Officials press for on-site special education

Education department recommends schools provide students with disabilities face-to-face instruction

State and local education officials say face-to-face instruction for special-education students is a top priority as they plan for a new school year amid the uncertainties of a persistent COVID-19 pandemic.

The New Mexico Public Education Department has told school districts they should ensure students with disabilities can return to the classroom as often as possible when — and if — facilities reopen. Special Education Director Deborah Dominguez-Clark said that was a recommendation rather than a mandate.

“This is under local control,” Dominguez-Clark said.

“Students with disabilities have higher needs,” she added, “so we’re asking students with disabilities to be reviewed to see what is the nature of the disability and what concerns are impacting their education.”

Julie Lucero, special-education director at Santa Fe Public Schools, said her department’s goal is to have students with disabilities on campus at least four days per week.

“We need to be flexible and able to go in and out of remote and in-person learning, but we want to try to

keep our students in the building at least four days per week — five if they let us,” Lucero said earlier this week.

That was before Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham reinstated some pandemic-related business restrictions due to rising numbers of positive tests for the novel coronavirus, which causes COVID-19. During a news conference Thursday, the governor and health officials said cases are increasing among younger New Mexico residents, including school-age kids.

If the state doesn’t begin to see a decline in the virus’s spread, the governor said, school buildings will not open as planned Aug. 3.

If students are not cleared to return to campus, Lucero said, some forms of therapy can be provided virtually for children with disabilities.

“We learned this spring that speech therapy and social work can continue remotely,” Lucero said. “We also learned if students are forced to learn remotely that we probably need to provide more support for parents.”

The Public Education Department’s reopening guidelines, in a best-case scenario, call for a hybrid of on-campus and distance learning. The guidelines recommend a four-day schedule on campus, with facilities closed Wednesdays for deep cleaning.

Even if the majority of students must remain at home, the agency said, some small groups of special-education students might be able to return to campus.

Gabrielle Heisey, whose 15-year-old son is enrolled in Albuquerque Public Schools, said she was happy to hear the state is placing a high priority on special-education students. Her son has autism and dyslexia. He needs to return to the classroom so he can learn to read, she said.

“My son lost out on a lot of education, and staying at home would widen the deficits, so he would become further and further behind his peers,” Heisey said. “He needs really intensive instruction for him to become fluent in reading, and that just won’t happen at home.”

Heisey, other parents and advocates for children with disabilities say not much learning happened this spring for special-education students, who make up around 15 percent of the state’s K-12 population.

Advocates also say the pandemic has highlighted problems that have long frustrated parents: a lack of qualified special-education teachers, long waits for disability screenings, and policies that allow school workers to physically restrain and seclude students as emergency interventions.

In October, an annual teacher vacancy report by New Mexico State University found that out of 644 vacancies for full-time educators in the state, 151 — nearly a quarter — were for special-education teachers.

Monica Miura, a policy advocate with the Albuquerque-based nonprofit Families ASAP, which provides free services for children and teens with mental health needs and brain injuries, said she fears if a special-education teacher is unable to return to campus due to health concerns, his or her students will be placed with an unqualified educator.

“I’m worried we will have musical chairs,” Miura said. “Say somebody ends up with a fever, so they can’t come in. Well our children are going to be walking in with an unknown teacher or sub on a regular basis, which is a trigger all on its own.”

Last month, a group called Organizing Parents Education Network sent a letter to the Public Education Department and Lujan Grisham raising concerns about policies allowing the limited use of restraint and seclusion as techniques to address severe behavioral issues. The group asked for a moratorium on these measures, which state law now allows only to prevent serious harm — and only when they are included in a student’s Individualized Education Program, a legal document that addresses a child’s unique learning needs.

The group argued the use of physical restraint would contradict rules calling for social distancing during the pandemic.

While the techniques have been used more broadly in the past as disciplinary measures that disproportionately targeted special-education students and minorities, a law passed in 2017 put more restrictions on the allowable uses. At the time, advocates had tried instead to prohibit the practices altogether.

Rep. Liz Thomson, D-Albuquerque, who worked as a physical therapist in New Mexico public schools for nearly 30 years, said she believes the practices are still used too frequently.

“I think we need to do it as a very last resort instead of a first resort, which is what it has become in some places,” she said. “Maybe now as the world is turned upside down, it is time to rethink this policy.

“What are we teaching students by restraining them?” Thomson asked. “What if we focused on deescalating?”

Dominguez-Clark said the Public Education Department has not relaxed the physical restraint policies beyond what the law allows but will encourage districts to review student behavior plans and deescalation strategies.

She also said processes for screening students for disabilities and meeting with parents to discuss IEPs can occur by videoconference during the pandemic.

Alberto Ortega, who helps families navigate the special-education system with Families ASAP, said he’s not so sure that will be the case.

The Public Education Department has “said so many times over the years that special education is a priority while things have gotten worse,” Ortega said. “It was much easier when you were able to physically go into the principal’s office and put pressure on them.”

Now, he said, parents call a school, and there is either no answer or a secretary doesn’t know where to forward the call.

Heisey, other parents and advocates for children with disabilities say not much learning happened this spring for special-education students.