Special Needs Education

How an education savings account is helping one Florida student see the world — virtually

Roger Mooney March 18, 2021

Roger Mooney

Tristan Drummond, 8, has increased his attention span, improved his hand-eye coordination, and developed his core strength through virtual reality.

Danielle Drummond was skeptical when she first saw the virtual reality headsets and consoles, and even the large-screen TVs, that are available to families who receive Florida’s Gardiner Scholarship for students with special needs.

“At first, I even wondered, ‘What on earth is the educational value of this?’” said Drummond, who lives in Fort Lauderdale.

It was 2018 and Drummond’s son Tristan, who is on the autism spectrum and is homeschooled, had recently undergone back surgery to correct a tethered spinal cord, which he had since birth. Drummond hoped Tristan, 6 at the time, could relearn to walk with the help of virtual reality.

Virtual reality has been used since the mid-1990s to help people on the spectrum learn to communicate and connect with others. Adults can use the technology to prepare for job interviews. Children use it to improve cognitive and gross motor skills.

Drummond believed the VR equipment could do the same for her son. She purchased the equipment with funds from Gardiner’s education savings account (ESA) through MyScholarShop, Step Up For Students’ online catalog of pre-approved educational products. It includes curriculum materials, digital devices, and education software.

Families can also purchase items or services that are not on the pre-approved list. They must submit a pre-authorization request that includes supporting documentation and an explanation of how the purchase will meet the individual educational needs of the student.

A review is then conducted by an internal committee, which includes a special needs educator, to determine if the item or service is allowable under the program’s expenditure categories and spending caps, and a notification is sent to the parent. The item or service may then be submitted on a reimbursement request, and it must match the corresponding pre-authorization.

Step Up For Students employs numerous measures to protect against fraud and theft. For example, if a service provider’s reimbursement request is submitted from an IP address and the platform sees that the parental approval came from the same IP address, the anti-fraud staff is alerted to investigate.

Thanks to the VR equipment made possible by the ESA, Tristan, now 8, did relearn to walk. But that was just the beginning.

“Then we discovered it had a lot more value,” Drummond said.

Since he began using virtual reality, Tristan has increased his attention span, improved his hand-eye coordination, and developed his core strength. He has learned how to interact socially, how to count and how to exercise.

Tristan cannot go on field trips like other students. He can’t even sit in a movie theater.

However, through virtual reality, Tristan has visited Walt Disney World’s Epcot Center and the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D.C. He landed on the moon with Apollo 11, and went scuba diving through the Great Barrier Reef in Australia, where he swam with sharks.

“It’s enriched his life in ways that we would have been otherwise unable to do,” Drummond said.

Tristan also uses VR for his occupational and physical therapy. Drummond said it used to be a chore to get Tristan to participate in therapy.

“We would lose 75% to 80% of therapy lessons trying to get him into a groove to enjoy what he is doing,” she said. “It’s a struggle every parent with a child like Tristan knows.”

But with virtual reality now part of the sessions, Drummond said it only takes Tristan a few minutes to get into the therapy groove.

“So, we’re now getting full therapy sessions and because of that, he’s talking more, he’s interacting with us more. He’s actually becoming more social,” she said. “It’s gotten him into being healthier, because he has the ability to do physical therapy, which is absolutely his favorite thing to do.”

The technology also helps Tristan overcome his fear of visiting a place for the first time, like a medical facility. He can tour the facility virtually ahead of time.

“But now with the virtual reality, I can set him up on that, have the exact place we are going on it, and allow him to look around in a safe environment,” Drummond said. “That way when he finally goes, I don’t have to make plans for our arrival like an army general. I don’t have to have 500 contingency plans because he’s expecting it. He knows what it’s going to sound like. What it’s going to look like. He’s going to know where things are. All these things help him get acclimated and actually get more out of going to these places.”

Drummond never thought that Job Simulator on Oculus Quest, or the Ring Fit Adventure game for Nintendo Switch, or Beat Saber would improve Tristan’s life in so many ways, but they have.

