by Jeff Thom

This report will definitely be an exciting one, but before I begin discussing plans for 2019 and 2020, I want to commend Sylvia Reese on her continued work. Smart, energetic, a quick learner, she is far more than just an assistant to yours truly, and her tenacity will pay big dividends in the years to come for CCB and the entire blindness community. Secondly, let me pay tremendous tribute to outgoing Department of Rehabilitation, Blindness Advisory Committee (BAC) Chair, Mitch Pomerantz. As all of you likely know by now, Mitch is recovering from very serious surgery. We were amazed, but not surprised that within a week after that surgery and only a few days after being taken off a ventilator, he called into the BAC conference call and participated. It is that kind of dedication that has made Mitch the incredible leader that he has been for more than 40 years. Moreover I am pleased to congratulate new BAC chair Chris Sedrick of our Bakersfield Chapter and vice-chair Deborah Thompson from the ACB Capitol Chapter. They will both represent us extremely well.

Now to our legislative news! First, with the help of Doug Rose from our Humboldt County Chapter, we have secured a promise from Senator Mike McGuire to introduce prescription drug labeling legislation next year. The more stories I can collect concerning dosage errors due to the inability to read labels, the better it will be, so be sure to send them to me.

This year we have at least three pieces of legislation that we are sponsoring. AB169, which is being introduced by Assemblyman Tom Lackey for the second time, is being tried for the third time. This bill concerns extension of crimes and penalties against owners of pet dogs who attack service animals. Governor Brown vetoed the bill twice over very broad bipartisan support, but hopefully the new Governor will look favorably upon the bill if we can pass it again. Let me express my appreciation to the Golden State Guide Dog Handlers for taking on the primary Burden of securing passage of this extremely important bill.

We don't have a resolution number yet, but Assemblymember Cansen Chu from Milpitas will be authoring our measure to establish a taskforce on seniors with vision loss. We are trying to emulate the great work that Texas has done in bringing the issues of seniors who are blind or low vision to the forefront in discussions with the broader aging community.

Finally Assemblywoman Sharon Quirk-Silva, a teacher from Orange County, is introducing our major bill on special education. The bill will have a number long before you read this article, and we will be calling upon you to send letters of support to the appropriate committees. The bill, which has broad support by educators in the blindness community, does two major things. First it ensures that school districts and county offices of education cannot impose various types of restrictions that, essentially, preclude our blind and low vision children from receiving sufficient or sometimes any orientation and mobility instruction. One of the major restrictions is that a district will prohibit an instructor from using his/her own vehicle to transport the student and will not provide the instructor with a vehicle to accomplish this goal. The second item that this bill covers is that it provides an entitlement, to the extent needed by each student, to all of the services contained in the "expanded core curriculum," which is a group of skills that sighted children usually obtain through observing others (such as siblings, peers or adults) but which our kids cannot do so in the same manner. These services include orientation and mobility; compensatory academic skills, such as braille, large print, etcetera; instruction in the use of technology; socialization; sensory efficiency; concept development; and others.

Again, Texas is the pioneer in this area of legislation, and it is high time that California become a trendsetter rather than a place where education for children with vision impairments is sometimes good and sometimes very poor. I have already participated in presentations on this bill and will certainly do more. We will definitely need your support to face what I am certain will be opposition for various reasons, including very likely for cost reasons.

So, get on board the CCB legislative train as we work with the entire blindness community to improve the lives of all persons with vision loss.