody in the district with the login credentials can complete the VI registration. So it doesn't have to be the TVI. It could be some LEAs have their SPED administrator do it. Some have another designee. So it really is up to your local policy. We're not requiring it be done by the TVIs, we just know that's often the case because the TVIs are often the ones with all of that detailed information. 

Which brings me to my first point on our final slide, which is please don't wait until January 29th to start this process for your caseload or your LEA. If you're here and you're not sure if you need to complete the VI registration and the Deafblind Child Count, reach out to your special education administrator. There may be rules and policies in place and they're going to be the ones who can help you with that. Brian and I just wanted to make sure you have the history and know the steps for completion. I'm just checking the chat again. Emma asked when should we expect to get our login information? 

>>Brian: Those SPED directors and superintendents were contacted last week. We're working through some bounced e-mails right now. Check with your SPED director and see if they've already gotten it. They may have already gotten it from me. Ask that they forward it to you. If you want to be included as a contact, ask your director to contact me and I can add you as a contact. That way you can be contacted directly and you don't have to go through your SPED director to get that information. 

>>Erica: Yeah. I know we're almost out of time, Kaycee. Real quickly, as you saw, as Brian went through that, the importance of accurate information is really important. Just make sure that you're starting the process early so that you have time to find that information, if you don't already have it. Again, please, you've got your amazing Education Service Centers that you can also reach out to for yes, sir. They receive their ESC-specific counts as well so they're a really great support if you need it.