Schools prepare a different look to special education this fall

Special education — whether online or in-person — is going to look a little different this fall, as schools weigh safety and education practices in a pandemic. Students' needs in special education can vary, making a one-size-fits-all plan difficult to execute. That's why Elyria Schools began reaching out to families individually to create the right plan, according to Denise Blatt, director of pupil services at the school. While students will have the same options as the rest of Elyria Schools — a hybrid model or fully online — Blatt said they've done more individual plans for students with intensive needs. And students with more intense needs will also be able to come in four days a week. "It's such a varying spectrum that you can't handle a one size package for it," Blatt said. "It's very individualized. And with special education, obviously a lot of the services are hard to deliver virtually, and we understand that. And that's why we are allowing flexibility with parents." Not every goal for every student will be able to be tracked virtually like it is in person, like behavior goals for students. But Blatt said they can still do social skills lessons for those students. And when a situation like that arises, Blatt said they are calling the parents to make sure they are aware of their options. Ultimately, Blatt said keeping in touch with every student is going to be extremely important, but also challenging. "I think that's going to be the biggest thing is keeping those kids on as close of watch as we like to when they're virtual," she said. "Because the students on a teacher's caseload, they usually check in with them every day and they're able to see them, talk to them. And that's different for a teacher when you don't get to see your kid in that manner every day. "It's an adjustment for their teaching style." Murray Ridge in Elyria takes students from every district in Lorain County. The school often sees more intensive needs students. This year, it gave families two options, similar to other districts in the county — a hybrid model or an entirely online model. For the hybrid, a student can attend school two days a week and learn remotely for the other three days. The school will offer services for all five days. Dann Swift, director of education at Murray Ridge, said many families have selected the hybrid option, but if they choose, they can go to remote education after each quarter. With the alternate days, that means Murray Ridge won't be at full capacity every day. Swift said that frees up some aids to help students with physical distancing throughout the day in different classrooms. Swift said it will be a large staff to student ratio to assist with some of the distancing. "That's what you really want," he said. "You can tell students to maintain distance, but our students won't understand that so we have staff available to ensure it happens." Staff and students were mandated to wear masks by Gov. Mike DeWine, but there were stipulations in place for things like medical exemptions. Swift said they know several of their students will fall under that, so they will provide other barriers. "But we understand that's going to happen and we're going to do our best to address it," he said. "That's our focus. Safety first. We want to keep our students and staff safe and we believe we have a system in place to do so." Blatt said that Elyria Schools, sanitizing and hand washing will be especially important in special education rooms. In the more intensive rooms, she said parasupport employees will be available to help students with hand washing and be able to clean up supplies as they go. Swift said Murray Ridge is following all the guidelines the Ohio Department of Education has given, but that they're also working with parents to make sure each one is comfortable with how things will operate. With those going full online, Swift said he knows that not everything will be the same as it is in person. Physical education is going to look different and some of the functional skills work the school does. But Swift said they're going to give it "100 percent effort." As the school has communicated with the state and with the local health department, Swift said it's mostly important that Murray Ridge puts in a good faith effort, works with families and has a plan in place. At Amherst, Sarah Walker, director of student services, said special education students will have the same options as the others — fully online or five days a week in person. Of the about 25 percent of Amherst students that signed up for online, Walker said just over 10 percent are students on an IEP, equating to about 90 students. Those students will have a remote learning plan. They will still have an intervention specialist and will get therapy, but it will just look a little different than it would be in the classroom. For students in the online classes, an intervention specialist may not always be on the Zoom call with a general education teacher, but they will make a follow up call for special education students. For the more intensive special needs students, Walker said they are working on ways to keep those students connected with friends they've had in class before. If one student picks online and their friends are going in-person, Walker said it'll be different for them. So, the district is exploring ways to use technology to keep those students in touch. A lot of Amherst special education students may not have intensive needs, but a