“They’re a lot of fun, but it’s also a way to sneak education into him,” Drummond said. “I don’t know if I can really say it enough about it. It just helps him to do pretty much everything. He has a blast with it.”

March 18, 2021 0 comment

Customization Education Choice Education Savings Accounts Featured Gardiner Scholarship News Parental Choice Private School Scholarships School Choice Special Needs Education

Horse therapy opens new world for blind teen

Lisa Buie March 11, 2021

Lisa Buie

Sarah Clanton, blind since birth, gives commands to her horse, Cappy, at the Emerald M. Therapeutic Riding Center as owner and therapist Lisa Michelangelo, left, lends support.

Editor’s note: You can read an earlier story about Sarah Clanton here. Be sure to watch the video of Yvonne Clanton telling Sarah’s story at the end of this post.

Yvonne Clanton realizes some might question why a state scholarship would pay for kids to ride horses.

She wondered herself, until her daughter Sarah began attending weekly sessions at Emerald M Therapeutic Riding Center in Brooksville. The farm is nearly an hour from the Clantons’ home in Zephyrhills, but the experience, Clanton says, has been “life changing.”

Born blind and severely developmentally delayed, Sarah, now 14, spent her early years warehoused in an orphanage in Ukraine. Strapped to a bed for nearly 24 hours a day, she was never held or cuddled. When Clanton and her husband, Jon, adopted Sarah at age 5, Sarah was wearing infant-sized clothing. She could not walk or talk.

The Clantons tried unsuccessfully to educate Sarah through their school district’s homebound program. Next, they tried sending her to a small private school, but when one of her brothers, who is visually impaired and has cerebral palsy, got sick and had to be hospitalized, the family opted to homeschool both children.

Now, Sarah and her brother Sam both participate in the Gardiner Scholarship Program for students with unique abilities administered by Step Up For Students, which hosts this blog. The Clantons use the education savings accounts attached to their Gardiner Scholarships to cover the cost for both children to attend Emerald M, among other purchases, which they would not be able to afford otherwise.

“It was our last hope,” Clanton said, explaining that if this therapy, designed to make Sarah stronger, failed, the only alternative would have been purchasing a lift system on a track to support Sarah throughout the house. A bathroom renovation looked inevitable, another pricy item for a family of six whose sole breadwinner, Sarah’s father, is pastor of a small church and a prison chaplain.

The Clantons applied and were approved through Step Up For Students’ detailed process to use their Gardiner funds at Emerald M, which has been an authorized Gardiner service provider since 2016.

After each therapy session, Emerald M is required to submit a request for payment via Step Up’s direct-pay process. The secure platform routes the request to the parent for approval once staff determines the purchase meets state eligibility guidelines.

Step Up also has an online catalog of pre-approved educational products, such as curriculum materials, digital devices, and education software, that families may select. Families may also purchase items and services out of their own pockets and submit receipts and supporting documentation to Step Up for review for reimbursement.

That process includes an internal review committee with a special needs educator; regular input from a statewide Gardiner parent advisory council; and a long list of limits and prohibitions on certain expenditures and categories of expenditures. Reviewers examine each application to determine not only its eligibility but also its appropriateness for that child’s learning plan.

Step Up uses technology to look for evidence of attempted fraud or theft. For example, if a service provider’s reimbursement request is submitted from an IP address and the platform sees that the parental approval came from the same IP address, the anti-fraud staff is alerted to investigate.

Sarah’s therapy includes movement exercises that have improved her agility both on and off the horse she rides at Emerald M.

Clanton says the therapies have been a godsend for Sarah over the past three years. Sarah, who was non-verbal when she arrived at the riding center and shied away from human touch, had to be carried to the riding ring by her brother.

Then she met Cappy, a dark bay horse with a gentle trot. Sarah learned how to circle the ring atop Cappy as a therapist gave her commands to give to the horse. As Sarah began experiencing the horse’s movements, which mimic the human gait, her balance and coordination improved. She learned how to orient herself in space.

Emerald M owner Lisa Michelangelo, a physical therapist, has observed Sarah making “incredible gains” this past year.

