The Florida Senate

233.056  Instructional programs for visually impaired students and deaf or hard-of-hearing students.--

(1)  The Division of Public Schools and Community Education of the Department of Education is authorized to establish a coordinating unit and instructional materials center for visually impaired children and youth and deaf or hard-of-hearing children and youth to provide staff and resources for the coordination, cataloging, standardizing, producing, procuring, storing, and distributing of braille, large print, tangible apparatus, captioned films and video tapes, and other specialized educational materials needed by these students and other exceptional students. The coordinating unit shall have as its major purpose the improvement of instructional programs for visually impaired students and deaf or hard-of-hearing students and may, as a second priority, extend appropriate services to other exceptional students, consistent with provisions and criteria established, to the extent that resources are available.

(2)  The unit shall be operated either directly by the Division of Public Schools and Community Education or through a contractual agreement with a local education agency, under rules adopted by the Commissioner of Education.

History.--ss. 1, 2, ch. 72-319; s. 1, ch. 77-36; s. 6, ch. 78-416; s. 6, ch. 94-303; s. 124, ch. 97-190; s. 11, ch. 97-307.