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HomeBlogsRoundup: Tragic Student Crossing Fatality, Using Technology for Special Needs Students

Roundup: Tragic Student Crossing Fatality, Using Technology for Special Needs Students

More details are surely to come after the death of a 12-year-old Greenville, Tenn., boy. He reportedly was crossing the street to board his school bus in the morning when he was struck and killed by the bus. His sister unfortunately witnessed the event.

According to one report, darkness may have been a factor, and the bus is being inspected for any mechanical defects.

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Miami Dade police this week arrested a 39-year-old man who they said caused a school bus carrying elementary school children to crash in front of a home. The crash occurred Wednesday as the suspect, driving with a revoked driver’s license, ran a stop sign and slammed into the school bus. He had left the scene after the impact.

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One report questioned the speed at which the school bus was traveling at the time of the impact after a local television news reporter interviewed a county bus driver whose uncle lived in the damaged home, which now has to be demolished. The school district, however, said it doesn’t plan to launch an investigation, but a transportation department committee may review the police department’s findings.

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Students with special needs and technology can be a good mix when it comes to learning. An article in eSchool News talks about how school officials are tracking emerging technologies and matching them with students who are blind, dyslexic or immobile.

For example, the blind student uses a Braille keyboard that allows him to read and write, but also communicates with his iPad, which translates from Braille to English and English to Braille. The student with dyslexia uses an iPod and a laptop computer, along with software that will read any text to him out loud. It’ll guess at his the words he needs as he writes an assignment. And the immobile student received a device developed for the paraplegic war wounded that includes a camera that tracks a person’s eye movement. The student’s steady gaze at the certain spots on the computer acts like a mouse.

The article stresses how funding is crucial — as with most school necessities — because anything made to help with disabilities “is bound to be expensive.”

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