“She is able to walk best now with just one arm linked around someone else, and she is walking straighter and not showing the drastic signs of hip drop that she was before” Michelangelo said. “Her core, pelvis and hips continue to get stronger each week.”

Clanton has purchased a few other items with funds from her education savings account, such as a therapeutic swing and a lighted wall that makes water noises. Research shows both devices help calm children with special needs like Sarah’s and Sam’s.

Today, Sarah accompanies Clanton on outings to restaurants and to church. Slowly, Sarah is learning to be more social. And she’s learning to talk.

One of her most frequently uttered words is “horse.”

March 11, 2021 0 comment

Education and Public Policy Education Legislation Featured News Special Needs Education

Dual enrollment bill could expand college opportunities across the board

Lisa Buie February 23, 2021

Lisa Buie

Editor’s note: To hear Dyani Peterson tell her own story, click here.

As a high school student at No Limits Academy in Melbourne, Florida, Dyani Peterson took dual enrollment classes from Eastern Florida State College.

She crushed it.

She graduated in 2020 with her high school diploma from No Limits, an associate degree from Eastern Florida, and was among those chosen to represent the college on the 2020 All-Florida Academic Team, which consisted of 166 students from the 28-member Florida College System.

The 21-year-old’s story is even more amazing given the fact she has arthrogryposis multiplex congenita, a condition that results in decreased flexibility of the joints. The disease has progressed to the point where Peterson can move only her head.

“The dual enrollment program has ended up making me successful for my college career today,” said Peterson, who attended No Limits on a Gardiner Scholarship. “I know that with my complex physical disabilities and all the adaptions I needed, my tuition did not touch the cost of educating me, but No Limits Academy did it anyway, because they saw my future.”

Now a biomedical engineering major at Florida Institute of Technology, Peterson is urging lawmakers to support SB 52 and HB 281, which would set aside $12.5 million to cover the cost of dual enrollment for private school students as well as students who are educated at home. The bills, currently being debated in legislative committees, also include $16 million to cover the cost of summer courses for all dual enrollment students.

The legislation has been proposed for the past several years to correct a glitch in state law that happened in 2013. Funding issues occurred at that time when a change in the law shifted the cost of dual enrollment programs from colleges to school districts. Because school districts are state funded, the state picked up the cost. But private schools, faced with having to pick up the costs themselves, had no alternative but to limit their dual enrollment offerings.

Despite bipartisan support, the bills died in committee. Supporters hope 2021 will be the year the issue gets corrected.

Sen. Ray Rodrigues, R-Fort Myers, the bill’s sponsor, said this latest attempt to correct the problem benefits the state overall because students who participate in dual enrollment go to college at a much higher rate than their classmates and are more likely to earn college degrees than their peers.

And because the bills would provide relief to private schools, students like Peterson would benefit. While she was aware she could have gone to a district school and had her dual enrollment costs covered by the state, her condition required that she attend a private school like No Limits Academy, which specializes in educating students with complex physical issues.

No Limits Academy founder and director Laura Joslin said she’s proud of all that Peterson and her other dual enrollment students have accomplished. She encourages students whose abilities make college a suitable fit for them to pursue their dreams regardless of what it costs her school.

“I work hard to raise $100,000 in donations every year so that I can help my students overcome physical challenges to get the best education they possibly can,” Joslin said. “That includes dual enrollment.”

If approved, the new law would allow her to shift those dollars toward more equipment and staff so that more students at No Limits can receive a high-quality education.

And that might just lead to even more students with unique abilities earning college diplomas.

February 23, 2021 0 comment

Commentary and Opinion Customization Education and Public Policy Education Choice Education Legislation Education Savings Accounts Featured Gardiner Scholarship Parent Voices Parental Choice School Choice Special Needs Education

Commentary: Pass flexible savings account bill

Special to redefinED February 15, 2021

Special to redefinED

Nick and Keely Cogan are pictured at their Tallahassee home with their children, four of whom participate in the Gardiner Scholarship Program.

