Accommodating Students with Learning Disabilities in Online High Schools

This research project explores the various ways in which online high school teachers accommodate students with learning disabilities. The goal is to highlight the strengths of the online learning community and to discuss the various next steps. The project attempts to investigate the online teaching community by interviewing two experienced online high school teachers who have also taught in traditional classroom settings and who are now department heads at a private online high school. Analysis of existing literature on the topic as well as analysis of data collected through online interviews suggest that school wide and classroom specific initiatives set up to help students with learning disabilities are very limited. However, many are in the process of being established. Currently, accommodations include process scaffolding, providing descriptive feedback, and extending assignment deadlines. This research finds that the online high school learning community is one that is expanding and will require a few more years to be able to fully accommodate students with learning disabilities