As COVID-19 continues to spread in the United States, remote learning has become one of the safest ways for students to continue their education in the coming fall. In the San Francisco Bay Area, all schools are required to provide remote learning opportunities until the state government determines that the county has met specific standards regarding COVID-19 transmission.
These are unprecedented times and school districts have had to quickly formulate plans for how to safely finish the spring semester. The plans developed have tried to serve children with special needs and have performed inadequately—at best. One Santa Clara County school district informed their students with special needs that each would receive 20 minutes of Resource support each week. This system did not account for students who spent longer in Resource, sometimes needing between 30 minutes or 20 hours weekly (as stated on their IEP). This is substantially out of compliance and has the unacceptable consequence of letting students who need additional help slip through the cracks, falling further behind.
Each school will perform remote learning according to standards the state has published. Happily, Governor Newsom has ordered that all K-12 schools will receive full funding for the next school year. Because districts are still fully funded and have had the summer to concentrate on providing adequate support for remote learning programs for children with special needs, it is time to demand your child receive the services to which they are entitled. Services delayed are services denied and our children have a right to the supports and services necessary to receive their free, appropriate, public education.
While COVID-19 has dramatically affected schools and in-person learning, remote learning and IEPs will have to follow recent precedent.
Our children still have the same state and federal protections they had before the pandemic. In the case of Endrew F. V. Douglas County School District (2017), The United States Supreme Court said that, “…to meet its substantive obligation under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), a school must offer an IEP reasonably calculated to enable a child to make progress appropriate in light of the child’s circumstances.”
What is your next step? We talked last week about some aspects regarding delivery of instruction. How will speech therapy, occupational/physical therapy, and/or Resource special education support be delivered?
There is no way to know for sure HOW these services will be delivered. However, if your child is supposed to receive 30 minutes of speech therapy weekly and is not receiving those 30 minutes of service at all or is not able to derive benefit from remote sessions, it is time to call an IEP meeting. This is also true for occupational therapy, adaptive physical education, physical therapy, counseling, and any other services your student needs.
If it is not working or the district is not offering the services listed in your child’s IEP, give us a call. As advocates, we can help your child get the quality education to which they are entitled.
As parents, we understand. As advocates, we can help.