{"id":107952,"date":"2020-03-31T05:30:00","date_gmt":"2020-03-31T12:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/calmatters.org\/?p=107952"},"modified":"2020-03-31T10:06:03","modified_gmt":"2020-03-31T17:06:03","slug":"coronavirus-stretches-californias-special-education-system-to-the-brink","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/calmatters.org\/_ko\/education\/k-12-education\/2020\/03\/coronavirus-stretches-californias-special-education-system-to-the-brink\/","title":{"rendered":"Coronavirus stretches California’s special education system to the brink"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t\n\t\t
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In summary<\/strong><\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\n\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t

Children, parents, and educators are struggling to adapt to a remote teaching necessity at odds with how special education is delivered.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n\t\t\n

In Modesto, Claire Lazaro is working full time while caring for her kids with autism. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

She worries about just how much progress her kids stand to lose now that they\u2019re mostly without their critical hands-on services, such as her 11-year-old daughter\u2019s one-on-one aide and her 12-year-old son\u2019s inclusion specialist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The days also seem to blur together now for Sherry Doyle, an Alameda County special education teacher who spends much of her time conferencing with parents, giving them crash courses on how to homeschool their children, while working into the night to piece together her digital classroom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Across California, schools have physically shuttered as they make the unprecedented move toward online instruction<\/a> amid the coronavirus pandemic. The virus has upended almost every facet of education in California<\/a> and the nation \u2014 but perhaps no other student group stands to be more affected than students with special needs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nearly 800,000 students in California receive special education services, accounting for almost 13% of the state\u2019s student enrollment. That number doesn\u2019t include the tens of thousands of children under age 3 who receive specialized services through the state\u2019s 21 regional centers \u2014 which provide support services to special needs individuals \u2014 under the Department of Developmental Services.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parents, educators and advocates who spoke with CalMatters shared fears that special needs children will not only regress in academics, but lose some of the essential skills they\u2019ve developed while working intimately with teachers, paraprofessionals and providers such as behavior and speech therapists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now, educators are scrambling to help their most vulnerable students, and working parents long accustomed to advocating for their special-needs children are essentially having to wear yet another hat: being their child\u2019s teacher or therapist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Big adjustment<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt is pretty overwhelming,\u201d Lazaro said. \u201cI\u2019m worried for my daughter because she is the one who really needs a lot of support, especially with math problems and reading comprehension. Even if I try to do it at home, I can\u2019t do as much as they are doing at school. I don\u2019t know if she is going to be able to catch up.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lazaro, a clinical director at the Stockton-based Valley Mountain Regional Center, has tried to maintain a schedule for her kids, Hannah and Gabriel, even as she works long hours from home. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hannah, a fifth grader, uses an assisted communication device at school, gets speech therapy three times a week, and she has a one-on-one aide who helps her stay on task and with her work. Gabriel, in sixth grade, has an inclusion specialist at school who goes into his classroom to check on him and to offer assistance for anything he might need. The school district provides these services.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Claire Lazaro assists her special needs children, Hannah and Gabriel, with their education on top of her other responsibilities. Photo courtesy Lazaro family.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey are not seeing any of that right now,\u201d Lazaro said, adding that Hannah separately receives behavioral therapy three times a week and that is still going on, albeit virtually.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lucia Soares, a Modesto mom, shares similar concerns for her son Daniel, 16, who is on the autism spectrum. Daniel attends general education classes with assistance from a one-on-one aide. He dreams of becoming a doctor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soares worries about how the downtime will affect Daniel\u2019s learning, who she said \u201chad such a great trajectory of growth over the last nine months.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In between her own job in new product development for E&J Gallo Winery,  Soares tries to help Daniel with his online assignments while she waits for virtual instruction to start and hopes he can get some individual screen time with his academic strategies teacher. Lucia and Daniel also take walks through their farm\u2019s almond orchards, but their daily strolls are no substitute for the structure and routine of a normal school day that Daniel enjoyed and relied on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Daniel\u2019s track and field practices have stopped. There\u2019s no more after-school therapy for him, either, though one of his therapists is still coming to the Soares\u2019 home and he is still attending a support group with his peers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But even those sessions are different. They\u2019re smaller, and no longer allow fist bumps or close interaction \u2014 which causes confusion for Daniel and his friends. For autistic kids who have to work hard to socialize and understand social cues, social distancing is especially confusing, Soares said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey worked hard to realize that is the norm and we\u2019ve been working on this, and now it\u2019s \u2018My world is blown,’ \u201d she said. \u201cSocial interaction is not the norm for them and they worked hard to do it, and this quarantine and self-isolation is really hard.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Looking for answers<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

As most California schools enter their third week of physical school closures<\/a>, many are still determining how they will \u2014 and whether they can \u2014 continue services for students with special needs in a world of distance learning. Most teachers were unprepared to deliver instruction remotely, and across the state there remain disparities in families\u2019 access to computers and reliable Internet service.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Those challenges are amplified for families with special-needs students, especially those with significant disabilities who rely on a team of educators and specialists for services, said Connie Kasari, a human development professor at UCLA\u2019s Graduate School of Education and Information Studies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A student who is minimally verbal, for instance, is likely to receive instruction from their special education teacher and an aide, while also receiving individual services from a speech therapist and an occupational therapist throughout the school day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Experts said it\u2019s unrealistic to expect parents to fill those specialized roles. Distance learning, they said, will not be feasible for all students with special needs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s one thing to put a child who can understand in front of a computer screen to do their lesson, do their homework, and quite another thing when the child doesn\u2019t understand that,\u201d Kasari said. \u201cWhat is that child going to do? It could be that they\u2019re just not getting any kind of education at all.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The California Department of Education has given schools broad guidance<\/a> telling educators to do the best they can to continue services laid out under students\u2019 individualized education plans, while following the state\u2019s social distancing and stay-at-home orders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A statewide group of experts is coming up with more guidance on best practices for providing special education services, the department said, and the state is hosting a webinar Thursday on \u201cdistance learning innovations\u201d for special-needs students.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Still, Kristin Wright, the state\u2019s director of special education, acknowledged in a letter<\/a> to schools that teachers and families faced \u201coverwhelming challenges\u201d providing for students with disabilities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEvery student will not be able to access online learning in the same way that they accessed their education in their classrooms at school,\u201d Wright said during a March 18 webinar. \u201cBut again, we need to think about each of our individual students and their (individualized plans) to ensure we do the best we can to meet their needs in these times.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Complicating matters, some school officials at the onset of physical closures were skittish about immediately starting their online learning plans. They said state and federal guidance does not give them enough cover from potential litigation<\/a> if they aren\u2019t able to provide students with special needs a \u201cfree and appropriate education\u201d that is guaranteed under federal law through distance learning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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