CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Akron Public Schools offered Lyra Christensen, a student with Down Syndrome, specialized therapy, support in the classroom and a social network.
Lyra, 8, was on-track to match her peers when the pandemic hit, parents Max Thomas and Holly Christensen said. But when APS closed in the spring, she fell behind. The district is still in remote learning, as the board of education looks to pinpoint a time for return as coronavirus cases in the state spike again.
But Lyra’s education couldn’t wait. So Thomas and Christensen bought a tent and set up a pop-up classroom in the backyard. They opened the classroom to other local learners with disabilities, and hired recent Kent State graduate Declan McCaslin, or “Mr. M,” to lead lessons and help the kids navigate remote learning and appointments.
There are about 7 million students with disabilities across the United States, based on most recent statistics from the National Center for Education, though it’s difficult to track because of state-by-state rules.
“The core of special education is individualized instruction to meet the unique needs of a child’s disability and in the pandemic remote way of doing things, many kids with disabilities don’t really have access to the educational services that they need,” Kristin Hildebrant, a senior attorney with Disability Rights Ohio, said.
Individual education plans, set up for the classroom, lay out the support and accommodations necessary for students with disabilities to succeed in the classroom. Remote learning makes it difficult for teachers to follow the plans closely, especially with hands-on skills.
Thomas used physical therapy as an example of the disconnect with remote learning. One of the tasks is cutting with scissors, where a therapist or teacher would guide Lyra’s hand to help her with the motion safely.
“You can’t do that with a Chromebook," he said.
There are also accommodations where aides can hop on to online lessons to help out, but that isn’t the same as in-person assistance.
“It’s just another box for her to pay attention to,” Thomas said.
Lyra made significant progress since working in the pod, Christensen said. Two other students join Lyra and McCaslin for lessons each week, and the family estimates they could accommodate up to six with the outdoor tent.
They can duck in and out for appointments, and get recess time in the backyard. McCaslin helps the students navigate online lessons and the frustrations of working online for long periods of time. The students work through their assigned lessons, but can take supervised breaks when they reach frustration points.
Christensen said she knows that not all families can manage setting up a classroom like this, and hopes that APS moves students with disabilities back to buildings where they can receive the assistance they need.
In a hybrid plan presented by a work group to the APS board of education, team members suggested that students with disabilities be permitted to return five days a week, while other populations follow a 2-2-1 schedule, where students alternate being in the buildings. When coronavirus cases spiked in the state last week, with record-breaking daily increase numbers and hospitalizations, schools across the state planning to return in-person reconsidered.
APS has not yet made a determination on when students might be able to return to schools. Thomas said as the winter months begin, the family has repurposed their porch as a learning space, where they can maintain circulation of air while supplying heat. They will still use the tent when the weather allows.
What’s frustrating, Thomas said, is that the district could have made use of the lower case numbers during warmer weather to complete hybrid instruction, and then reconsidered when cases went back up during colder weather when more people are inside.
Hildebrant said that parents or guardians of students with disabilities should schedule a one-on-one meeting, or a series of meetings, with the school to discuss the best way to interpret the individual education plan. Parents are in the “driver’s seat."
“What we see happening is that school districts are basically telling families ‘Here are your choices,'” she said. “You could have this online only program or you could come to school, or you could have a combination of both, but what we aren’t seeing is a real proactive approach to having individualized meetings with families to talk about how that particular child is going to access those programs that are being offered, whether or not there needs to be additional services and supports in place or tweaks to the program.”
Another aspect is families collecting data on their student’s learning and services to assess the amount of services lost that need to be made up later as compensatory or recovery services. Collecting information along the way and knowing what notes to make will be helpful for future planning.
Hildebrant recommends checking out the Ohio Department of Education website section dedicated to COVID-19, and Disability Rights Ohio, which has information on planning to make up education services lost. The Ohio Coalition for the Education of Children with Disabilities is another advocacy organization with resources to help. Families can also reach out to the county for more services and information.