Lessons from United States school district policies and approaches to special education during the COVID-19 pandemic

ABSTRACT

The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in many school districts in countries around the world transitioning rapidly to partial or complete remote learning. These disruptions affected all children’s education, but students with disabilities (SWDs) were particularly at-risk because of the challenges of providing accessible support and services through remote teaching programmes. We examine the experience of SWDs in 24 United States school districts of instructional and adaptation models between August 2020 and February 2021. Districts varied in their approaches to remote instruction, compensatory services and prioritising SWDs for returning to the classroom before other students. Districts also varied substantially in the information provided regarding Distance Learning Plans, changes to Individualised Education Programmes and related service delivery. This analysis underscores the need for minimal standards for meeting the educational needs of SWDs during school closures as well as for disseminating good practices on minimising the effects of disruptions in future public health crises. These results have implications for existing practices and future research in the U.S. and other countries with widely disseminated decision making surrounding educational delivery during crises.

KEYWORDS:

• Special education
• policies
• service delivery
• school districts
• COVID-19
• students with disabilities

Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to our advisory committee of leaders who brought experience as students, parents, advocates, occupational therapists, physical therapists, speech pathologists, special education faculty, psychologists and attorneys, shared their time and key considerations and helped to shape the focus of this inquiry.

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available through the WORLD Policy Analysis Centre at https://www.worldpolicycenter.org.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 In the analysis and findings, this district will be referred to as the ‘local’ district.

2 Individualised Education Programmes (IEPs) are written statements detailing customised learning plans for SWDs required by U.S. federal law. 20 U.S.C. § 1414(d)(1)(A).

3 Distance Learning Plans (DLPs) refer to documents written by school district representatives to account for how IEP services will be provided during remote instruction. These plans are individualised for students with an IEP. Some districts added DLPs as amendments or attachments to SWDs’ IEPs; others maintained them as stand-alone documents. Although districts’ terminology differed (e.g. ‘Remote Learning Plans’ or ‘Distance Learning Implementation Plans’), all were used to account for changes in service delivery during remote instruction.

4 Per U.S. federal law, school districts have an affirmative ‘child find’ duty to identify, locate and evaluate all children with disabilities in need of special education and related services, including homeless children, wards of the State and private school students. 20 U.S.C. § 1412(a)(3).

5 Although districts’ terminology differed (e.g. ‘impact’ or ‘recovery’ services), we categorized these services as ‘compensatory services’ per U.S. Department of Education (2020) guidance. These services include any services or support to mitigate loss of services or skill regression due to school closures or lack of benefit from remote instruction.

6 That said, some districts’ plan changes were abrupt, lasting less than three weeks. For example, one district shifted from Plan 5 to Plan 1. Two weeks later, the district shifted to Plan 4. In this case, all three plans were coded.

7 One school district is part of a state who had a Democrat for a governor in Fall of 2020 and a Republican governor starting January 2021.

8 For example, although six of the seven hybrid districts prioritised SWDs for in-person instruction, U.S. Institute for Education Science (IES) data indicate that nationally SWDs were only slightly more likely to be learning inperson than their peers. In February 2021, among fourth graders, 44% of SWDs vs. 39% of all students learned in person, and among eighth graders 32% of SWDs vs. 29% of all students did so (IES n.d.).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by a gift from the Rip Van Winkle Foundation.

Notes on contributors

Melissa E. Mendoza

Melissa E. Mendoza is a doctoral student in Comparative Education in the School of Education and Information Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Ms. Mendoza’s research focuses on inclusive education policy implementation, teacher education for inclusive learning environments, and the student transition from school to employment. She supports elementary education credential candidates in UCLA’s Teacher Education Programme. Ms. Mendoza has been a fellow at the WORLD Policy Analysis Centre twice, focusing on inclusive education for people with disabilities, gender equality in education and approaches to special education services.

Timothy F. Brewer

Timothy F. Brewer is a professor in the division of infectious diseases at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and a professor of epidemiology at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health. He is an authority on using analytic methods to optimise the population-based control of infectious diseases, particularly tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS. He has extensive experience developing and overseeing training, education and service programmes both locally and in countries around the world, and he has received multiple teaching awards for his efforts. Dr. Brewer has served on advisory boards and review panels for numerous international and national organisations, including the World Health Organisation, the National Institutes of Health, the U.S. Centres for Disease Control and Prevention and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.

Matthew S. Smith

Matthew S. Smith is the Harvard Law School Project on Disability’s (HPOD) Director of Advocacy Initiatives. Responsible for much of HPOD’s self-advocacy programmeming, he has worked closely with self-advocacy and disabled peoples’ organisations both in the United States and abroad to advocate, research and produce awareness-raising materials. His Spanish, English and Bangla language works have shaped disability rights strategic litigation and important decisions by national and regional courts, and his disability rights scholarship has appeared in collections published by Cambridge University Press and Oxford University Press, as well as both U.S. and international law journals.

Michael Ashley Stein

Michael Ashley Stein is the co-founder and Executive Director of HPOD, and a Visiting Professor at Harvard Law School since 2005. He participated in the drafting of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities; works with disabled peoples’ organisations and non-governmental organisations around the world; actively consults with governments on their disability laws and policies; advises a number of UN bodies and national human rights institutions; and has brought landmark disability rights litigation globally. Dr. Stein has received numerous awards including the inaugural Morton E. Ruderman Prize for Inclusion; the inaugural Henry Viscardi Achievement Award; and the American Bar Association's Paul G. Hearne Award. Dr. Stein holds an Extraordinary Professorship at the University of Pretoria’s Centre for Human Rights, is a visiting professor at the Free University of Amsterdam, and teaches at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. He earned a J.D. from Harvard Law School (where he became the first known person with a disability to be a member of the Harvard Law Review), and a Ph.D. from Cambridge University.

S. Jody Heymann

S. Jody Heymann is founding director of the WORLD Policy Analysis Centre, and Distinguished Professor at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health, Luskin School of Public Affairs and Geffen School of Medicine. She served as dean of the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health from 2013 to 2018. Dr. Heymann has worked with government leaders in North America, Europe, Africa and Latin America as well as a wide range of intergovernmental organisations including the World Health Organisation, the International Labour Organisation, the World Economic Forum, UNICEF and UNESCO. Dr. Heymann has authored and edited more than 400 publications, including 18 books. Selected titles include Advancing Equality: How Constitutional Rights can Make a Difference for Everyone (University of California Press, forthcoming), Disability and Equity at Work (Oxford University Press, 2014), Changing Children’s Chances (Harvard University Press, 2013), Making Equal Rights Real (Cambridge University Press, 2012) and Lessons in Educational Equality (Oxford University Press, 2012). Dr. Heymann was elected to the U.S. National Academy of Sciences in 2013 and the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences in 2012.