ATTENTION PARENTS! Please read this post!

[Dennis Gotto]

From the National Coalition on Deafblindness:

December 12, 2006

Dear Coalition Members,

A lot has happened since our last communication. Although we did not get our budget request included in the FY 07 congressional budgets, we did begin to develop a network. Many of you contacted your representatives and have started to form a relationship with them. We can build upon that. We have new leadership in Congress and the 2008 budget cycle is upon us. This year we are starting earlier and working harder to get the request for increased funding for deafblind services included in both the House and Senate Appropriation bills for the FY 08 budget. That means that we need your help now.

We have two immediate goals. First, we want each of you to contact your representatives by phone or email and ask them to include the funding request in their short list of requests to the Appropriation Committee. Each congressperson and senator can identify three funding priorities for each budget cycle. We need to get several members of each chamber to include increased funding for deafblind services on their priority list.

Next, we need you to meet with your representatives or their staff to talk about why deafblind funding is so important. You can meet with your representatives or their staff in their home districts. If you are able to come to Washington, DC and would like to have a coalition person join you in a meeting, we plan to schedule meetings during the last week of January and the first week of February.

Please keep us in the loop. Send us copies of any letters you write or email us with updates about phone contacts. If you have a meeting in your district, tell us the name of the person with whom you met. We will follow up. If we all work together we can have a much greater impact.

Your congressperson and senators will submit their requests in February. They need to hear from you now.

The Coalition is trying to increase the amount of federal monies allocated to services for children who are deafblind. Specifically, we are seeking an additional $2 million dollars for the Department of Education's Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services (OSERS) to address the resource needs of children who are deafblind and their families. Federal monies support both state and national technical assistance programs that provide crucial support to children, their families and their educational staff.

The additional $2 million dollars will provide approximately:

$1.4 million to the state technical assistance projects
$350,000 to support the family-focused activities of the National Consortium on Deaf-Blindness (NCDB)
$250,000 to strengthen personnel preparation programs

Click here for a sample letter If you have any questions or need more information, please call or email. (617) 972-7768 or betsy.mcginnity@perkins.org

Please contact your representatives today, by phone or email. For contact information for your congressperson and senators, go to our website. http://dbcoalition.org/help.htm

Sincerely,

Betsy L. McGinnity

Campaign Coordinator

National Coalition on Deafblindness

betsy.mcginnity@perkins.org

(617) 972-7768