Editor’s note: This commentary from Nick Cogan of Tallahassee first appeared in the Tallahassee Democrat.

I’m a math professor at Florida State University. My wife Keely and I have seven children – three biological and four with special needs we adopted from China. Two have cerebral palsy, and two have Arthrogryposis Multiplex Congenita, a rare joint and limb condition.

All four are on the state’s Gardiner Scholarship, a flexible savings account that allows parents to spend their education dollars on the services such as school tuition, tutors, technology and curriculum that match their children’s unique needs. I don’t know where we would be without the scholarship. It has been a life-changer.

I believe all parents deserve the same opportunity.

Fortunately, a bill in the Florida Legislature would turn all the state’s school choice scholarships into flexible spending accounts like Gardiner. I hope it passes so more families can control their education dollars as they see fit.

We’ve used Gardiner for almost everything it’s been designed for. When we adopted our oldest son, Kai, he was an 11-year-old working on a first-grade level. It was hard to mainstream him. The public school district wanted to put him in fifth grade. Thankfully, we found a private school that was willing to put him with younger kids in a more academically appropriate environment. The Gardiner scholarship helped pay that private school tuition.

Later we decided to take Kai out of private school and homeschool him with his other siblings — Kade, Kassi and Karwen — who also attended a private school at one time or another. We rely on Gardiner to pay for books, curriculum, equipment and other educational supplies for all four kids.

Gardiner has made it possible for our children to receive the various physical and emotional therapies they require to develop. For instance, my daughter Kassi has made a lot of progress with her speech therapy. My health insurance covered only a limited amount of that therapy. Gardiner has ensured she gets the therapies that she needs.

The COVID-19 pandemic has been highly disruptive to education, and my homeschooled family has not been spared its effects. We typically participate in homeschool co-ops with other families, but those sessions have been suspended during the pandemic.

The Gardiner program gave us the means and the ability to swiftly respond to the crisis and direct our children’s education dollars into effective alternatives.

We bought pre-built curricula so we could have a consistent set of tools at home. These included some online resources and “workbook”-type resources. These have features for languages and math that offer dynamic feedback for students. We started a Duolingo classroom for the kids to learn Ukrainian (we are in the last stages of adopting two children from the Ukraine). The classroom option does a good job of tracking progress for us. We bought ours from a family-run business, which just shows the diversity of resources out there.

I am a strong supporter of public schools, but because of their special needs, our kids would not fit there. Gardiner gives us options that otherwise wouldn’t be available to us. That applies to other families as well, as each child has unique learning requirements. It’s important to be able to customize education for each child.

That’s why I urge lawmakers to pass the bill that converts state scholarships to flexible spending accounts. The pandemic has showed that, now more than ever, families need as many options as possible.

February 15, 2021 0 comment

Advocate Voices Commentary and Opinion Customization Education and Public Policy Education Choice Education Equity Featured School Choice Special Needs Education

Decisions in the dark

Karla Phillips-Krivickas February 10, 2021

Karla Phillips-Krivickas

Long-time education choice advocate Karla Phillips-Krivickas and her daughter, Vanessa.

In the two decades that I have been involved in the school choice movement, I’ve seen how choice policies can empower parents to select the school that best fits their child’s needs. But as the mother of a middle school daughter with a disability, I’ve also experienced the difficulty in finding a school that is the right fit. It’s even harder when you’re asked to make the decision sight unseen.

School policies v. FERPA

When deciding where to enroll my daughter for middle school last year, I was surprised when two schools said they did not allow parents of prospective or enrolled students to observe special education classes due to the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA).

This didn’t sound quite right. So, I called my state department of education and learned that the schools were, in fact, wrong. FERPA does not prohibit parents from observing their child in any classroom setting. FERPA guidance clarifies that the act “does not protect the confidentiality of information in general; rather, FERPA applies to the disclosure of tangible records and of information derived from tangible records.”

But this reality doesn’t change the fact that some schools are denying parents the chance to observe classrooms.

Informed decisions

If prospective parents can’t observe classes, how will they know if the school’s programs are right for their child? Both schools told me that I should feel comfortable relying on their reputation and school letter grade since they are high performing schools. But that is so inadequate.

