School-aged Services to Children (6-21 years)
Meet Our Education Consultants
Kaycee Bennett is a certified teacher of students who are deaf or hard of hearing and also has a graduate certificate and master’s degree in deafblind education from Texas Tech University. She worked as a classroom teacher and an itinerant teacher for 10 years before joining TSBVI Outreach.
Kaycee joined the Texas Deafblind Project in 2019 and has rapidly become an integral part of the team.
Want to connect with Kaycee? Contact her at bennettk@tsbvi.edu.
Sarah Mossberger is a certified Teacher of Students with Visual Impairments (TVI). In addition to her Master’s Degree in Special Education, she also holds her graduate certificate in deafblindness. She worked as a special education classroom teacher, first in a behavior management unit and then as a specialized instruction teacher for twelve years, before becoming an itinerant TVI, and then the district’s deafblind specialist. She recently joined the TSBVI Deafblind Outreach team in 2023.
Want to connect with Sarah? Email her at mossbergers@tsbvi.edu.
Rachel Collins is a certified teacher of students with visual impairments and a teacher of students who are deaf and hard of hearing. In addition to her master’s degree in the Education of the Deaf/Hard of Hearing, she holds her graduate certificate in deafblind education. She has over 20 years of experience in self-contained, residential, and itinerant settings working with students who are deaf/hard of hearing, blind/low vision, and/or deafblind. Rachel joined the Texas Deafblind Project in 2022.
Want to connect with Rachel? Contact her at collinsr@tsbvi.edu.
Consultation to School Programs
One of the most important roles for our Education Consultants is working with local school districts and families to develop quality programs for students (6-22 years) who are deafblind. Through individual consultations with educators and family members throughout Texas they provide information, training and resources to improve the quality of education for all students who are deafblind. To request consultation or initiate contact with the Outreach team, fill out this form and someone will reach out to you soon!
Teacher of Students who are Deafblind
One of the major initiatives of the Texas Deafblind Project is the development of a certificate for teachers of students who are deafblind with the State Board of Educator Certification in Texas. Over the past years, working in collaboration with schools and universities, they have managed to achieve their goal of creating approved standards. They are also working to help develop criteria for certifying individuals and developing training curriculum for these individuals.
Interveners
Students who are deafblind frequently need intensive one-on-one support from a specially trained paraprofessional known as an intervener. In Texas we currently have approximately 95 students utilizing intervener services, both from certified and non-certified interveners. It is a major initiative of our Project to develop training and provide support for these individuals. We also work to collaborate with programs providing college programs for these individuals.
Training
Our Texas Deafblind Project educational consultants provide training throughout the state and nation through face-to-face workshops and distance learning modalities. Additionally they develop materials to use in training for educational teams working to develop appropriate instruction and document student progress.
Collaboration
Most of the activities carried out by our team are done in collaboration with agencies and organizations at a state and national level. These initiatives focus on systems change in providing educational services and support to individuals who are deafblind and their families. At the local level we work with members of the local independent school district and regional human service agencies that serve the student who is deafblind and his / her family.
Some of our partners at a state level includes Texas Education Agency, Texas Sensory Support Network, Texas Complex Access Network, Texas Workforce Commission, Texas Department of Health and Human Services, Deaf-Blind Multihandicapped Association of Texas, Texas Chargers, Texas Tech University, Stephen F. Austin State University, and all of the twenty Education Service Center consultants for visually impaired, deaf and hard of hearing and deafblind.
On a national and international level our partners include Deafblind International and Deafblind International Network of the Americas, National Center on Deafblindness, Perkins International, Council for Exceptional Children and many of the other state deafblind projects.