• Virginia Hands and Voices: provides parents with the resources, networks, and information they need to improve communication access and educational outcomes for their children. 
• NFB of Virginia Parents of Blind Children
• Center for Family Involvement (CFI): works with families to increase their skills as advocates, mentors and leaders so that families, children and young adults with disabilities can lead the lives they want.
• PEATC: working collaboratively with families, schools and communities in order to improve opportunities for excellence in education and success in school and community life.
• Formed Families Forward  supporting foster, kinship, and adoptive families of children and youth with disabilities and other special needs. 
• Facebook: Virginia Parents of children who are blind/vision loss.
• Facebook: Virginia Parents of Children who have combined vision and hearing loss (deafblind)
• Facebook: Virginia Families of children with hearing loss, deaf or hard of hearing.
• Department for the Blind/VI (DBVI) : Birth through 21: Education Coordinators that can assist in navigating the educational system. Pre-et (Pre-employment Transition) Services, events and camps. Vocational Rehabilitation Counselors to assist with navigating life after high school planning. (post secondary education and employment)
• Virginia Early Hearing Detection and Intervention (EHDI): provides information and referral to families regarding newborn hearing screening, follow-up testing, and early intervention services.
• Outreach Services at the Virginia School for the Deaf & Blind (VSDB): works to provide resources, consultation, webinars, workshops, and more to assist everyone in Virginia working with and caring for children ages 2-21 with hearing and/or vision loss.
• Virginia Rehabilitation Center for the Blind and Vision Impaired (VRCBVI): 0ffers training in the skills of blindness to blind and vision-impaired Virginians and encourages people to develop positive attitudes about blindness
• Department for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing (VDDHH): promotes accessible communication so that persons who are Deaf and Hard of Hearing may fully participate in programs, services and opportunities throughout the Commonwealth.
• Department of Rehabilitative Services (DARS) Deaf and Hard of Hearing Services: helps individuals who are Deaf, Hard of Hearing, Late Deafened or DeafBlind get ready for work, find a job or keep a job. VR services may include vocational counseling, training, assistive technology, resources related to hearing loss, and job placement.
• Technical Assistance Center for Children who are Deaf and Hard of Hearing (TAC-DHH): Assistance is available to local public school systems as well as state-operated programs, including early intervention through the Virginia Network of Consultants for Professionals Working with Children Who are Deaf and Hard of Hearing (VNOC) in areas such as: identification, assessment (educational, psychological), communication of children across the spectrum of modalities (visual-combination-spoken.), specific needs of children with cochlear implants, instructional strategies, and amplification.
• Virginia Hands and Voices: provides parents with the resources, networks, and information they need to improve communication access and educational outcomes for their children. 
• NFB of Virginia Parents of Blind Children
• Center for Family Involvement (CFI): works with families to increase their skills as advocates, mentors and leaders so that families, children and young adults with disabilities can lead the lives they want.
• PEATC: working collaboratively with families, schools and communities in order to improve opportunities for excellence in education and success in school and community life.
• Facebook: Virginia Parents of children who are blind/vision loss.
• Facebook: Virginia Parents of Children who have combined vision and hearing loss (deafblind)
• Facebook: Virginia Families of children with hearing loss, deaf or hard of hearing.

• National Center on Deafblindness (NCDB): Online hub for Deafblind Information, including self-guided modules, Family Resources, and News and Events in the Deafblind Education field.
• Hands & Voices
• National Family Association for DB (NFADB): National nonprofit organization connecting families of individuals who are DeafBlind with information and networks at the state and national levels.
• CHARGE Syndrome Foundation- Provides outreach, educational webinars, and connection to local statewide liaisons to connect with families.
• Usher Syndrome Coalition- Works to raise awareness about Usher Syndrome and provide information to people and families affected by Usher Syndrome.
• Ava’s Voice- Nonprofit organization focused on connecting and empowering youth with Ushers syndrome and educating schools and communities.
• Perkins School for the Blind - Nonprofit organization with access to curated online resources and trainings directed specifically for educating students who are blind, visually impaired and DeafBlind.

