About
The FAPE Committee is a coalition of agencies and organizations in California serving people who are blind or visually impaired. The FAPE Committee is staffed entirely by volunteers. We have no funding.
MISSION
To uphold the right of children in California’s school system who are visually impaired to receive an education appropriate to their individual needs.
The FAPE Committee asserts that an appropriate education includes access to both the Core Curriculum and the Expanded Core Curriculum, the nine areas in which pupils with visual impairment may need specialized, targeted instruction in order to be equally prepared for adulthood as their fully sighted peers.
HISTORY
In January of 2017, the FAPE Committee was established by the Northern California Association of Orientation & Mobility Specialists to address a problem common throughout California: many school districts were not allowing, or were limiting, the community-based instruction in travel skills that pupils with visual impairments need. The FAPE Committee started a grassroots movement to tackle this problem legislatively. In October of 2019, the State of California passed our legislation, "Expanded core curriculum: visually impaired pupils”. This law added sections 56353 and 56354 to California’s Education Code.
GOALS
To inform parents, pupils, instructors and program administrators about the current educational rights of pupils specific to visual impairment.
To pursue and to support legislation that assures that pupils who are visually impaired receive an appropriate education.
To support full funding and full staffing of organizations that serve individuals who are visually impaired.
