VIDBE-Q Volume 67 Issue 4
Table 1
Intervener Services Recommendations
Goal: Recognition
1. Develop a coordinated and expanded national approach to provide state and
local early intervention and education agencies with information and tools
needed to understand and use intervener services.
2. Coordinate and expand efforts to inform national, state, and local policies and
practices so that they reflect and support the provision of intervener services for
a child or youth who is deaf-blind when needed.
Goal: Training
1. Develop a national open-access intervener-training curriculum that aligns with
the Council for Exceptional Children's Specialization Knowledge and Skill Set
for Paraeducators Who Are Interveners for Individuals with Deaf-blindness.
2. Develop strategies to ensure that interveners have knowledgeable supervisors
and access to experts in deaf-blindness who can provide consultation and
coaching.
3. Expand opportunities for interveners to obtain a state or national certificate or
credential.
4. Establish a national intervener jobs clearinghouse to assist in intervener
recruitment and job placement.
5. Provide resources (e.g., technology applications, technical assistance) that help
interveners establish organized online and face-to-face communities where they
can improve their knowledge and skills by sharing ideas and experiences with
each other.
Goal: Families
1. Develop information resources and tools and disseminate them to family
members to increase their knowledge of intervener services and enhance their
ability to communicate effectively with educators, administrators, and others
about those services.
2. Develop and implement strategies that create opportunities for families to share
ideas and experiences and work together to address intervener services at local,
state, and national levels.
Goal: Sustainability
1. Congress should ensure the long-term sustainability of intervener services for
children and youth who are deaf-blind by including them under the definition of
"related service" and as an early intervention service in the next reauthorization
of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA).
