Special Education in the Online World

March 13th, 2020 is a day I’ll never forget. The COVID-19 pandemic that is now reaching ten months strong has been completely life-altering for every person around the world. It started as a two week inconvenience, and quickly turned into a global crisis that devastated the lives and livelihoods of billions. As students and parents of school-aged children know, the pandemic has severely impacted schools. Teachers and students were forced to quickly adapt to an online form of instruction, with all of the components of the classroom suddenly being confined to a small screen at a kitchen table. Students of all ages are finding it difficult to stay focused and motivated with the lack of social stimulation that a traditional classroom setting provides. Students, educators, and parents alike are generally burnt out, uninspired, and Zoom-fatigued.

Likely not at the forefront of everyone’s minds is wondering how special education systems have fared during the pandemic. Special education classrooms utilize a wide variety of tools for learning, from specialized behaviorists and occupational therapists to tactile learning toys and games. With the classroom taken away from the learning process, special education systems have had to adapt even more drastically to the online world. With this in mind, I wanted to gather a first-person account of what special education during a pandemic looks like from a student and their parent’s perspective. I reached out to an organization that I used to volunteer at called Free 2 Be Me Dance (https://www.free2bemedance.org/). Free 2 Be Me is an adaptive dance program for individuals with Down syndrome and is a huge part of why I became so interested in special education systems. One of the families I worked with was gracious enough to answer my questions about what school has looked like during the pandemic. While we were unable to coordinate schedules for a phone call, we had a lucrative email communication about the student’s and the parent’s experiences with virtual learning this year. Below is a transcript of our communication, with names redacted for privacy purposes.

From the student and parent:

1. What is your school situation right now? Completely virtual, hybrid virtual/in person, completely in person?

School is completely virtual and we have 2 NPA [non-public agency] therapies that come to the house for 1-on-1 sessions (OT [occupational therapy] and Speech) every week.

2. What does your typical school day/routine look like?

School starts at 9am with PE, then it’s block schedule for 4 days of the week with 1.5 hour Zoom sessions per class. School ends at 2pm and then [student] has her private 1-on-1 sessions.

3. What kinds of activities do you do with teachers online? Do you like them better/same/worse than what you do normally in person?

Lots of discussions, breakout rooms and group sessions. [student] has found her stride with virtual learning and is able to focus better with prompting but misses dearly the daily social interactions with classmates/teachers.

4. Do you like online school or would you prefer to be back in person?

[Student] would love to be back in person but has adapted to the virtual world amazingly.

From the parent:

1. How was/is the transition to online learning/learning from home?

The Spring was tough. [Student] had a hard time with online learning at first as she’s easily distracted and gets frustrated when people don’t understand her on the other end. This fall semester has greatly improved. We’ve employed strategies to help her stay focused and on task during her classes.

2. Do you have any particular anxieties/stressors about your child not being in person for school?

[Student] is very social and it's just sad that she doesn’t get that on a daily basis. She’s a trooper and adapts to anything so we don’t have too many anxieties. I also like that I can control her environment more when she’s learning from home, as this minimizes distractions. Zoom fatigue is a concern as [student] is in front of a computer for 6-7 hours per day.

3. What kinds of resources, materials, or other support would be beneficial to your family at this time?

We’re very fortunate to have a private behaviorist who sits with [student] during school. This has helped with online learning immensely. We’ve also gotten very adept at Google classroom which allows us to reinforce lessons/assignments after the school day is over. I know this must be so difficult for families who don’t have a private behaviorist to be next to their student all day. This has been key for helping [student] thrive this semester. I think every family with a special needs child would benefit from this type of resource: a non-parent behaviorist who can prompt and redirect their student throughout the school day.

4. Do you have any suggestions for how online learning/learning during a pandemic could be improved for families?

We’ve worked with the school district/teachers to incorporate more breaks with physical movement to get re-centered for class sessions. One of the benefits of special ed is that classes are smaller so the teachers and paraeducators can tell better when a student is fatigued or losing focus. I think more collaboration with parents/private therapists and the school would enhance online learning for everybody.

