Never in our lifetime has a global health crisis caused the need for such a broad swath of long-term school closings as we are experiencing with the novel coronavirus outbreak. Teachers who have experimented with "flipping" their classrooms and other ways to teach online probably have a certain level of confidence in this sudden shift to remote learning. But for those who've never experienced online learning or teaching or feel less confident with digital technology, this can be an unwelcome and stressful change. The challenges are particularly steep for educators working with students with disabilities.
The good news for teachers new to some of the online technology is that we haven't moved purely to "online school," but rather to remote learning. Within remote learning, the options for connection with students and families include online videoconferencing, phone calls, video calls to an individual, texting, email, and mail. From an equity standpoint, it's necessary that we're prepared to use any of these methods to support connecting (first) and learning.
Yet the unprecedented nature of this health crisis leaves us with new questions about how to provide special services to students, not for a few days, but for weeks and months. The U.S. Department of Education's Office of Special Education Programs has responded with online documents and videos and has also been clear that if a school moves to remote learning, it must ensure that students who have IEPs have access to that instruction (). Many special educators have implemented home-based instruction and interventions in the past, but never have they been forced to do so with no in-person contact and for the entire population of students with IEPs.
Urgent questions are circulating. "How do we deliver intervention at a distance?", "How do we provide accommodations and modifications to online work?", "How do I measure progress?", "What about students with severe disabilities?", and "How can we support families?" Some support and intervention can be provided by shifting to web conferencing and phone calls, but direct, online services often aren't an option for our youngest learners and students with more significant intellectual disabilities. In this "new normal," special educators are charged with serving many students solely through consulting with their classroom teachers and families. For students whose supports are now provided mainly through such educator-to-educator consultation, the families are now an even more important part of the equation. How do we do this in a way that supports families, rather than burdening them with overwhelming responsibility?
As we're already seeing, the move to remote learning exacerbates preexisting issues of equity in schools. Delivering instruction at a distance isn't simple, even when students have no difficulties with learning, a dedicated device in a quiet space, a household with low stress levels, and parents able to support learning. But this ideal situation is far from ubiquitous. The proportion of families who are currently unemployed or underemployed, food insecure, and experiencing high levels of stress is higher than we've ever seen. We have students who require accommodations, modifications, and intervention now at home with their families—many of whom are unsure of how to provide the support they need.
While the situation is unprecedented, there are steps schools can take to support students who have IEPs in remote-learning settings. We will no doubt learn a great deal from one another and from our students and families in the coming months. In the meantime, the following suggestions can be a way to start thinking about some of the many service-delivery questions our teams are facing.
First, Support the Family
Families are in some ways being put in the role of "learning coach" now, and for some, this role is uncomfortable. We want to maximize the time families have to give to supporting their child's learning, streamline it as much as possible with their lives, and minimize their feeling like a full-time teacher or therapist. Already under enormous pressure, millions of people have lost their jobs. Millions more are tasked with working full-time at home in a new way and supporting their children in online learning. Those of you who are both educators and parents no doubt feel this.
By now, you've probably seen on social media the phrase, "We have to Maslow before we Bloom," meaning we must attend to the needs identified by Maslow's hierarchy before we can engage students in the levels of learning shown in Bloom's taxonomy. This has never been truer than now. To support students, we must connect with them and their families to learn more about their resources, priorities, and concerns. So our first task is to reach out to families to build relationships and find out how they're doing as a family.
Schools can make a plan for teachers to reach out to each family individually by phone call or video call. There should be a primary contact teacher or counselor for each family. With younger students, this primary person will be easier to identify. In secondary schools, teachers can divide the students among themselves for making the first call. If there is a special connection that has been established between a student and a teacher, this is a good reason to attach the student to that teacher's list. Special educators should reach out in the same way to all the families they serve individually. Are there basic needs and worries—and can we help in any way? How is the student coping with the change? Do they have internet connection and devices? If so, how many devices? Can the student use the available online tools? What is their preferred way to communicate? To the extent to which real-time communication, such as video and phone calls can be used, we reduce the "transactional distance" (Moore, 2007) families and students feel.
