By Tim Mastro

DOVER — Xavier Lawrence’s commute to the Saint Lucy School for Children with Visual Impairments in Philadelphia takes 90 minutes in both directions.

The eighth-grader hopes one day that won’t be necessary and he can stay in Delaware for his education. But he has not attended a Delaware school since 2019 and is searching for suitable high schools, none of which are in Delaware.

Xavier spoke to the state’s Joint Finance Committee Tuesday, asking the state to provide additional money to help visually impaired children receive more resources in the classroom.

The Delaware Division for the Visually Impaired is asking the JFC for $5.3 million in general funds and a little over $1 million in both appropriated special funds and non-appropriated special funds. Xavier said that is not enough to help children succeed in the classroom. In Philadelphia, he has a teacher for the visually impaired in the classroom at all times, while Delaware does not have that option.

“I could not use braille in the classroom when I went to school in Delaware because my TVI (teacher certified in visual impairment) was not always able to be there and no one else really knew how to teach me in braille during the school days,” Xavier said.

“We need the people in the authority in the legislature to listen to what our needs are and to act accordingly. We have asked for years to have a vision teacher in the same classroom as us with no success. Now that I am going to high school soon, I need for the legislators to understand and help make Delaware a more successful place for students with low vision and blindness, so kids like me can prepare for college or whatever they want to do with their lives.

“It would be great to know that I could eventually come back home to Delaware and learn with my family,” he added.

Currently there are 16 teachers in Delaware who provide services to about 300 visually impaired children, DVI director Debbie Talley said. She said they are assigned geographically and the student-teacher ration is 20-1.

Ms. Talley said the division has taken some steps forward recently and has created a greater emphasis on training all paraprofessionals and teachers.

“There are no complaints right now from school districts,” she said. “I work with the Department of Education to make sure that they are satisfied. We have a liaison, we meet with all the districts and if there is a problem, we address it right away. We’re doing training with districts now that I don’t think was offered as often before.”

State Rep. Kim Williams, D-Newport, expressed her frustration with the lack of progress for helping visually impaired children in Delaware schools. She said one of the issues in Delaware is those students might only spend up to an hour with one of the 16 teachers due to the teachers needing to drive between different schools.

“We keep having these conversations and I keep hearing that they’re not receiving the services,” she said.

“We’ve been having these conversations and we’ve had task forces but I don’t see it improving at the ground level,” echoed Sen. Dave Lawson, R-Marydel. “I don’t see it.”

The staffing challenges extend throughout other Delaware Division of Health and Social Services departments.

DHSS secretary Molly Magarik said 22% of DHSS’s positions are vacant. Many current staffers are at higher risk of burnout, she said, because of their increased workload.She hopes a proposed pay increase for state workers by Gov. John Carney will help address the staffing issues.

“We are losing people to Amazon,” Ms. Magarik said. “It used to be maybe the skilled clinicians type jobs, but we’re seeing supervisors, managers, we’re seeing people leave for the private sector and it’s creeping up in pay grades. It’s not just the lower pay grade employees, it’s accountants, HR people. It’s really sadly across the board, people are choosing to walk away from state government right now.”