Closures may levy lopsided impact
Bay Area students with special needs more at risk with schools shut down
For the state’s 725,000 students with special needs, the closure of classrooms for a fivemonth stretch will not mean the absence of just academics, but also of critical therapy and specialized services that they can’t get from home.
Parents fear the fivemonth loss of personal interaction with trained special education teachers and therapists could set their children back well behind their peers.
District officials and teachers across California have been ramping up digital learning for all students, but those with intellectual impairments and physical disabilities including autism, speech disorders, Down syndrome and dyslexia require more than worksheets and online lessons, parents say.
So far, it’s been a waiting game while districts figure out how to teach those with the greatest academic, behavioral, physical and emotional needs through a computer screen.
“Kids not being in school is really rough,” said Juno Duenas, executive director of Support for Families of Children with Disabilities, a San Franciscobased nonprofit. “These children aren’t necessarily getting that therapy and support they were getting in schools. Parents are expected to do it.”
In many districts, the switch to online learning for students with special needs has been slow, with teachers and administrators waiting for federal and state guidance on how to navigate the legal requirements associated with special education.
So far, the guidance from the federal Department of Education has urged schools to press forward to do what they can, even if they can’t provide the required services identified in each child’s individualized education plan, or IEP.
“The Department understands that, during this national emergency, schools may not be able to provide all services in the same manner they are typically provided,” according to guidance issued at the end of March.
Modified services can include extended time for assignments, videos with captioning, or speech or language therapy video conferencing, officials said.
The state Department of Education held an online webinar for special education teachers Thursday to help them adjust to the distance learning, which will last at least through the end of the term. At least 5,000 teachers signed up, said State Superintendent Tony Thurmond.
“We’re taking advantage of the things we can do,” Thurmond said.
Yet district officials said guidance has been vague and a long time in coming to help special education teachers provide intensive, individualized services through a screen.
In San Francisco, officials said schools will start reaching out to families Monday to amend IEPs for distance learning — support that will arrive three weeks into school closures.
“SFUSD is working hard to serve students with IEPs even with the difficult conditions presented by school closure,” said Laura Dudnick, district spokeswoman.
For single mom Olivia Fraga, a homecare provider, help can’t come soon enough. Her son, Martin, is a fourthgrader at San Francisco’s Sanchez Elementary School. He has Down syndrome, requiring significant support at home and when he’s at school. Now, it’s just her. “I can’t go to work because my son has a different condition and I cannot leave him anywhere or with anyone,” she said, adding Martin’s immune system is compromised. “Having the school closed due to a situation like this changed our lives and also the routine.”
The school closures were so sudden that families across the region were thrown for a loop, but it was especially hard for those with special needs.
Students with disabilities rely more heavily on schedules and predictability, said Annette Nunez, an expert in autism.
“There was no transition,” she said. “Parents are having to deal with the abrupt change.”
She has encouraged parents to create schedules, pick small learning goals, take breaks. “Whatever parents need to do to help survive the day, do it.”
Parents are going to have to advocate for services during the school closures, Nunez said.
They should be asking how services are going to be provided and if they’re going to be provided.
“If not, what is it that teachers can offer parents?” she said.
Once schools reopen, parents and teachers will have to figure out whether the students require compensatory services that they were unable to get during the shutdown to help them catch up.
“They used to get something every day and now they have nothing,” Duenas said. “The system was not ready in any way, shape or form.”
Jody Miller operates a school for severely disabled students, with 60 public school districts contracting with them to provide an education for those children who need more than local educators can provide.
The Esther B. Clark school sites, in Palo Alto and Santa Clara, serve 130 children from Marin to Gilroy, where the students often get oneonone support and intervention. Now, they are all at home. “The parent became a teacher, a behaviorist, a therapist all in a matter of a day,” she said. “We’re in an environment we’ve never been in before.”
Meagan Zamora fears a fivemonth wait to restart the process when school reopens will be a huge setback for her son, James.
The 6yearold is in kindergarten in Oakley, and has struggled all year with reading and letter sounds, Zamora said.
His personal doctors have diagnosed him with ADHD and likely with highfunctioning autism. With that diagnosis, she went to her school district and set up meetings with school officials to have James evaluated and identified for treatment.
The scheduled March 31 meeting was canceled, with no new date set.
“I’m not educated in a way to know how to teach him those things,” she said. “He’s at a standstill.
“It’s hard and it’s sad.”