Educating Students with Disabilities During COVID-19

Faced with the suspension of in-person behavioral and cognitive therapies, the inaccessibility of virtual learning platforms such as Zoom, and parent burnout, schoolchildren with disabilities and their families have dealt with many challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic. As public schools nationwide transitioned to remote learning at the start of the pandemic, less than half of all states published remote learning plans with information about the remote provision of services to students with disabilities. As a result, many states looked to federal special education law for answers. Under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), students with disabilities must receive a free and appropriate public education. In addition, all public-school students receiving special education services under the IDEA must have an Individualized Education Plan (IEP). In a previous Saturday Seminar, The Regulatory Review highlighted the successes and shortcomings of the IDEA. This week’s Seminar explores COVID-19’s impact on students affected by the IDEA. All students have struggled to adjust to online and hybrid learning during the pandemic. Students with disabilities, however, face unique barriers not felt by other student populations. These barriers make the IDEA’s shortcomings especially prevalent in light of the pandemic. The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Security (CARES) Act, signed into law in March 2020, gave the U.S. Secretary of Education the right to appeal Congress for waivers that would relax some of the IDEA’s core requirements as schools transitioned to remote learning. In April, however, former Secretary Betsey DeVos issued recommendations declining to seek such flexibility for certain IDEA provisions. Although DeVos’s choice not to waive certain IDEA mandates encouraged parents and advocates of students with disabilities, local education agencies worried about the legal challenges they would face without any leniency to deliver remote special education services as best they could. By the end of the 2019-2020 school year, parents of students with disabilities brought several lawsuits against school districts and state education agencies. The parents argued that their children’s IEPs had been breached by schools not providing adequate accommodations. Prior to the lawsuits, the Education Department issued nonbinding guidance implying that if a school did not provide education to its general student population due to COVID-19, it could avoid providing services to students with disabilities. According to the guidance, “the IDEA … does not specifically address a situation in which elementary and secondary schools are closed for an extended period of time.” The guidance seemed to promote the idea that all students are served equally if no students are served at all. Educators responded that such directives contradicted the IDEA’s promise that all students with disabilities should have access to an adequate education. The Education Department later clarified that schools should not avoid offering virtual education altogether to evade the legal consequences of failing to serve adequately students with disabilities. Amid the Education Department’s contradictory advice and its refusal to grant the IDEA waivers, some disability rights advocates felt that translating IEP supports and other accommodations to an online learning environment would be impossible. Nonetheless, states adopted various measures for educating children with disabilities in remote and hybrid settings. This week’s Saturday Seminar highlights how COVID-19’s effects on in-person classroom instruction have disproportionately impacted students with disabilities