As schools around the country have moved online during COVID-19 closures, teachers are bracing themselves for slipping grades and stagnated learning curves. But educators say this turbulent transition will likely cause serious academic and social regressions for students with disabilities.
Online learning is simply more complicated to tailor to the needs of these students, as the accommodations usually afforded to them, like one-on-one speech therapy, are difficult and sometimes impossible to deliver over the Internet, according to Steve Guerriero, a sixth-grade social studies teacher in Massachusetts. This leaves disabled children—who are already more prone to losing academic, emotional, and social skills while out of school—in a lurch.
Now more than ever, collaboration between teachers and guardians is vital to students’ success.
Whether or not a student regresses during the nearly six-month-long school closures will depend on a mix of intersecting factors, says Barbara Van Haren, assistant state superintendent of the Wisconsin Division for Learning Support. All of the factors that cause regression over a typical summer break—stability of a student’s Internet access, the ability of their guardian to supervise their studies, among others—will determine their success during this virtual learning stint.
Predictably, students with disabilities who are also hindered by one or more of these factors will be among the population most affected by school shutdowns.
While students’ Individualized Education Plans (IEPs), which outline their accommodation needs and educational goals, are usually in constant flux throughout the school year, COVID-19 has upended these plans in an unprecedented way. To adjust to students’ new, uncharted learning environments, Guerriero says many educators have entirely rewritten their students’ IEPs with more attainable goals and accommodations.
In some cases, special educators can easily provide typical learning accommodations from a distance with quick workarounds; students who need braille to read, for example, can receive these materials in the mail. However, occupational and physical therapy is harder to supply from afar. Children who require one-on-one supervision to wrangle impulse control issues cannot receive such support through the post, potentially causing them to regress emotionally and academically.
“Most [students with disabilities] rely on a strong connection with a trusted adult, so, without that, they may have difficulty feeling comfortable in their new learning environment,” says Allison Gandhi, director of the special education practice area at the American Institutes for Research.
The fact that teachers are being forced to improvise virtual behavioral support in real time further complicates the task. No matter how many one-on-one Zoom check-ins teachers do, or how closely they monitor assignment completion, they can’t accurately imitate the in-person support and enrichment that comes naturally in a classroom setting. Many students, for example, are encouraged to look to their peers as role models when they get lost in class. When those role models are miles away, that structure is lost.
“I use the phrase ‘read the room’ a lot,” Guerriero says. “But when there’s no room to read, those social norms and structural supports are no longer there.”
In most cases, Gandhi says, the only people who can deliver attentive behavioral support during distance learning are students’ guardians, who aren’t necessarily prepared for the task. Even if these guardians have the luxury of time and energy to offer this support to their children, few have the training to do so effectively.
Now more than ever, collaboration between teachers and guardians is vital to students’ success. Without clear communication between the two parties about what progress is being made or lost and what accommodations are necessary or feasible, students will regress.
Luckily, notes Gandhi, special education programs are built to “meet students where they are,” both in terms of skill and now, geography.
Because IEPs are designed to be tailored to a student’s ever-changing needs, special educators have the freedom to constantly reassess a student’s situation, adjusting goals and providing support accordingly. The success of this flexible model relies almost entirely on the teacher’s ability to use progress monitoring tools to gauge whether a student is on track to meet their goals.
“Progress monitoring is important across the board,” Gandhi says. “It’s especially important now because it’s the only way to know if a child is responding to accommodation.”
Even with keen monitoring, educators won’t be able to fully evaluate whether or not a student is regressing until school resumes, but doing so improves a student’s chances of staying on track.
Monitoring students’ progress or regression from afar is more complicated than from within a classroom where teachers can do so by observing certain indicators, like how often a student raises their hand in class. In a remote learning context, teachers need to find new ways to observe these subtle cues.
For some teachers, this may mean using educational technology to more closely monitor how quickly students complete homework assignments and how often they procrastinate. Others may want to increase the number of tests and quizzes students take.
But for all educators, the new educational reality will mean relying more closely on guardians to help track their children’s development.