Since undertaking distance learning when Connecticut schools closed to accommodate the “Stay Safe-Stay Home” directive from the governor, teachers and students have tackled a huge learning curve. Though Newtown instructors were given preparation ahead, as the closure became a reality, implementing online lessons has not been an easy task at either end.

For Special Education teachers, distance learning has had special challenges.

“Special education is so intricate with many areas needing to be addressed,” said Deborah Mailloux-Petersen, Special Education Director of Pupil Services. “For students who have multiple service providers, each provider had to collaborate with the student’s case manager to determine the best way to provide services/work,” she shared via e-mail on April 14.

Newtown services approximately 621 students in need of special education, requiring a variety of modifications in order to succeed. Those accommodations, Mailloux-Petersen said, can include reducing lettering on a page, the number of questions, enlarging print, and more.

Special education students may have multiple service providers, she explained, another hurdle for instructors, students, and parents to overcome with distance learning.

“Each provider had to collaborate with the student’s case manager to determine the best way to provide services/work,” Mailloux-Petersen noted. “We realized very early on that parents were becoming inundated with e-mail notifications about work posted and it quickly became overwhelming. Special education/Pupil Personnel staff had/have to wait on the general education staff to prepare lessons, so that they could take that work and modify as needed for each individual student on their caseload. While general education teachers can create a Google Classroom for each class,” she said, “the special education and pupil services staff had to create individual Google Classrooms to ensure confidentiality.”

It can be an overwhelming task for teachers and Pupil Personnel to manage as they try to meet students’ needs, as well as their own personal lives.

“Together, we have spent many hours working on ways to provide guidance on what is expected and how to achieve. The families we have heard from are happy with the work provided to their child but very overwhelmed as they manage their own jobs at home,” said Mailloux-Petersen. “Staff have been working with families to try and minimize the workload by providing a schedule which outlines when work should be completed to make it seem more manageable. By doing this,” she continued, “parents have expressed relief in knowing that it is ok ‘to do what you can.’”

District staff have made efforts to stay connected to the students, however they can, and those efforts are appreciated. “No matter how young or old the student, it has become apparent that everyone misses that connection,” Mailloux-Petersen said.

There is still much to be learned as teachers and students continue the adventures of online learning. But Mailloux-Petersen has faith that all Newtown students are being provided valuable lessons.

“In conversations with directors from nearby towns, it has become apparent that Newtown is well beyond them in providing educational opportunities to the students,” she said. “Providing the time to teachers to plan before the school closure was key in our success with distance learning. As outlined in the our next phase of Alternative Learning that was provided to parents, Newtown is constantly addressing how to build upon providing accommodations to students as we would if in school.”

The school district will be tackling the issues of grading and transcripts in the weeks ahead. “Many of the decisions made regarding this will come from the SDE,” said Mailloux-Petersen. The State Department of Special Education has shared that guidance “will be forthcoming to address measuring success,” she added.

“I believe after a few weeks of tweaking how the educational opportunities are provided and with guidance from the State Department of Special Education, Newtown is in a good place.”

‘Survival Mode’

“Overwhelmed” may be the term used by the Special Education Director, but private special education advocate Karen Simon, who works with special education students of all ages and their parents in the area, said April 22 that the parents who have reached out to her are “in survival mode.”

Students with mild symptoms, Simon said, will probably be okay as they make their ways through distance learning issues, but the students “with real issues,” who make up the bulk of those she advises, will have longlasting negative impacts from this extended time away from structured routines. Those students may be on the autism spectrum, be nonverbal, have sensory disorders, ADHD, or OCD, or other needs to be accommodated.

But even students “who don’t outwardly have symptoms, who can ‘hold it together’ in social situations, even those kids are having problems,” she said.

Distressed parents who are seeking her advice during this time of social distancing are seeing behaviors in their special education students that they have not seen in years, said Simon, including property destruction, aggressive behavior toward others and themselves, repetitive behaviors, and even hygiene issues. They are losing social skills, and that will be a long trajectory to regain those skills, worried Simon. These regressive actions, she said, have parents scared. “They wonder, when are they going to get their kid back?”

It is not the fault of the teachers, she stressed. “They are trying their best. They are troopers. But distance learning for special needs kids is not the way our kids have ever learned.

Getting these kids to attend to distance learning is difficult, even in school. Expecting parents to do this at home is pushing the envelope,” Simon said, adding that teaching special needs children at home is now complicated by those parents also often doing their own work from home and tending to other typical children in the family. Aggressive and regressive behaviors by the special needs child can mean that parents have to weigh safety in the home. Some parents, she said, have even taken their child to the Yale child psychiatry unit for help.

“Asking parents [of special education students] to take part, it’s not worth it,” Simon said. Parents — and this advisor — are “running out of tricks” as days turn to weeks, and weeks turn to months of disruption in learning.

When the going gets too tough, though, Simon tells parents to “opt out. Let this be a time of ‘playing’ with your child. Do preferred activities, and give down time.”

