Common Sense For Oregon Aids In School For Blind Victory
Salem, OR- Today, Common Sense For Oregon Executive Director and General Counsel, Ross Day congratulated the students and parents of the Oregon School for the Blind for their victory with the passage of House Bill 3867. The measure, signed into law today by Governor Kulongoski, reverses a mistake made by the 2009 Oregon Legislature which closed the Oregon School for the Blind without leaving the students and families with a viable educational option for former School for the Blind students.
“I am proud today that Common Sense For Oregon was able to help these families achieve justice and fairness for their children,” said Ross Day, “these families already face a number of challenges, I am glad this is one challenge where common sense, both literally and figuratively, prevailed.”
After the 2009 Oregon Legislature voted to close the Oregon School for the Blind, Common Sense For Oregon met with the families of School for the Blind students. Out of those meetings, Common Sense For Oregon created and funded a strategy that involved filing suit against the state of Oregon to stop the sale of the School for the Blind property and representing students and families in Individual Education Plan (IEP) proceedings.
House Bill 3867 requires half of the money from the sale from the Oregon School for the Blind to be used for the benefit of the Oregon School for the Deaf, the other half of the proceeds must be used to benefit visually impaired students. The original plan approved by the 2009 Legislature would have simply deposited all of the proceeds from the sale of the School for the Blind into the state’s general fund, where visually impaired students would be denied virtually any benefit from the sale of the property.
Common Sense For Oregon hired an attorney to challenge the sale of the property where the Oregon School for the Blind property is located. As a part of the settlement of the suit, the parties agreed that the lawsuit would be dropped if House Bill 3867 was signed into law.
“I want to thank the families for trusting Common Sense For Oregon to fight for common sense on their behalf, and our attorney Tyler Smith for doing such a great job in achieving this result,” said Day.
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Comments
I have been trying to find out infomation on the United States Senators running for election in Oregon and who supports who. No one seems to favor any one of the candidates and I am in a quandry. Does your organization endorse any one of these candidates? If so, please inform me and why.
Thank you.
You are my heros!!!!!
I thought the blind school was done for
and there is no other avenue for blind
people to receive the help they need!
I disagree that this was a “mistake”
by the legislature. They have been
aiming at closing the school for a long
time. They don’t want to fund this
essential school.
You are tops in my book.
What can I do to help you?
Rebecca Roth
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