What are some suggestions and available materials for educating a visual impaired 1st grader

I have been home educating for 11 years- the only one in a family, that has until recently, only participated in public schooling.  My sister has a daughter who was diagnosed with bilateral retinal blastoma at 6mo.- she had been born with it- tumors in both eyes.  Now she is in 1st grade.  In Kindergarten she was blessed with a teacher who was passionate about teaching children and ready to assist her daughter in making sure she was able to see whatever was the focus of the learning point.  Her daughter has some vision, but because of her age it is very difficult for them to determine how much of her vision is blocked, but they know that it is for her like a person who has cataracts or glaucoma, where she may look at a picture that we see whole, she will see potions of the picture and therefore may not know what the picture is. They are not able to determin if that which she does see is blurry or what condition it might be in.  Somehow she is able to recognize people when they are close enough to them, but with letters and numbers, they are made up of lines and spaces, and her vision ability is based on lines that may not connect and spaces that don’t exist in an image.  So, all that to say, her experience in K was great, her teacher and everyone who has ever evaluted her say she is exceptionally intellegent, but now in 1st she is constantly being sent home with work that is marked incorrectly, and my sister says she is crushed when she sees the ‘x’ marks on her paper.  Her current teacher has been trying to get her out of her class, she tells the other kids that she is special and therefore gets special attention, she even told my sister that she told the other children that “some people are just treated more special than others”, you can imagine the backlash her daughter recieves from the other students, of whom she had great relationships with prior to the 1st grd. The teacher has refused to treat her with the same value as the other children and refused to do basic assistance just to make sure she understands what a picture is (ex: can you see what this pic. is? It is a pot. Can you write what letter, ‘pot’ begins with?) My sister told me that the school is given $3000 a year to accomodate her visial disability, but last year none of it was spent on her- (ex: books in large print, actual phonic objects that she can feel and see in 4d rather than pictures, etc).  The present teacher finally attempted to enlarge some of the pictures, but can’t or doesn’t want to understand that those pictures were drawn with a heathy eyed child in mind and therefore are jumbled to her and when it is enlarged it is only makes it appear blurred to her. My sister has went to the school and spoken to this teacher 4 times in person and I’m not sure how many times any other way, but the teacher doesn’t seem to  understand anything my sister trys to explain to her.  She has spoken to the special ed councelor- who by the way evaluated her to make sure she is capable of the class and has herself explained to this teacher that things like “touch point math” can not help a child who can not see the dots, and thus causes inability to even see the number.  She also spoke with her daughters K teacher, both the K teach. and the special ed councelor agree that the teacher is hendering her daughters education.  My sis. wants to make sure that her dd gets the same quality education as any other child and wants her also to be treated as intellegent as any other, because she is. She wanted to avoid her feeling “handicaped”, by being able to participate in the same things the other children are able to do.   

Okay, now you know a little of the situation; here is my question:  If she chooses to pull her out, she feels the only other op. is the private school that she can’t afford.  How can I reassure her that she can home educate her daughter for cheap and with proper education?  I’m sure she is concerned about stress and social pressures, as there is NO ONE in her area that home schools.  She has her daughter on a dance team, but is also worried about her little social light’s ability to see friends everyday like she is now.  She is concerned about the amount of time she will need to work with her ( she thinks it will be 5 hrs), and then she is worried, if it is only an hr. or 2 like I say, about the amount of time that will be open- what will/should she do with it? 

I am asking these questions, because, though I do home educate, I am not in her shoes.  I don’t believe that home schooling is the answer for everyone or even that everyone would be better off to do it.  I do believe that more people of capable of doing it better than they think, and it would help so many more than are taking advantage of the opportunity.  What are some of her opptions concerning curriculum, and what are some opptions for her social bug?  How could she start a home ed. revolution in her area? 

Thank you everyone for your help and advice.