The pandemic was a life-changing event that affected everyone. Students lost valuable in-person school experiences that are crucial to developing useful skills for their future, such as interacting with peers. It’s safe to say, it was a rough time for all.
For students with special needs, it was arguably more difficult to adjust. Special education students rely on a more structured schedule and in the last two years, they’ve had to endure multiple transitions. There were also those who adapted well to the challenges that were thrown their way.
Returning to a ‘new normal’
Some were able to deal with the changes, but others not so much. Routines are a crucial part of any child’s growth and development, especially for children with special needs. They provide a sense of safety and security. Routines are helpful in times of stress or when kids are going through difficult times.
The ‘new normal’ constantly changed throughout the last two years. Students went from being fully online to a hybrid online/in-person classroom to fully in-person with masks. Now, in New York State as of March 2, the mask mandate has been lifted.
Going to remote learning experienced the most varied transitions. Some students resisted the virtual classroom.
“I had a student that his parents would have to chase him around the house with a laptop and it just didn’t work out for that period of time,” Michael Langis, a teaching assistant and a special education math teacher at the Wheatley School, said.
It was also hard for teachers to connect with their students. There was a barrier that prevented them from making eye contact and keeping students’ attention. It was harder to tell if a student was on their phone or a different app.
Even when students started to slowly reenter the classroom, the barrier didn’t quite go away.
“Last year was strange,” Kathryn Griffin, a special education teacher who focuses on students with moderate to severe learning disabilities at New Hyde Park Memorial, said. “It was great to be back, but it still didn’t feel normal because half of the students were at home and half were in the classroom.”
“His parents would have to chase him around the house with a laptop”
Griffin further explained how important it is to create a classroom community in special education, and the first step to doing that is to make the students feel comfortable.
“It’s hard to do that when you don’t have all the faces in front of you,” she said.
Kate Trainor, a special education teacher at New Hyde Park Memorial who specializes in life and vocational skills, brought up how they had to teach their students how to interact with one another appropriately through Google Meets.
“I was hearing from one or two of the moms that like things are getting a little inappropriate at times,” she said. “Not like they were intentionally doing something wrong, but they would bring their iPad when they were using the bathroom and not turn the camera off or put the mute button on.”
When the students came back to school in person, there were some obvious repercussions the pandemic caused.
“They were so excited to see one another, but they had a difficult time interacting with each other,” Griffin said. There was a lack of eye contact being made, and this posed a problem when Griffin put them into groups. “I had to start creating directions, like make eye contact, look at your partner and talk to them. It’s still a struggle today. They’re just so used to looking at their screens.”
The pandemic sheds light on socioeconomic disparities
Classes went online, and special education students who come from lower-income households had even more difficulty joining classes virtually.
The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) states that under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), 14% of students, or 7.3 million, in the United States receive special education services. The IDEA mandates the requirement of a “free and appropriate” public school education for students ages 3-21.
When schools went online, not every household had the necessary access to attend classes. A survey conducted by ParentsTogether, an advocacy group, showed the socioeconomic disparities between families. About 32% of the families with an income of $25,000 or less said their children either don’t have a device to do work on or have to share it with others.
According to the same survey, 4 in 10 of the respondents selected that their child who is supposed to receive additional school support, such as through an Individualized Educational Program (IEP), was not getting those supports at the time. Only one in five respondents said that their child is getting all of the services they need. About 35% said that their children are doing little to no remote learning. This compares to the 17% of students who fall under general education.
“Special education services vary so widely depending on what district you’re in,” Victoria Vine, an education attorney for the Long Island Advocacy Center, said. “Because an IEP is an individualized education plan, each student requires something different.”
Vine discussed how districts need to get creative to reach children with disabilities, especially those who have multiple disabilities and diagnoses. According to her, districts would have to be willing to spend money to truly make an impact and to reach out to those students in need.
The pandemic highlighted the socioeconomic differences among not only families but school districts as well.
A mother’s perspective
Anthony Garcia, 22, goes to Queensborough Community College and studies office administration and technology. Unlike some students with disabilities, he was able to adjust quickly.
“I understood what was going on, which is why I had to be okay with the adjustment,” Anthony said. “Which actually worked out perfect anyway because now I didn’t have to worry about rushing to go all the way out to where I was supposed to go.”
Maritza Garcia, Anthony’s mother, was thankful that he was able to adapt to the changing world as well as he did.
“Anthony has come a long way,” Garcia said. “He’s pretty much independent. He understood what was happening, so the transition for him was pretty smooth.”
Garcia has another son, Christian Garcia, 21, who is more challenged. He is nonverbal, meaning that he has difficulty with motor, visual-spatial, and social skills. It took longer for him to get a grasp on what was going on in the world.
“He couldn’t understand why we stopped the bus, why he is not going to school,” Garcia said. “And he was upset because his world just stopped.”
Their school sent them a computer, on which Garcia set up online programs. This helped put Christian’s stress at ease because he realized there was now a schedule he could follow. Although he wasn’t taking the bus to school anymore, he was able to rely on sitting at Garcia’s dining room table and seeing his teachers.
“He was upset because his world just stopped”
“He had his moments,” Garcia said. “But luckily he was able to adjust and after a while, he became used to the homeschooling and it went really well.”
Both Anthony and Christian work with Langis virtually outside of their regular schooling, and for Christian in particular, online learning worked out in his favor.
“I found that he processes academically and socially better online than in person,” Langis said. “So I connected with his family to create a plan that works better for him.”
Garcia’s role became Christian’s assistant. She helped him while he was in virtual class in any way she could.
“I was in full-time Christian mode,” Garcia said.
Aside from academics, there were other obstacles Garcia assisted him to overcome. When masks were still mandated, she had to train Christian on wearing one, which took time.
To break up his day, Garcia created a routine for him that worked for him. Christian would have his morning sessions, eat lunch, take a break, drive around with his mom, and repeat.
“[Routines are] important, especially with the ones that are nonverbal because they can’t speak right and can’t really explain,” Garcia said. “They’re visual learners.”
The pandemic brought the need for individualization in students’ learning to teachers’ attention. Every kid and every diagnosis is a little different, and they need to be addressed as such.
“We need to do a better job at individualizing instruction for these students because doing some things one way didn’t work out during the pandemic so we were super flexible then,” Langis said. “So to cut off that flexibility in our new normal wasn’t right.”