While discussing the unique challenges parents of students with disabilities face in school choice, researcher Lanya McKittrick appropriately noted: “ … the information that’s freely available might not adequately describe whether a school will be the right fit [for my child]—the only way for me to check out a school’s acoustics and lighting is to show up in person.”

Acoustics and lighting might seem inconsequential for some, but McKittrick’s youngest child is deaf-blind, and these details will make all the difference in her child’s educational experience.

Contrary to some schools’ policies, federal law and all related guidance encourage parent involvement, especially for parents of students with disabilities. If parents of enrolled students can’t observe, how can they meaningfully contribute to their child’s education and be full partners in the development of their child’s Individual Education Program (IEP)?

Not all parents are experts about special education, but no one knows their children better than they do.

State policy needed

I believe the solution to this problem is simple: States should require that every district and charter school adopt a policy, with parent input, for all tours, visits and observations that includes all classrooms or students.

Schools will, of course, need to find the best way to minimize distractions. Some situations may even call for observations via camera, windows, or other options. But all classrooms should be observable. Period.

Certain classrooms, of course, are specifically designed for students with significant emotional and behavioral disabilities, and some will argue that any observation would be simply too disruptive. To this I would respond with two simple questions.

First, if a parent is requesting to observe that classroom as a potential placement, isn’t it even more critical that they understand how the classroom functions—and how their student would fit in—before agreeing to the placement?

Additionally, we must consider that these students are often our most vulnerable since they typically have significant disabilities and may be non-verbal. Why wouldn’t we encourage frequent observations to ensure students are receiving an appropriate education?

Most schools value parents as equal partners in their child’s education, but some schools may need a push to enact valuable policies that allow observations and will, ultimately, benefit ALL educators, parents, and students. And it’s up to education leaders and policymakers to ensure this happens.

Because of the pandemic, parents have been able to observe and support their child’s’ virtual classes. The insights gained from these observations have only increased parent engagement and appreciation for educators. Let’s not sever that connection now when students return to in-person school. Let’s cultivate it!

Because no parent should be told—like I was—that they would have to decide sight unseen, trusting only the school’s reputation or past performance. These are our students. We know them, and we need to be able to make fully informed decisions to select the right education for them.

February 10, 2021 0 comment

Advocate Voices Commentary and Opinion Education and Public Policy Education Choice Education Equity Education Legislation Education Savings Accounts Families Featured Gardiner Scholarship Parent Voices Parental Choice Private School Scholarships School Choice Special Needs Education Voices for Education Choice

Commentary: In Florida, flexible education paves the way for promising futures

Special to redefinED February 2, 2021

Special to redefinED

Editor’s note: This opinion piece from Kamden Kuhn, who lives in Tampa with her family, appeared this morning on the Tampa Bay Times.

When we adopted our son Malachi from an orphanage in Ethiopia five years ago, we didn’t fully understand the depth of the challenges a child with special needs faced.

Florida’s Gardiner Scholarship and its flexible spending has helped us overcome some of those obstacles.

Born with spina bifida, Malachi had limited access to both health care and education in Ethiopia. His caregivers did the best they could with what little they had.

Kamden Kuhn

Blessed with plenty, my husband and I wanted to play a very small role in Ethiopia’s orphan crisis by helping just one child, Malachi, receive the education, the health care and the family that he deserved.

Along our journey, we’ve encountered a community of support — sweet friends, family, doctors, nurses, therapists and teachers who have invested their time and resources to help Malachi. The Gardiner Scholarship — an education savings account program for students with special needs — has been a significant piece of that support system.

The Gardiner Scholarship gives families control over a flexible spending account which can be used to pay for tuition, fees, tutoring, curriculum, assistive technology and more.

A bill in the Florida Legislature would extend those opportunities to more families by turning all the state’s education choice scholarships into flexible spending accounts similar to Gardiner. Imagine the possibilities of matching resources chosen by parents to the specific needs we see in our children.

Continue reading here.

