LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) – Parents across Kentucky are adjusting to helping their children through school assignments at home for at least the next month, but the challenges can be even more daunting for those whose kids get special education services in the unprecedented time of distance learning.
Special education teachers throughout the state have worked to accommodate parents that, possibly for the first time, now have to add “educator” to their familial duties as Kentucky schools cease in-person instruction during the global COVID-19 pandemic through May 1 and possibly the rest of the 2019-20 school year.
While schools have closed for in-person instruction and transitioned to the state’s non-traditional instruction program, the Kentucky Department of Education has advised districts to continue providing special education services as best they can according to students’ individual education plans.
That means it’ll often be up to parents, with teachers’ support, to provide necessary services for children with disabilities.
Rebecca England, who teaches special education at Heartland Elementary, said the first week of non-traditional instruction at Hardin County Schools often left parents more anxious than her students, who have been thrown out of their ordinary routines by the COVID-19 outbreak.
Parents of students in her classes “had a really hard time adjusting to all that, to becoming the teacher,” she said, adding that she’s seen improvements from parents as they get used to distance learning.
“I was having students having meltdowns with them, and the parents were calling me, ‘What do I do?’” England said. “So I was trying to give them instruction on what you can do in that environment, and the kids have to change their mindset to, ‘We’re at school at home now.’ They feel like they’re at home, they can do whatever they want just like you would do at home, but now they’re having to be taught at home.”
“It was definitely instruction for the parents, but they need it,” she added. “You know, we went to school for this.”
England isn’t the only special education teacher at Hardin County Schools, four of whom spoke to WDRB News this week, helping parents through the basics of providing instruction to their kids.
Like England, Rineyville Elementary’s Nick Newton noted that special education teachers had to complete “a special set of schooling to work with these kiddos.” He’s sensed more anxiety from parents than his students so far, and he’s maintained close contact with families in his classes as they continue learning remotely.
“I’ve had more frustration from the parent perspective of them saying, ‘Well, how do you get my kid to sit down?’” Newton said. “Well, at school that’s just the expectation.”
Hardin County’s special education teachers are staying in touch with families while schools cease in-person instruction through May 1 under Gov. Andy Beshear’s directive.
Those who spoke to WDRB News say they’ve provided their phone numbers and email addresses, established open lines of communication through mobile applications, arranged virtual meetups with individual students and groups through programs like Google Meet, and created video content to go along with their assignments.
Some teachers have provided materials that students use regularly in classrooms, like communicative outlets for kids who struggle to express themselves verbally.
Newton, for instance, has sent communication folders to some of his students to use at home.
Some of his students use applications like Snap Core First and Words for Life as communicative tools in class, but Newtown says the folder system is “a good backup that we’re used to using.”
“It’s got some core vocabulary words they might need to share with their parent,” he said. “… It’s got numbers, colors, letters, different things for them to be able to do their work.”
Special education teachers also have been flexible under the circumstances, especially since some parents continue working as normal during the COVID-19 pandemic. Beshear has ordered all nonessential businesses to close to in-person traffic during the coronavirus outbreak with places like hospitals, pharmacies and grocery stores still open.
Carla Rasheed, who teaches at North Middle School, says she’s used to responding to emails from parents as early as 5:30 a.m. now, “and that’s OK.” She’s also talked with parents in evenings after they get home from work.
She’s also available to talk with her students and help them cope during the unprecedented school closures.
“I’m talking to kids throughout on the phone, and sometimes it’s not even about work,” Rasheed said.
"They’re confused. They want to go back to school," she said. "They just need somebody to talk to, so it’s also just making yourself available. Not just there for the academic part, the social skills part, but there just to be that person that they can talk to because that’s what we do at school anyway.”
That open line of communication is important for special education teachers like Allison Slone who have their own children with special needs.
Slone, who teaches at McBrayer Elementary for Rowan County Schools and is a non-voting member of the Kentucky Board of Education, says she’s reached out to her seventh-grade son’s teachers for help as he struggles with dyslexia, which affects his reading and writing.
She noted that most school districts, including Rowan County Schools, is working through non-traditional instruction for the first time and during a global pandemic. Of Kentucky’s 172 school districts, 89 joined the Kentucky Department of Education’s distance learning program during the 2019-20 school year as Beshear recommended all schools cease in-person instruction starting in mid-March.
“If parents have questions, they need to reach out to their teachers and ask for help and not feel bad about that because Lord knows I’ve reached out to my kid’s teachers, and they’re my co-workers,” said Slone, who is an administrator for Facebook groups Kentucky Teachers in the Know and Kentucky Parents in the Know.
“But I do it all the time, and teachers need to work with their parents and figure out what’s best for them and not take it personally if they get upset or they feel like the work is too much or too difficult because we’re all learning here.”
Slone said parents of students with special needs should give their kids time and space at home, which is now doubling as school, to get away from class assignments.
Sarah Dakin, a teacher at Central Hardin High School, also suggested that working on physical copies of assignments may be easier for students rather than completing everything electronically.
Some of her students, she said, feel overwhelmed when they see an entire week of assignments on Google Classroom.
“If they can just sit down with this one piece of paper, that is a little bit less daunting to them,” Dakin said.
“It’s OK if not everybody does it the same way if they’re getting access to the content,” she continued. “That’s kind of the bedrock of what we do anyway.”
Hardin County teachers say they’ve also collaborated with occupational, physical and speech therapists to ensure special education students will continue getting the services they need in some form.
“Many of our speech therapists are doing online sessions,” said Kim Adkins, the district’s special education director.
If families don’t have the technology or aren’t comfortable with virtual sessions, paper copies of exercises have been provided, she said.
“I know that some of the speech therapists have called and they’ve been checking in with those students,” Adkins said. “… We prepared multiple packets of different types of fine-motor and growth-motor skill activities that they could work on in the home.”
Hardin County teachers have also held admission and release committee meetings with families remotely to discuss students' progress on their individual education plans.
Some ARC meetings have been conducted virtually or on conference calls at parents' discretion, with families receiving copies of meeting summaries in the mail or via email.
Still, ARC meetings won't be the same during the COVID-19 closures because they typically include some hands-on, classroom observations, Adkins said.
"We've got a lot of different, creative ways that we're trying to make this work," she said.
Kentucky lawmakers eased restrictions on the use of telehealth during the COVID-19 pandemic as part of a relief package passed March 26, allowing such services to be delivered to students virtually.
Rep. Kim Moser, who chairs the House Health and Welfare Committee and serves on the House Education Committee, said she hoped more families and health providers will take advantage of the easier access to telehealth services while schools are closed.
“I think everyone’s just trying to figure it out right now,” said Moser, R-Taylor Mill. “There’s a little bit of a learning curve to making it work on both ends, the practitioner and the parent, the family.”
For now, special education teachers and families are adjusting to their new routines in the midst of a pandemic.
Hardin County teachers say they’ve been pleasantly surprised by the projects that families have come up with as they have more time together at home.
One student was busy writing cards to nursing home residents.
Another learned how to ride a bike.
One mom said her kid had “made the best pot roast she had ever eaten,” Dakin said.
“I teach students with an emotional behavioral disability, and you would have thought coming in it would be a big struggle getting them to get their academics done,” Rasheed said. “They’re working harder now than they ever have. They’re contacting me. They’re trying to get their assignments in. They’re communicating more with their parents on assignments.”
“That’s enough for everybody to pat themselves on the back – educators, parents, students, everyone,” she said.
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