20 Apr Children’s Center for the Visually Impaired (CCVI) Receives $120,000 Grant from Jackson County eitas
Children’s Center for the Visually Impaired (CCVI) recently received a grant for $120,000 from Jackson County eitas to provide scholarship assistance to students and families.
Every child attending CCVI requires some level of scholarship assistance to cover the costs of their specialized instruction and therapies, which cost an average of $250/hr. Funding support from Developmental Disability Services of Jackson County-eitas helps us to fill this gap. eitas funding will support CCVI’s therapy program for infants and toddlers from birth to age three which is provided both in the child’s natural home environment and at the Center.
According to the American Optometric Association, 80% of what a typically developing child learns occurs through vision, incidentally, and before the age of five. Children who are blind or visually impaired do not glean incidental opportunities for learning from their environment like their sighted peers. CCVI addresses this need through services available from birth through kindergarten age. Infants and children under age three are enrolled in our Early Intervention Program (EIP) or Preschool Program. The EIP provides regularly scheduled home-based instruction/therapy and center-based evaluations of an infant’s developmental progress. Center[1]based preschool classes, beginning at age two through kindergarten age, continue a child’s preparation for entry into the public, private, or state school systems. Specialized services include speech-language, occupational, physical, and aquatic therapies; braille instruction; orientation and mobility; assistive technology; deafblind programming; and family support services. CCVI also provides outreach services for older school-age children.
The Kansas City Nursery School for the Blind opened in September 1952. The school’s name was changed in l982 to the Children’s Center for the Visually Impaired (CCVI). CCVI’s mission is to prepare children with visual impairments, including those with multiple disabilities, to reach their highest potential in the sighted world. Over the last 68 years, CCVI has educated more than 10,000 children and their families.