PROVIDENCE – After a recent outcry from the community about the state seeking bids from other vendors to provide services for the blind and visually impaired, state officials announced Monday that funding for such services at the Paul V. Sherlock Center on Disabilities will be secure.
House Speaker K. Joseph Shekarchi, D-Warwick; Senate President Dominick J. Ruggerio, D-North Providence; Gov. Daniel J. McKee and other members of the R.I. General Assembly stated that the Sherlock Center will maintain its funding for the next two years in the state budget. In working with R.I. Education Commissioner Angelica Infante-Green, the center was awarded the master price agreement and that blind and visually impaired students will continue to receive services from their current teachers without interruption.
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The Sherlock Center, based at Rhode Island College, houses the Rhode Island Vision Education Services Program. The state said specialists work with blind and visually impaired students in more than 26 school districts across Rhode Island. General Assembly spokesperson Emily Martineau said the Sherlock Center will receive approximately $685,000 this year from the state. It is unclear how much the Sherlock Center will receive next year because next year’s enrollment is still to be determined, Martineau said, but it is expected that the center will receive next year about the same amount as it is getting this year.
Initially, the state’s contract with the Sherlock Center was set to expire June 30 and the R.I. Department of Education, under a master pricing agreement, would solicit bids from new vendors. Subsequently, pushback from families and students who received services from Sherlock Center arose.
An online petition titled “Rhode Island’s Blind and V.I. Students Deserve Equitable Access to a Quality Education,” which garnered 8,438 signatures, expressed concern and disdain that specialists at the Sherlock Center were laid off and only found out about from news media.
“Our children are distraught to know that their beloved and qualified teachers will not be with them for their summer programs or the next school year,” the petition stated. “This seems particularly cruel in the throes of a pandemic that has already severely impacted our children’s education.”
The petition asked the state to create a permanent line item in the budget to sustain programs and educators for blind children, much like what the state does for the Rhode Island School for the Deaf, among other requests.
Also, the state said both Shekarchi and Ruggerio will form a House and Senate Working Group – made up of four members from each body – that will work together over the next several months to create a long-term strategy and plan for the state’s services for blind and visually impaired students.
In a statement, Ruggerio said the relationships the students have forged with students over the years at Sherlock Center are instrumental in the students’ success.
“We believe the funding we are committing to today will provide a bridge enabling us to work together collaboratively and develop a long-term solution,” Ruggerio said. “I am very grateful to everyone involved, particularly my colleagues in the Senate who made this a priority and Speaker Shekarchi.”
James Bessette is the PBN special projects editor, and also covers the nonprofit and education sectors. You may reach him at Bessette@PBN.com. You may also follow him on Twitter at @James_Bessette.