All this information can inform how we then support the student and family—and how much we ask them to take on. We need to find out what the family's main priorities are right now, for their family and their child. Purposefully focusing on families' priorities will go a long way in building a collaborative partnership. Just as we give students as much choice as possible, let's give families choices in what we support and how.
For teachers who already have an excellent relationship with a family, this information may flow freely. But for connections that are a bit more distant or new, it may take time to establish a trusting relationship in which families feel comfortable being vulnerable enough to express what they need and fear and worry about. Share some of what you are experiencing personally, and remove the formality we might display in a school setting. Keep reaching out and checking on them. This emotional support may be the most important of the services you provide during this time.
Focus on What Learning Matters Most
In this time of crisis, educators are doing our best to keep the learning happening. But we are in no way trying to recreate the classroom in students' homes. There has been a seismic shift in context, not only physical environment, but also emotional environment. Recreating lessons at home isn't our task.
Classroom teachers should be working quickly to highlight the most critical elements of the curriculum, possibly through vertical teams that are identifying the most crucial skills for success in the following grade. These essential skills and understandings will be the focus of the remainder of the school year. Specialists who work to serve students who have IEPs must be part of these teams, since their job will be to help classroom teachers ensure all students have access to this leaner curriculum in a distance format. Leaders and teachers must remember to include special educators in planning discussions, collaborating with them to generate ideas for accommodations and modifications and to ensure instruction is accessible.
Although classroom teachers and specialists must implement each student's full IEP, the focus may shift, and our methods most likely will, depending on how the curriculum shifts and on family priorities. A student may, for example, be feeling a lot of anxiety about the change in routines. So we may need to support the family to help their child adjust to a new way of doing school. It's OK to press pause right now to refocus. When I teach people to write IEPs, I ask them to think about the student and complete this sentence: "If the student could only do ___, it would change their life forever." By considering with students, families, and classroom teachers what would be life changing for a student to learn to do, we can focus on what matters most. When we can add more, fantastic. But in the beginning, we may need to focus our efforts differently and on fewer, life-changing outcomes.
Problem Solve to Make the Learning Accessible
For students who have been included in general education classrooms and have the ability to connect online, we want to find out from them where they need support to access the online learning. How are they accessing web-based content? What is working well? What's frustrating? What do they wish their classroom teachers knew? How does the assistive technology they already use work within the new online environment, and is any new technology needed?
It's best for students to tell their classroom teachers where they need additional support or access points, but special educators can facilitate this by talking through with students the tasks teachers have assigned and asking questions relative to students' past needs for accommodations or modifications. For example, a student may have needed clarification and visuals to support learning during in-person lessons. By thinking through the new way content is presented by each teacher in the online environment, we can guide students to identify where supports are missing and what might be added to help them learn better. Such support may be as simple as recording the online meeting with a teacher for replay or providing clearer organization within the learning management software. It may involve working with the family and student to organize their day or materials in a new way.
When we have information from each student on their new needs for support, we can problem solve with their teachers to make the learning environment and its demands accessible and beneficial. For example, we may need to orient students to any technology that is new or different, or to changes remote learning makes in the demands on their abilities. Or they may need captioning for online videos. Converting from excellent classroom teaching practices to presenting content through many pages of online text without in-person support introduces new barriers for many students, especially those who have reading comprehension difficulties. If we are expecting students to use a new learning-management system, or particular websites, or videos, these must be accessible to all students using them. Measuring progress may involve reviewing products, having reflective conversations with students and families, or using technology in creative ways. Either way, we will be looking to families and students to participate in evaluating progress, which can absolutely create a positive shift in assessment for the future.
In terms of the specialized interventions we deliver, there may be clear options for providing those online. There may also be options for supporting families in implementing an intervention the team designs. But not all students have internet or device access. Although we will be able to continue providing much of the support at home that was delivered in school, there may be insurmountable barriers to delivering some of the interventions students were receiving in school, or the importance of those interventions may have changed. The U.S. Department of Education acknowledges there could be exceptional circumstances that affect service delivery during this time. But the department also compels us to prepare to address gaps, should any result from school closures (OSEP, 2020), so educators will need to figure out ways to address these issues promptly as schools reopen.
