As cases of the COVID-19 Delta variant, a highly contagious strain of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, continually rise, school administrators face the challenge of keeping schools safely open while providing instruction to address learning gaps and increase achievement levels. Beyond the educational field, people may view COVID safety as a simple process. Some may question,… Read More »
With many schools once again in-person, administrators will encounter various challenges caused by the COVID-19 crisis. While teachers and educational therapists endeavor to resolve these concerns, many have not acknowledged a new consideration that may affect their daily interactions with students: long COVID. Long COVID refers to the continuation of symptoms that affect children,… Read More »
What Exactly IS Compliance Monitoring and Why Do We Do It? As per the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) and State Board of Education regulations, each state must ensure that all students with disabilities receive a ”free appropriate public education” (FAPE) program as well as need-based special education and related services. Each state must also… Read More »
Undergoing compliance monitoring can be an intensive and stressful experience. In many cases, it is a highly labor-intensive exercise to ensure all the appropriate paperwork and district/school processes adhere to timelines. Forms must contain the correct information. Instruction must correlate to the student’s IEP and be provided by staff members knowledgeable about specially designed instruction.… Read More »
As I’m sure we can all agree, COVID-19 was a massive catalyst for change in the instructional landscape of brick-and-mortar schools. Before the pandemic, the vast majority of these schools utilized technology only as a secondary, as-needed enhancement to in-person programs. Of course, this all changed when schools faced the urgent challenge of offering an… Read More »
As students around the country return to in-person instruction, school-based mental health services are more crucial than ever. Before the global pandemic, schools already struggled to offer these critical services to students in crisis—and without question, adding COVID-19 to the equation quickly exacerbated this demand. According to the National Center for Disease Control and Prevention,… Read More »
It is commonly believed that students with an Individualized Education Program (IEP) aren’t eligible to obtain special education services during the summer. In reality, educational administrators must provide extended school year (ESY) programs annually to students with disabilities. ESY refers to related services and special education administered outside of the regular school year to provide… Read More »
It’s an inevitability faced by special education professionals everywhere: the need to regularly develop and revise student IEPs (Individual Education Programs) throughout the school year. Because this critical and necessary undertaking demands a considerable allocation of time, special education teachers and school administrators are often faced with a challenging yet essential question: how can… Read More »
Congress has approved a new round of support as part of the COVID-19 relief funding bill. This will provide approximately $122 billion in funding for K-12 schools, with about a quarter of this earmarked specifically for learning recovery. Which raises an important question: How should schools spend the extra funding? While this precise situation may… Read More »