February 2, 2021 0 comment

Coronavirus / COVID-19 Customization Education Choice Education Equity Featured Gardiner Scholarship News Parental Choice School Choice Special Needs Education

No limits to choice at Florida Space Coast school for students with physical challenges

Lisa Buie September 1, 2020

Lisa Buie

No Limits Academy in Melbourne welcomed 30 of its 44 students back to in-person learning last week. All No Limits students receive state scholarships, including about 70% who participate in the Gardiner Scholarship program.

After COVID-19 forced schools to shutter in March, many parents of students with special needs worried the shift to distance learning had shortchanged their children and caused them to lose ground.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention echoed those concerns in its recommendation for a return to in-person education. The American Academy of Pediatrics stressed the need for children with disabilities to have access to services that were challenging to deliver online. And in late July, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis held a roundtable at a school for special needs in Clearwater where parents expressed a desire for their children to return to brick-and-mortar education.

As school re-opening drew closer, parents continued to wrestle with the decision to send their special needs children back to school and risk their health or keep them home and risk academic regression.

No Limits Academy is maintaining its focus on academics for its students with unique abilities.

“Most of these kids were left behind,” said Laura Joslin, founder and CEO of No Limits Academy in Melbourne. The private, nonprofit school, located on Florida’s Space Coast, opened in 2008 and specializes in special education for students with unique abilities.

Joslin, the mother of two sons who have cerebral palsy, said she opened No Limits because district schools were unable to meet her sons’ needs. She also operates a rehabilitation center that provides onsite therapies for special needs students.

This year, Joslin offered her families a choice: Return to campus or learn at home using her specially developed virtual program. Most families chose in-person learning. Joslin and her team welcomed 30 of No Limit’s 44 students back to campus when school reopened last week.

All No Limits students receive state scholarships, including about 70% who participate in the Gardiner Scholarship program administered by Step Up For Students, which hosts this blog.

Students eager to return greeted their teachers with smiles. “They were really excited to be at school,” Joslin said. “Life looks normal again.”

No Limits Academy is adhering to social distancing despite the challenge of making room for wheelchairs.

Not that the re-opening didn’t require major changes to promote safety. Teachers and staff are required to wear masks. Teacher, staff and student temperatures are taken upon entry to the building and throughout the day. No parents or visitors are allowed inside the building.

It’s not possible to require that students wear masks, Joslin explained, because many have respiratory difficulties or medical conditions. But other safety measures are in place.

Classes are self-contained with students staying with the same teachers and aides all day. There is a lot of handwashing and cleaning with medical-grade wipes. Students are socially distanced between each other as much as possible.

That presents a special challenge, Joslin said. “Wheelchairs take up a lot of space.”

There are other challenges. Many No Limits students need help with their most basic needs such as feeding, toileting and in some cases, diapering.

“I told the health department that if I have a child who needs to be changed, that’s not going to be 6 feet of distance,” Joslin said. “I’m trying to do the best I can with situation that I have.”

Despite the extra care required, Joslin stressed that education remains the primary focus at No Limits Academy.

The school maintains a routine that allows plenty of time for lessons. Students who are non-verbal communicate through devices attached to their wheelchairs. Students with vision challenges stay close to oversized message boards.

There are no grade levels at No Limits, only cognitive levels, and students advance as they master skills. They all have individualized education plans that specify their educational goals and necessary accommodations. Achievements, no matter how small, are celebrated.

“There’s no babysitting going on,” Joslin said. “What I want is brain stimulation.”

Although many parents insist on face-to-face education for their special needs children, Joslin says her virtual program is an equally valid choice. After translating her curriculum to an online platform in the spring to make a smooth transition for her families, schools in New York and New Jersey started contacting her for guidance.

Gavin McEver, 8, a student at No Limits Academy.

Tonya McEver said her 8-year-old son, Gavin, who has a chronic lung condition and cerebral palsy, is doing well with No Limit’s virtual program.

“I’ve heard about kids with special needs getting left behind,” she said. “That’s not happening here.”

