Board hears concerns about rising vision-related special-education accommodations
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Summary
Board member Jeff Hyers told the board the district is seeing an "exponential growth in vision" issues in special education, saying staff make "over 600 accommodations" (about 9% of the student body); the superintendent said staff will research screen-time baselines and pursue parent partnerships.
Board member Jeff Hyers raised concern that the district has seen a marked increase in vision-related needs among students receiving special education services.
Hyers said staff reported "we make over 600 accommodations in the district. That's 9% of our student body that has some kind of vision accommodations," and he described the trend as "extremely disturbing." Hyers told the board his optometrist had pointed to screens as a likely contributor: "...my optometrist...she said, Jeff, there's reams of it...but I sound like my age, but it is purely screens."
Superintendent Mr. Scheck responded that he had begun conversations with staff to frame the issue and that the district may start by collecting baseline data on screen time at different grade levels. He said the district must build partnerships with parents because schools cannot control students' screen use outside school hours.
No formal policy or allocation of funds was adopted during the meeting; the discussion was framed as preliminary and staff research work. Board members emphasized the need for data (baseline screen-time measures) before proposing specific interventions.
Next steps: Superintendent and staff will research available data and possible mitigation approaches and report back to the board for further discussion.
