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Lorem Ipsum Dolor Spring 2016
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incidents, but instead are a part of a process with each stage dependent on
the one prior. For both fields, the route to the final destination takes time. In
the spring of 2015, the Region 4 Regional Day School Program for the Deaf
(RDSPD) began its journey of transforming educational programming for
students with deafblindness. By following Kotter's eight-step model for
successful organizational change, the Region 4 RDSPD was able to begin
the process of transforming programming for students with deafblindness.
Background
In the spring of 2015, annual census data revealed that a member
district had 22 students with deafblindness. During the 2014–2015 school
year, the Region 4 RDSPD was directly serving only one of the 22 identified
students. Having 22 students in a single district was incredible considering
that across the nation in 2014, there were a total of 9,384 students with
deafblindness (The National Center on Deaf-Blindness, 2015). Within this
An RDSPD is a unique programming option within the state of Texas in which
school districts and charter schools enter into shared service arrangements (i.e., a
legally binding contract) to consolidate special education services that benefit
students who are deaf and hard of hearing. RDSPDs were established in an
attempt to provide services more effectively and efficiently due to the low-incidence
nature of hearing loss (TEA, 2013).
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