Addressing National Needs

Ninety-eight percent of the country's school districts report teacher shortages, and in low-incidence areas, such as deaf-blindness, these shortages often result in the lack of adequate and appropriate services. Adequately trained paraprofessionals are also in short supply, yet paraprofessionals are increasingly used to support the inclusion of students with severe disabilities in general education settings and to provide direct and related services. Although the demand for highly qualified teachers continues to increase, the number of personnel preparation programs preparing service providers for careers with students with deaf-blindness continues to decrease.

Currently, there is no established system that low-incidence personnel preparation programs and leaders in the deaf-blind community can use to plan and implement collaborative personnel training. To assist in meeting this need, NCDB will facilitate the development of a national deaf-blind personnel preparation consortium that will:

• Assist in identifying national personnel shortages and training needs specific to deaf-blindness
• Facilitate a coordinated national effort to promote personnel training to address the shortage of highly qualified personnel
• Facilitate summer institutes and the development of online and distance education training opportunities
• Collaborate with personnel preparation programs in deaf-blindness to make resources available that augment coursework and practicum experiences to provide consultation for workshops and online training activities.

NCDB will also:

• Continue to provide personnel training through a variety of multi-state Topical Conferences, Webinars and Focus groups
• Maximize the use and visibility of evidence-based research, best practices and emerging knowledge in personnel training activities at state and national levels
• Identify and coordinate mentorship and internship opportunities between personnel preparation programs and the state and multi-state deaf-blind projects and their host agencies, and other entities such as Perkins School for the Blind, HKNC and the American Association for the Deaf-Blind.