Adults with disabilities back in Edgewood classrooms
Teachers make changes for safety while keeping support, structure
For Ruben Sanchez, the return to school for face-to-face learning last week was more than a return to normalcy — it was a chance to reclaim a sense of belonging that he had missed since schools shut down in March.
Sanchez, 20, is one of 14 students welcomed back to the Burleson School for Innovation and Education on Tuesday after weeks of distance learning. The school provides special education students who graduated high school in the Edgewood Independent School District with training for future employment and independence.
Like every schoool, it was forced to move all learning online in the spring to fight the spread of the coronavirus. So far,
“In special education you have to be adaptable, and that was our mantra.”
Jose Hinojosa, director of special education at Edgewood ISD
about half its students are back in classrooms.
“I love being here. It’s real nice,” Sanchez said. “I’d rather be here than at home.”
Administrators and staff have had to make myriad adjustments to keep students and themselves safe, all while trying to provide the same level of support and structure the students depend on.
As parents drop them off in the morning, they might help their adult children complete a screener questionnaire on a school-issued iPad, laden with visual cues to make it easier. New arrivals have their temperature checked at the entrance, sanitize their hands and make their way to their classrooms, where they have their own desks and school supplies.
Everyone wears a mask or transparent face shield. Students who are still at home participate “synchronously,” to use the educational parlance of videoconferencing in the pandemic era, taking the same lessons and activities as those in the classrooms.
“In special education you have to be adaptable, and that was our mantra,” said Jose Hinojosa, director of special education at Edgewood ISD, which provides such services to about 1,100 students. “It was a constant pivot, but in our world that’s what we do, and we just roll with it.”
Despite all the adjustments, having students back in the classrooms has been a delight, said Lavonne Hill, a student job coach who has had to temporarily change her role to that of a teaching assistant.
“It’s sunshine,” she said. “It’s good to have them back.”
Hinojosa agreed, saying the “opportunity to educate and see kids, and to see the smile on their faces” was “like the best feeling.”
“Seeing how excited they are, there’s nothing that beats it,” he said.
Having students with disabilities return to the classroom during a pandemic has been no easy task. On Wednesday, the district’s internet network crashed for about 45 minutes, temporarily leaving students and teachers disconnected from those learning from home. Staff deployed a fleet of personal Wi-Fi hotspots to re-establish the connection until the issue was fixed.
For some students, returning to school means wearing a mask for longer periods of time than they are used to. Knowing it’s not just uncomfortable but can make it difficult to focus, Burleson staff devised face shields with a piece of cloth that extends down to the students’ necks to provide additional protection while allowing them to be maskfree.
Students receiving special education often respond best to visual signals like facial expressions and body language, so having transparent face shields makes learning much easier for some, Hill said.
“They need to see our smiles, they need to see our facial expressions,” she said. “They need to know we’re happy — no matter how they perform, we’re still happy.”
Before the pandemic, students had the opportunity to visit off-campus job training sites — places like Pizza Hut and H-E-B that partnered with the school — to learn certain workforce skills. Now, those options have been suspended, but the school still has its own on-campus job sites, like a cafe, a boutique and a T-shirt print shop — Sanchez’s favorite — that it hopes students will be able to use in the coming weeks.
Until then, job training lessons have become career exploration classes, where students learn how to prepare a resume, identify their interests, and explain their skills.
A student’s individual needs and learning style become major determinants of the kind of education and support each receives. The staff at the school have emphasized keeping that method alive while taking precautions amid the pandemic.
“We always look at everybody as an individual, regardless of COVID, and so this is just another layer of that – what does each student need to be successful, including safety and our procedures here?” said Sarah Minner, transition coordinator for the 18+ Program.
Families were given a tour of the school with all the adjustments in place before deciding whether a student would return to the classroom, Minner said.
“It’s nice coming back,” Sanchez said. “I missed doing work; I missed doing T-shirts; I missed coming to learn.”