The biggest takeaway I have from our communications is that online learning is not impossible, but special education systems need to be supplementing the online general learning with other specialized services similarly to how they would in a usual school setting. Just as in a typical configuration, many special education students need that little bit of extra support from their instructors, and for most schools this support was lost in the transition to online learning. In IEPs (which I explain in further detail in my previous blog post), services such as occupational therapy, physical therapy, and speech-language therapy are included in the agreed upon plan between schools and parents. As an article from the Washington Post notes: "each qualified child receives an IEP, or Individualized Education Program, which lays out the services the child is required to receive. But receiving all those services was nearly impossible in the spring, when schools, overnight, shifted to remote learning. There had been no plans to deliver services like occupational therapy or physical therapy to special education students, and parents, who had come to depend on schools to care and educate their children during the day, were suddenly at home with them, untrained and unable to fulfill an IEP" (Perry Stein, 2020). This closely aligns with my interviewee’s perspective as well, relaying that their experiences with online learning would be completely different without their private services, who play the role of a non-parental figure, acting as a mediator between the student and the online classroom. Parents and guardians do not always have the flexibility to take time off work to be the personal aid to their child during school hours, not to mention the oftentimes troublesome dynamic of having parents assume the role of teacher… I was definitely traumatized thoroughly from nights crying at the kitchen counter while my family frantically tried to help me finish a book report or solve a math equation. Additionally, not all students and their families have access to these kinds of extra resources outside of what is given through the IEP. IDEA assures that students receive free services at school that align with their IEP, but many parents, like the one I interviewed, feel that those services are sometimes not enough, especially now with the pandemic disrupting how these free services are provided. Considering the demographics of special education families, with most coming from lower socioeconomic backgrounds, the cost of private behaviorists, occupational therapists, tutors, and other such services is prohibitive for many families.

This is where the system can play a role in ensuring that every student gets the proper accommodations they need to be successful in virtual learning. In an article sharing the perspective of Leandra Elion, a lecturer for the Department of Child Study and Human Development at Tufts University, they recount that:

"Elion said she understands that schools are overwhelmed as they adapt to virtual learning and enhance safety measures inside school buildings to comply with COVID-19 guidelines. But she said that’s no excuse to deny a child’s right to free and appropriate public education" (Nelson, 2020). Special education systems have an obligation to uphold the agreed upon IEPs and provide these services to their students, especially considering how the pandemic has made virtual learning a long-term solution for schools. Special education students cannot be held back due to their needs not being met appropriately, therefore illuminating the need for school districts to prioritize providing monetary and professional assistance to special education programs as they pertain to remote schooling.

As we are all attempting to navigate the COVID-19 world there are bound to be gray areas where we are unsure of what our next steps should be. I am no expert with knowledge to back any real ideas or movements for change, but as an outsider I do see some issues that have a strong need to be resolved. From my perspective, schools need to address the issues that special education students are facing just as swiftly as they are doing for general education students. With the pandemic still raging throughout the United States, more permanent solutions to the issues discussed need to be implemented in order to continue delivering the much needed services to students. For example, families need to be given access to the specialized therapy services, resources for parents, and assistive technologies that they are entitled to in their new learning settings. Whether that looks like a staggered schedule of students coming to the school for private sessions or services coming to their homes once or twice per week, special education students need to regain their supplementary services that not only enhance their education but their daily living in general. Schools should also prioritize bringing special education students back to the classrooms, as they are the population of students that need in-person instruction the most, in my opinion. Of course, special education students who might be high risk would not be required to return, but the students who can return safely to a classroom to receive their appropriate education should be prioritized. COVID-19 is something that has made it apparent that we cannot rely on the status quo. Even if the day comes that COVID-19 has disappeared and we can all return to “normal” lives, something else could be right around the corner that forces us to once again shift our ways of providing education to young people. We need to not only solve the issues we’re currently facing with remote learning, but also prioritize having plans for flexible transitions to new settings in the future, capitalizing on the technology available to us and funneling more resources into education in order to be better prepared. No student should be left behind in the transition to online learning, and no families should have to face the burden of transitioning with no resources alone.

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References

Nelson, A. (2020, September 29). How COVID-19 Has Affected Special Education Students. Retrieved December 08, 2020, from https://now.tufts.edu/articles/how-covid-19-has-affected-special-education-students

Perry Stein, V. (2020, August 10). Special education students are not just falling behind in the pandemic - they're losing key skills, parents say. Retrieved December 08, 2020, from https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/special-education-students-are-not-just-falling-behind--theyre-losing-key-skills-parents-say/2020/08/05/ec1b91ca-cffd-11ea-9038-af089b63ac21_story.html