When school does resume, Simon expects more issues to arise with the most needy children.

“It’s going to be devastating. Kids are getting used to being home, having parents home, and few demands being made.”

One of the biggest problems to be overcome upon return will be, as always, funding for needed programs. “We will need massive increases in support when this is over,” she said, “We’ll need compensatory education. This is going to take a tremendous effort when this is through.”

A Parent’s Viewpoint

Although giving the teachers “a lot of kudos” for their efforts and praise for them keeping in touch with youngsters, one parent of a high school student in the special education program stresses that distance learning has heightened the usual hurdles a student with learning issues must leap.

“I think we’re kidding ourselves that [special education students] are getting the services they can at school,” the parent shared. “[Distance learning] is less structured.”

Particularly difficult for this student “is the whole socialization piece.” Many of the student’s regular classes demand interaction with peers, and that is not possible at this time. Fitness For Life is one example. Motivation to work out alone is not easy for a typical person, let alone a person with challenges.

Keeping the special education student on track during distance learning can be a struggle, said the parent. Most effective for this parent’s child now are those classes like math. That distance learning program usually offers a powerpoint and one word problem a day, as well as an online math program. “It’s very straightforward,” this parent said, making it doable for the student.

On the other hand, Tools For Living requires a lot of assistance. “There is no way to do that; it’s nothing I could do. It’s a lot of work,” the parent shared. Speech therapy is another offering that is also very hard to do online.

This household feels fortunate that a helper has, early on, been willing to come to the house to assist the student while the parent works from home, and that all of the technology required to complete distance learning classes is available to them.

For the parent-turned-teacher, balancing how much help to give and how much support is actually needed can be especially hard in this situation. Providing substantial assistance can mean the difference between completing assignments, or offering less help and more independence — and not completing the work.

This parent’s special education high schooler happens to be a member of the Class of 2020. The student may miss the usual end of year rituals before moving into the transition program.

“There is loss — the loss of activities, which may be a bigger impact than it is for typical kids,” and “Academically, [this student] won’t get it back,” the parent regrets.

Missing Out

A second parent in Newtown also stresses the difficulty for their high school special needs student to deal with the lack of socialization.

Not getting the social piece of learning is hard. This student is “very social and very into routines. That piece being taken away is huge,” said the parent.

“I miss them!” is what this parent hears, referring to the student’s desire to see not only school friends, but school staff.

The student, whom the parent describes as higher functioning on the autism spectrum, “doesn’t have behavior issues... just a little sad, if that’s the word... misses going to school.”

Because the youngster is more independent than some special needs youth, they have mostly been able to complete the school work assigned, though this parent opts to sit with the student while assignments are completed.

“Initially, it was to figure it out; now I try to have [the youth] be more independent. It depends on the subject,” said the parent. As time has passed, just being in the same room seems to be enough support.

Part-time employment allows this parent to rise early and “get my stuff out of the way,” before helping with work provided via Google Classroom. It also offers time to assist their other child, a young adult who also has special needs, to cope with the loss of the day program and to keep that young person occupied.

The high schooler enjoys routine, and Google Classroom is working out for them, finding out daily what the assignments for the day will be. They have created a home routine and the school work is done in a special work space.

“[The student] now can go in and make a list of what has to be done that day,” and chooses the order in which to complete assignments.

Connecting with others has been spotty. This young person does some texting with the “Buddy” from the high school Buddy Program that pairs typical students with special education students, and also with some peers.

“Once a week, we talk to the case manager on the phone,” the parent said, another good connection. “And one teacher, for two classes, every Monday does a video, and says hello to each student and gives a brief overview of the work.”

And it is the teachers, this parent feels, that is the real story.

“[The] teachers have been great, very flexible. They get it. In the beginning, I was nervous: how are we going to get this done? It was a lot.” It is incredible what the school administration has been able to pull together for this child, and for all of Newtown students, on such short notice, noted this parent. The staff is learning as they go, too. “It’s evolving. They are heroes.”

Connecting with staff and friends, said the parent, is as important as any academic, for special needs students. With limited options for getting out, social distancing has made that kind of connection something “we can’t replicate in the community. It is such a supporting, loving time with abled and disabled peers.”

There is hope that the social skills will pick up where they were left off, whenever school becomes a reality again.

“It’s uncharted territory. There’re just pieces you can’t replace without being together.” High school has been an enormously positive experience, offering activities and other opportunities. There is disappointment around “missing time there.” Fewer opportunities are available once a child ages out of the high school environment, this parent also worries. “To miss a chunk of that stinks.”

The uncertainty of how long social distancing protocols go on “is hard for these kids,” said the parent, “more than for typical kids.”

Like everyone, this student longs to know an end date to isolation. In the meantime, said the parent, “We do our best.”

Anonymity has been granted parents interviewed for this article, to protect their privacy, and the privacy of the special education student.