Just two days into the new school year, McEver said, Gavin already had experienced a math, reading and vocabulary lesson, attending two sessions of classes in the mornings and one-on-one teacher sessions in the afternoons.

“We are blessed to be able to keep him home right now,” McEver said of Gavin, who spent six months in a neonatal unit after being born four months premature and weighing less than 2 pounds.

McEver turned to No Limits after Gavin came home from his previous school with bruises on his legs. The staff had restrained him in his wheelchair because he liked to be active while he learned.

She’s thrilled with the progress Gavin has made in just two years at No Limits.

“We see him engaging more in curriculum,” McEver said, adding that he has started communicating thorough a tablet.

“He was able to tell his teacher that his stomach hurt, and could he call his mom,” she said. “I was crying all the way to pick him up.”

This time around, they were tears of joy.

September 1, 2020 1 comment

Commentary and Opinion Coronavirus / COVID-19 Customization Education Choice Education Equity Featured Parent Voices Parental Choice School Choice Special Needs Education

Education choice for all families is crucial as schools consider reopening plans

Keith Jacobs August 7, 2020

Keith Jacobs

Education choice advocate Keith Jacobs and his son, Deuce, 13.

As a parent of a child with Autism Spectrum Disorder, I know that the decision about re-opening public schools during the COVID-19 pandemic could have a tremendous impact on the social-emotional health of my son, Deuce, 13, who thrives on structure.

The switch to online learning in the spring was particularly challenging. Even though my wife and I are educators, that still was not enough to supplant the intense interventions he received with face-to-face instruction in his public school building.

He became frustrated trying to navigate through the online platform while also completing quizzes and virtual labs all while being separated from the social connection and in-person support of his teachers.

Deuce independently completed assignments at his own pace. However, remote learning presented unique obstacles because he relies on over a dozen specific accommodations delivered through his Individualized Education Plan (IEP), most of which were either non-existent or difficult to replicate on the online platform.

Like many parents, the home became our workspace, in addition to being a school, restaurant, and gym. This forced us to balance the demands of our daily work while trying to maintain an instructional environment for our children. What worked for our youngest son, Christopher, 10, didn’t always work for Deuce.

The challenge for Deuce became monumental. I was forced to contact the teachers and administration on several occasions pleading for alternative assessments and assignments. I reiterated how difficult it was to comply with the demands of work while providing accommodations for my child outlined in his IEP.

I had to work with his Exceptional Student Education (ESE) case manager and speech therapist on providing additional technology assistance and modified lessons during their virtual sessions.

It was clear our situation would become even more daunting when we discovered that his accommodation “Text to Speech” was not present on the district’s online platform. Receiving this accommodation in the school building allowed him to have directions, questions, and answers read to him so that he could process the information more effectively.

Without the presence of this function, I was constantly asked to fulfill this role so that he could complete his assignment often after multiple attempts of completion on his own and visible frustration prior to asking for the accommodation.

I witnessed the despair in his eyes as he struggled with knowing he can do the work but receiving below-average assessments. His zeal and commitment toward learning, which were rewarded with a 3.75 grade point average, had been replaced by confusion and apathy.

Deuce suddenly found himself struggling to complete assignments, while I tried to prevent him from becoming fixated on these assignments for hours.

As often happens with children with autism, over-sensitivity to sensory stimuli made it even harder to concentrate in the home. Doors opening, phones ringing, conference calls and other distractions were a cacophonous barrier to learning.

As districts wrestle with when, or even if, to re-open public schools, they must consider all their stakeholders, including students who depend on in-person learning. Are we properly balancing health concerns with students’ social-emotional health from learning in an online platform?

These examples demonstrate why choice in education is so pertinent to families. In the last quarter of the previous school year, every child was forced to switch to distance learning with no consideration that some students just will not be successful in the model.

Even with households like mine, one child can thrive through distance learning while the other could potentially suffer in silence.

The school district’s decision in March was built out of necessity. With schools reopening in just a few weeks, these decisions need to be made with the understanding that there is no one solution to educate all students.

Parents need options.

August 7, 2020 6 comments