‘We have to try’
Parents worry how online learning will impact kids with disabilities as schools form plans
With schools closed, parents worry how online learning will impact special-education students.
“The majority of kids I worked with throughout my career as a physical therapist will get little to nothing through distance learning.” State Rep. Liz Thomson, D-Bernalillo
With a behavioral analyst on the other end of the video call, Kristina Martinez spent an hour practicing teaching techniques that help her son Boyd learn without reverting to self-injury. The sixth grader at Rio Rancho Middle School, who has a severe form of autism, has been working on adding the value of coins this school year, and frustration can lead to what his mother calls “meltdowns.”
While school in Rio Rancho was operating as normal, Boyd received speech, recreational and occupational therapy — as well as individual attention — in a special-education classroom. Now, as New Mexico’s public schools have closed their doors for the school year, his mother said she needs to learn some methods of in-home instruction.
“I am not a therapist, so I don’t know what I’m doing,” said Martinez, who has six children. “Other children might be able to learn online or independently, but that’s not the case here.”
With the state’s public schools shifting to distance learning for the remainder of the 2019-20 adacdemic year and perhaps beyond, Martinez and other parents of students with disabilities wonder how their kids’ special-education services will transfer to an online system. Some students are embracing new possibilities of modern technology and online learning, but the future for students who need intensive, hands-on help is unclear.
While he did not provide a specific mandatory start date, Public Education Department Secretary Ryan Stewart recently announced all students would begin distance learning shortly after an April 8 deadline for districts and charter schools to submit a continuous education plan.
“This is not a period in which we are waiving the provisions of special education — not at all. Equity is at the forefront,” Stewart said. “If services require a physical presence such as students with extraordinary physical needs, then the requirement is to work with those families to understand what supports can be offered during this time.”
U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy
DeVos has said compliance with the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, which requires school districts to create and follow Individual Education Plans that provide free, appropriate education for students with disabilities, should not prevent any school from offering distance learning to general education students. According to U.S. Department of Education guidelines, the determination of a free appropriate public education “may need to be different in this time of unprecedented national emergency.”
During the COVID-19 pandemic, special-education advocates worry that as some students continue learning online, students with disabilities will be excluded without the protections of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.
“My concern is that this administration will use this unprecedented situation to gut protections for kids with disabilities,” said state Rep. Liz Thomson, D-Bernalillo, referring to President Donald Trump and DeVos.
“The majority of kids I worked with throughout my career as a physical therapist will get little to nothing through distance learning,” added Thomson, who spent 27 years as a physical therapist in New Mexico public schools and has a 29-year-old son with autism who lives in a group home in Albuquerque. “I am worried their needs will be lost in this scramble.”
During the state’s initial threeweek closure, many districts like Albuquerque Public Schools and Rio Rancho, which combined have about one-third of the state’s students, did not provide digital learning opportunities, citing issues of equity and access. According to guidelines from Public Education Department, if a school district continues to educate the general student population during a school closure, it must also ensure students with disabilities have equal access to the same opportunities.
Meanwhile, Santa Fe Public Schools moved forward with plans to educate all students online starting Monday while recognizing some special-education services will need to be made up after the pandemic.
“Whatever time and services we’re providing the general education population, we will determine what is comparable for students with disabilities,” Superintendent Veronica García said. “In some instances, we may have to wait to for in-person services later.”
Of its roughly 13,000 students, Santa Fe Public Schools has 1,962 students with Individualized Education Plans for special-education services, including 156 students with autism, 95 with an intellectual disability, seven with a traumatic brain injury and 11 who are visually impaired, according to district data. In 2017-18, about 15 percent of students in New Mexico’s
public schools received some kind of special-education services, according to federal data.
Santa Fe Public Schools Special Education Director Julie Lucero said forms of therapy should transfer to telephone or videoconference, such as YouTube videos of yoga exercises to replace in-person physical therapy. Anna Hagele, who along with two education assistants teaches four students in a high-needs special-education classroom at Kearny Elementary School, said she is recording cooking demonstrations to share with her students, who learn academic subjects as well as life skills in her classroom. Hagele also said she plans to hold daily videoconferences with students to establish a routine and review reading and math, although they will need help from parents setting up their technology.
“All of my students will need some parent support, and I recognize this is a difficult time. People are afraid about being laid off,” Hagele said. “Equity is always a huge topic in my mind as a special-education teacher. This is a very unprecedented time in terms of how to deliver education, but I think they will definitely lose their gains and not be able to catch up if we don’t provide any opportunities.”
At New Mexico School for the Deaf, where around 70 students living on campus were sent home due to the pandemic, Director of Instruction Jennifer Herbold said she is trying to set up lesson plans that won’t burden parents. While speech-language therapy and most general instruction will translate to videoconference, Herbold also said she is worried about students’ social lives, as their families have varying abilities to communicate through sign language.
“We are trying to set up our distance learning in a way so that it does not rely too heavily on parents except to ensure their children attend the virtual classes,” Herbold said. “We are also working on ways to provide virtual means for social interaction, not just academic learning. The staff that work in our residential programs will work on various ways to provide after-school experiences.”
While Santa Fe Public Schools and New Mexico School for the Deaf are able to provide a laptop or tablet to every student, other school districts with far less technological infrastructure are pushing forward with distance learning for all. James Cammon, superintendent of Dulce Independent Schools, which serves around 690 students predominantly from the Jicarilla Apache Reservation in far Northern New Mexico, said his district does not have take-home laptops. Ninety-eight percent of families in the district lack an internet connection at home, he said.
Through internet hot spots set up in the school parking lot and lessons livestreamed on cellphones, Cammon said Dulce is making plans to begin digital learning that will include the district’s approximately 70 special-education students.
“We have to try. We simply can’t afford to sit back,” Cammon said. “We’ve got special-education students who have been with us their whole life who are figuring out transition plans for after graduation this spring. You think we’re going to stop working on those because we can’t meet in person?”
The state in mid-March filed a motion to dismiss the Yazzie/ Martinez lawsuit, in which a district judge ruled New Mexico has been denying special-education, Native American, English-learning and low-income students their constitutional rights to a sufficient education. The state claims substantial changes to its public education system in recent years and additional school funding have sufficiently met the judge’s order.
Plaintiffs in the case argue otherwise, and Thomson, who spent her career as a physical therapist teaching students to walk, chew and hold books, said the extended closure prompted by the novel coronavirus will only exacerbate the gulf in opportunities between special education students and some of their classmates.
“It’s a situation where the rich will get richer and the poor will get poorer,” Thomson said. “I’m really worried about kids with significant disabilities. They may be working on swallowing or walking in school. Things that parents need licensed and trained professionals to help them teach.”
Kristina Martinez, who co-founded statewide autism advocacy group Elevate the Spectrum in September, understands that concern.
She said Boyd had meltdown after meltdown after his school abruptly closed, and he is constantly asking to leave the house and go see one of his cousins — a non-starter in an era of social distancing. While Rio Rancho Public Schools will have to start providing online services in the coming weeks, Martinez said videoconferences with therapists might allow him to maintain some skills but won’t foster growth.
“We’re going to lose all this time,” Martinez said, “Any neurotypical kid has the ability to catch up; he cannot and will not. This is time lost.”