Eradicating Digital Studying Negatively Impacts Particular Training College students
Note: I saw this story on Apple News yesterday. Our children are falling short at every turn and the pandemic has been particularly humiliating and destructive for them. There is not enough “compensation” in the world to make up for the loss for students and their families.
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Special education ‘This is not included.’ Some students with disabilities choose not to do so as the districts are scaling back virtual programs
By Kalyn Belsha
‘That is not included.’ Some students with disabilities do without it as the districts are scaling back virtual programs
As the new school year approached, Susan Graham asked: Would her California school district have distance learning opportunities for her fifth graders?
State lawmakers put strict limits on virtual learning this year, so her son’s district no longer offered daily courses through Zoom. Instead, the district had a “self-paced” program. Graham hoped it could work as a stopgap until her 10-year-old, who has Down syndrome and a respiratory disease, could be vaccinated against COVID.
In a virtual town hall via the remote program, however, she was told that it was only a “general education” program. If her son enrolled, he would lose access to modified classes, speech therapy, and occupational therapy.
“I was pretty stunned,” said Graham. “That’s not included.”
School districts are not required to offer virtual learning this year, and most have scaled back their virtual offerings to encourage students to return to face-to-face schooling. But where a virtual school is available, some students with disabilities find it closed to them – or they are asked to waive certain types of assistance in order to enroll.
This has led families, attorneys, attorneys and school districts to disagree on one central question: what exactly do districts have to offer online for schools that are open nationwide?
Federal officials have emphasized the importance of face-to-face learning for students with disabilities, many of whom have struggled to learn online while trading hands-on services for virtual proxies. “The best we can do for students with disabilities is the same thing we can do for all students – bring them back to the classroom,” Education Minister Miguel Cardona said at a Senate hearing last month.
In a detailed guide, the Federal Ministry of Education recently informed districts that if they open a virtual program to all students, the district “must ensure that a child with a disability whose needs can be met through virtual learning” receives all services that it has are legally entitled. This gives the districts some discretion in deciding who these students are.
But lawyers across the country say districts are inappropriately excluding students, saying their needs cannot be met online, including many students who have practically received special education services in the past year. Read the rest here.