lot of the students have challenges people can't see on the outside, Walker said. So, many times there's a general education and intervention specialist teaching the same thing. "Kids are coming to us with different needs and so many layers to those needs," Walker said. "And being able to provide the social emotional support, that can be challenging to provide in an online culture." But the key will ultimately be communication, Walker said. Not just the teacher to the parent, but the parents must communicate with the teacher about their child. "It's making sure we're providing support to the parents because this is a whole new world for them," Walker said. "Those are the things keeping me up at night — making sure we're meeting the needs as best as we can." On campus will mostly just be business as usual, Walker said. There will be extra precautions in place, and Walker said they're going to try to keep students as self-contained as possible within general education. An intervention specialist will still be available, however. With masks, Walker said some students that have sensory issues likely won't be able to wear a mask. But if they can wear a baseball cap, she said they can probably at least wear a face shield. Switching online at the last minute in the spring provided so many lessons to Amherst, Walker said. One of the biggest ones was being more consistent with expectations while still tailoring instruction to each grade level. But Walker said it also gave them an opportunity to try new things they were never able to do before. "No one wants to be in this situation," she said. "No one wants to have to make a decision of whether or not our kids are going to come to school. We're making sure we're walking through this together. … I'm very proud of the way our district has been able to communicate out what's been going on and what our decisions have been. We're up to the challenge." Lorain's two Summit Academy schools are tied in part to the decisions the local public school makes, what the overarching charter organization decides, and what the local community needs. Summit Academy focuses on serving students on the autism spectrum and attention deficit disorders, along with students who don't need the extra support, elementary director Keegan Schoen explained. Both the elementary and secondary school buildings will return to school remote for the first nine weeks, mirroring Lorain City Schools' decision in part because of the charter's reliance on the public schools' transportation. The decision to return to in-person classes will be made based on local and state health guidance, along with the overarching charter organization, Secondary Academy director Mike Williston said. It is in the process of distributing Chromebooks to students ahead of classes resuming Monday, Aug. 24. Students in the lower grades will be getting laptops with touchscreens, and its staff is working to connect families without internet access, Schoen said. Staff will be teaching from their classrooms, while physically distancing with intervention specialists and others in each room — to help students learning from home feel some sense of normal, Schoen and Secondary School director Mike Williston said. Staff will have their temperature checked each day via a no-touch scanning system, and if students return to the buildings after the first quarter they will also be checked before entering. Individual-education plan mandated services — like speech therapy or other specializations — will be given virtually, Secondary Academy IEP coordinator Kim Lutz said. IEP meetings, including observations, will be done virtually where possible, Schoen said. Classes are split between synchronous and asynchronous, allowing families to keep flexible schedules and for older siblings to help younger ones. Teachers and intervention specialists will have the option to "pull out" students for individual or small group work in zoom classes alongside the regular sessions, Schoen said. Last year he taught fifth grade, and has been working through professional development with staff and preparing everyone for another school year like never before. A challenge staff — and families — will have to overcome is change in the learning environment, Williston said. When students are in school, there isn't the lure of a nearby video game system or television to distract them from school work, especially for students with attention deficit disorders. Lutz encourages families to establish and stick to a routine in an effort to students on track as much as possible. Summit Academy provides therapeutic martial arts to its students, designed especially for students with ADHD, Asperger's syndrome and similar conditions to help with self-control, self-respect and social skills. Those classes will still be done virtually. Overall, relationships are key, be it at the elementary, middle or high school level, Schoen and Williston said. Staff plan to have virtual office hours where students or families can check in, and some are looking to have extra meetings like virtual breakfasts with teachers and their classmates, video chats with their former teachers — anything to keep students connected with each other and their school. "It's going to take some getting used to, for teachers as well," Williston said. "We teach because we love the connections we can make with people and virtually it's just a little harder." Contact Carissa Woytach at (440) 329-7245 or cwoytach@chroniclet.com. Contact Laina Yost at (440) 329-7121 or lyost@chroniclet.com.