Keep Friendships Going
Students are, no doubt, missing the social connections they have at school. The ability to be with their friends in and out of the classroom is suspended, and this is tough for students and their families. Many students with disabilities have received support at school to interact socially and have friends; some of them are now isolated from these friendships and aren't used to keeping them up through technology.
This social interaction is critically important for all students' social-emotional well-being, but it doesn't naturally occur for everyone. When possible, we can use technology to intentionally facilitate connections between students and between families, so this interaction can continue. The social groups students had in person can likely continue online or via phone. For students who have limited access to technology, we can arrange "pen pals" for exchange of letters, drawings, and photos. Receiving a real letter from a friend can be novel and exciting in 2020. Be sure to adhere to IDEA rules for confidentiality in making these connections by obtaining consent if disability status is in any way to be disclosed. But do make the connections.
Try a Routines-Based Approach
For very young students and students with more significant disabilities, our support may move from direct delivery of an intervention to helping families in supporting the student. Accessing curriculum online may not be a possibility. In this case, a routines-based approach may be the right way to go. Routines-based intervention is a common way of supporting young children with developmental delays and disabilities in a home setting. In this consultative way of delivering services, teachers use a routines-based interview to find out about what a family typically does on a given day. We find out how the student engages in each routine, how interaction and communication look in the routines, what the student can do independently, and where he or she needs help. We can identify learning opportunities embedded in these routines and design ways families can connect elements of their everyday routines to the student's learning targets and IEP goals (McWilliam, 2010).
For instance, we may find out that a student with a single parent wakes up, has breakfast, and then spends time watching TV or playing with her older sister. The parent keeps her as occupied as possible while he works online, but the older sister is largely in charge of watching her. But this sibling is also trying to do her schoolwork. Lunch is rushed, but the family does have lunch together. At about 4:00 p.m., the parent finishes work and spends some time with the girls, then begins to prepare a meal. They hang out after dinner, and he helps the girls with their schoolwork. This is the schedule of the day, but with more questions, we can identify where the learning opportunities are, and where they are not. We may find that during dinner preparation, there is a great chance to help the student work on grouping and sorting and counting. But we aren't going to suggest this at lunch, because it's a hectic time. We may also find suggestions we might present to her older sister to build vocabulary in a fun way during TV watching time.
If there are significant behavior or communication difficulties during routines, we can identify strategies to make these times easier for families. The idea is, we don't want to add too many "to dos" and additional stress for families right now, but to find small ways to tweak existing routines to find learning opportunities. We want to focus on their priorities and needs to the greatest extent possible.
Take Care of Yourself
During this time, all teachers are feeling pressure to carry out instruction in a new way within a difficult context. Your family may be enduring a great deal of stress, too. Special educators, without a doubt, are concerned about making the new learning methods, instruction, and materials accessible—and the legal implications of the changes. There is little guidance to be found on providing intervention at a distance.
However, don't neglect your own work-life balance. Sure, we may have to connect with families after hours, as they may not be available during the typical school day. We may need to adjust our schedules to accommodate families, because it's even more important than usual to make the connection with them. But shifting doesn't mean working all day and night, as some no doubt are feeling the pressure to do. Breathe. Pat yourself on the back for all the effort you are giving. Be sure to take time for yourself.
Crisis and Opportunity
We are in a time of crisis and uncertainty in our world. Teachers who serve students with learning differences are being forced to build new skills and creativity in family support, collaboration with classroom teachers, and consultative service delivery.
It's been said that the Chinese written word for crisis is composed of two characters, one representing danger and the other opportunity—and this crisis presents opportunities for us as well as danger. We may not have the same number of hours and materials and interaction we had a few weeks ago, but that reality presents an opportunity to grow closer and more personal relationships with students and families. And out of this trying time, we will absolutely develop new tools that will help us serve students more holistically and with greater focus going forward; that's key because peer-reviewed studies and recommendations for remote delivery of special education services are currently very limited.
So, let's see the hope in this time; let's see the opportunity to grow and learn together as teams of students, families, classroom teachers, and specialists. Future generations of students (with and without learning differences) will benefit from what we learn and how we grow in providing more accessible and equitable instruction and intervention.