• CHARGE Espanol: https://www.chargesyndrome.org/espanol/
• Facebook: CHARGE Spanish
• USHERS in Espanol: https://www.usher-syndrome.org/resources/living-with-usher-syndrome/recursos-en-espanol.html 
• PEATC Latino: https://peatc.org/services/latino-outreach/ 
• Facebook: PEATC Latino
• CFI Espanol: https://cfi.partnership.vcu.edu/resources/cfi-en-espanol/ 
• NCDB Recursos para Familias
• Hands and Voices Espanol: https://www.handsandvoices.org/resources/espanol/index.htm 

VDOE’s information page on Deafblindness

• • Deafblindness eligibility document
  • Intervener Services IEP Discussion Guide
  • IEP Meeting Checklist for students who are deafblind

• VDOE’s information page regarding Deaf & Hard of Hearing
• Guidelines for working with students who are deaf and hard of hearing document.
• Communication Plan document.
• Educational Interpreting Services document.
• IEP/504 Checklist for students who are deaf/hard of hearing
• Communication Matrix assessment tool to help families and professionals easily understand the communication status, progress, and unique needs of anyone functioning at the early stages of communication or using forms of communication other than speaking or writing.
• Informal Functional Hearing Evaluation (IFHE): an informal evaluation designed to guide a Teacher of the Deaf/Hard of Hearing (TDHH), Teacher of the Deafblind (TDB), Teacher of the Visually Impaired (TVI), Speech Pathologist, or Educational Audiologist in determining the impact of a potential hearing loss on educational functioning for students with visual impairments and multiple disabilities.  
• ASL Resource Brochure
• Connecting Families of Children who are Deaf of Hard of Hearing Plus (DHH+) with Resources and Support Brochure
• Virginia Resource Guide for Families of Children who are Deaf/ Hard of Hearing: 
• Virginia Resource Guide for Families of School- Aged Children who ae Deaf/ Hard of Hearing

• VDOE’s information page on Visual Impairment including Blindness 
• Guidelines for working with students who are blind or visually impaired, version in PDF or in MS Word format.
• IEP Checklist for students who are blind or have functional vision needs. 
• Functional Vision Assessment (FVA) includes considerations for CVI : As part of an initial evaluation, the TVI conducts an FVA to analyze how a student actually performs visually in a variety of environments, both familiar and unfamiliar.
• Learning Media Assessment (LMA): An LMA is an ongoing, comprehensive and systematic process for collecting objective and unbiased data to guide educational team decisions regarding the individual learning styles, literacy skills (reading and writing), and the current and future media preferences and needs of students who are blind or visually impaired. 
• Orientation and Mobility Evaluation (O&M): assessment examines a child’s ability to travel safely indoors and outdoors, with or without assistance. An O&M instructor, a professional with specialized training in teaching travel skills and concepts such as spatial awareness, will conduct the assessment.
• Assistive Technology (AT) several Evaluation considerations around sensory loss.
• IEP Technology Assessment Considerations from Perkins School for the Blind.

• American Printing House for the Blind  (APH) - materials that can support students who are have vision loss including deafblindness at school and at home. Free through Federal Quota Funds (order through your TVI or DBVI Education Coordinator). Order a catalog 
• Described and Captioned Media Programs (DCMP): provides a streaming library of accessible education videos, teaching tools, and professional development opportunities. We partner with educational content creators to provide high-quality captioning, audio description, and American Sign Language (ASL) translation.
• Bookshare: Bookshare audiobooks and ebooks are transformative. They make it easier for students with learning differences to read with powerful assistive reading features. Students can listen to books, follow with word-level highlighting, read in large text or braille, and customize their reading experience to learn in ways that work for them.

Note that Medicaid Waiver qualifications are not based on family income (only considers the person with a disability’s income). 

The Virginia Developmental Disabilities Home and Community-Based Services (HCBS) Waivers help eligible people with a developmental disability (DD) to receive services and supports in the community. 

Waivers fund a variety of supports including those that:

• provide medical care
• enable employment
• enable community living
• provide behavioral interventions
• provide home modifications and assistive technology that help people avoid living in a nursing home or other institution.

The ARC of Virginia’s information on Waivers is a great resource with easy to understand information.

HIPP & HIPP for Kids - Health Insurance Premium Program : Medicaid programs that may reimburse part of a participant’s entire share of the employer-sponsored group health insurance premiums.

• PEATC Transition
• Center on Transition Innovations

• RAISE Center
• NTACT-C
• Got Transition (healthcare)
• Perkins Transition Center
• NFB Project RISE
• Transition Discoveries
• I’m Determined
• Helen Keller National Center- National program providing comprehensive vocational rehabilitation services to youth (16 and older), with combined hearing and vision loss. Supports people who are DeafBlind to achieve their goals and aspirations.

Link: https://www.helenkeller.org/hknc/  

• Infant and Toddler Connection
• EI locations
• Partnership Infant and Early Childhood projects