Few educators thought, when they left their school buildings in mid-March of 2020, that they wouldn’t step back in until the summer. Now, with the number of cases of Covid-19 rising in the United States, the debate rages on about whether to open schools for in-person learning.
For months, students have been in lockdown at home, with face-to-face education put on hold. The transition to digital learning has been okay for some students, but certainly not all. Most students with multiple disabilities and complex behavioral needs have had almost no access to impactful learning during this time. While special education teachers have been doing their best to provide virtual instruction for students with more significant disabilities, their virtual efforts necessarily fall short. Some services, like occupational or physical therapy, simply can’t be delivered virtually.
Many districts are asking families with children who receive special education services to make the difficult choice of either entirely virtual or entirely in-person instruction. The Council of Parent Attorneys and Advocates (COPAA) have asked the United States Department of Education (ED) and state education authorities to issue guidance to parents who opt to keep students out of school for the 2020-2021 school year. States and school districts are required to provide free and appropriate public education, whether that education is virtual, in-person, hybrid, or home-based.
There is no easy solution to the problem of reopening schools
Frankly, no option will satisfy everyone. While districts that have decided to go 100 percent virtual starting out the school year may be following the guidance of some health experts, this decision has definite drawbacks in terms of the social and emotional health of people with disabilities.
When I was a classroom teacher, a strategy that worked for me was to arrange the class and instruction for the students who required the most support first, and then plan accordingly for the rest. One plan (from Akron Public Schools in Ohio) puts the needs of younger students and those with significant disabilities first. Students with complex support needs will be able to attend school five days a week this fall, but older students and students with few complex support needs will learn from home at least three days a week. Why haven’t more districts created plans like these?
The latest report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine recommends that public school districts should prioritize full-time, in-person classes for grades K-5 and for students with disabilities. But an overwhelming number of school reopening plans give all students only two options: either full-time in-person learning or full-time virtual learning.