COVID-19 and Special Education
“A crisis within a crisis” is how an article in the New York Times (4-16-2020) described providing special education programs and services to students with disabilities during the COVID-19 crises.
As parents scramble to look for items they have at home that could suffice for manipulatives, as teachers struggle to provide services in their students’ IEPs, and as administrators try to balance education and due process, the challenge to providing special education increases as the COVID-19 crisis extends over longer periods of time. Our administrators and program leaders of special education are especially challenged as there is no defined or correct method to adequately and equitably meet the needs of students in this upside-down/inside-out time period.
This brief provides some key points for traversing the special education maze during our state of emergency. We have referenced exact citations and/or the links to documents where the information may be found.