The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Special Education
Question
What impact has the COVID-19 pandemic had on special education and the offering of a free and appropriate public education in the least restrictive environment?
You may use assigned readings, real-life experiences, and other examples that we have covered in class to answer your question.
Below are the links of the assigned readings for reference:
https://portal.ct.gov/-/media/SDE/Digest/2019-20/March-24-2020-LEA-Memorandum-BSE-COVID-19.pdf
https://portal.ct.gov/-/media/SDE/Digest/2019-20/2020424-Special-Education-Guidance.pdf?la=en
https://cdn.ymaws.com/www.copaa.org/resource/dynamic/blogs/20200424_134445_11830.pdf
https://portal.ct.gov/Office-of-the-Governor/News/Press-Releases/2022/02-2022/Governor-Lamont-Announces-Plan-To-Eliminate-Statewide-School-Mask-Requirement


Solution
The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic
on Special Education
More than one billion people (15
percent of the global population) live with disabilities. This number is
increasing dramatically due to the proliferation of chronic health issues and
demographic and epidemiological changes and trends. Discrimination and stigma
against people living with disabilities often lead to neglect, lack of
recognition, and decreased access to services. In the context of the COVID-19
pandemic, traditional and non-traditional students living with disability and
requiring special attention and education face heightened exposure and
complication risks due to pre-existing vulnerabilities and underlying
conditions. In providing educational services, a gap also exists between
students with disabilities and those without. Part of the reason is that in the
United States, no sufficient data exist that can allow a critical analysis of
the link between education and disability. Moreover, educators and policymakers
in the country have not identified many forms of disability. Thankfully, these
policymakers understand that people have different capabilities and learning
needs and that educational opportunities must be equally beneficial and
inclusive.
For many people living with
disabilities in the United States, educational opportunities are beyond reach,
more so under COVID-19. Creating a level playing field for all students will
require recognizing this deepening inequality while appreciating that not all
students with disabilities have special education needs. Similarly, not all
students receiving special education and training have a disability. In this
regard, disability inclusion is inter-sectorial. It remains closely linked to
gender issues, race, ethnicity, religion, and socio-economic background. Not
only did the COVID-19 pandemic expose the shortcomings of the US education
system, but it also laid bare the system’s inequality, risks, and fragilities.
It explains why people living with disabilities, particularly students, are
among the demographic groups worst hit by the COVID-19 pandemic. This global
pandemic disproportionately affected a group of people already receiving
inferior treatment and attention from the community. Thus, the COVID-19
pandemic, being an emergency, compounded the bad situation that students with
disabilities lived in.
Another issue affecting students with
disabilities under the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States is a lack of
disaggregated data. Authorities have not divided the available information into
different components based on such characteristics as age, gender, and
disability. With the lack of reliable data, it has become increasingly
difficult for the United States to determine the exact number of students
countrywide who have received inadequate treatment and educational support due
to disability and COVID-19. Unless authorities make data collection efforts
disability-inclusive, students with disabilities will continue being invisible,
which means they will continue experiencing poor services both in school and
outside the school setting. The United States and the Departments of Education
and Health and Human Services must collaborate and improve their data
collection methods to make information more accessible and reliable. New and
reliable data is essential in identifying the problems and vulnerabilities that
students with disabilities face and explaining why crises impact them
disproportionately.
Given the social-distancing mandate
that governments instituted to reduce the pace of COVID-19 infection, many
schools implemented technology-based solutions to facilitate educational
continuity. Unfortunately, this change only widened the educational gap between
students with disabilities and those without. As noted, students with
disabilities face various challenges in their quest for education and need
special, personalized attention to succeed. Thus, the best teaching approach
for them is face-to-face training, where the teacher customizes content for the
student. The new digital classrooms left many students with disabilities
outside. These alternative education delivery modalities only benefitted
traditional students; those with disabilities may have underlying difficulties that
make it difficult to access or use certain technologies or infrastructures. As
other students continued with their studies from home, students with
disabilities remained stranded and became disjointed even more from the
education system. One way for catching up was creating customized technologies for
them or finding a way for teachers to offer direct services while also being
protected from the disease.
The cost of assistive technology,
which some students with a disability could use, is prohibitory in the COVID-19
pandemic. This cost combines the price of the technology and the associated
cost of training and installation where appropriate. Before the COVID-19
pandemic, the United States had made some progress in rolling out assistive
technologies for students with disabilities requiring special education.
However, the government experienced challenges in implementing the program
because the special needs of students with disabilities vary. Therefore, the
government needs many different assistive technologies to help all students.
Further challenges emerge in intensive training requirements to familiarize the
teachers and the students with the new assistive technologies. Since the
government had not completely rolled out the program before the pandemic started,
it had to pause the process when it began, exposing students with disabilities
and requiring special education to reduce educational attainment.
COVID-19 also illustrates the
inadequacy of laws that purport to protect the rights of children with disabilities.
For example, the pandemic revealed that the Individuals with Disabilities
Education Act (IDEA) Act does not address the issue of extended school closure
in exceptional situations (such as a pandemic). Thus, it was up to schools to
decide the way forward, being keen to always provide free and appropriate
public education that is consistent with the need to preserve the health and
well-being of students. As such, students with disabilities and requiring
special education have been in the dark, waiting for the government to create
new laws and regulations that guarantee their health, safety, and educational
attainment. It has been difficult for this demographic group to adjust to this
reality. The government must speed up processes to ensure those needing special
education do not experience further delays.




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