13 – COVID 19 Update – April 24 – Special Education

Corey Jeffers COVID-19 Updates

4/24/2020

Dear Parents/Guardians:  

My hope is this letter finds you and your family well!  I wanted to reach out to the families of the students that have IEPs to share the focus of the special education support provided during this remarkable time in education.  I want to share the message with families that I have been sharing with all of our special education staff and building administration.  

General Considerations within Special Education 

  1. Focus on the safety, health and welfare of students and staff members.  
  2. Consider how to provide special education services within the context of the family’s and child’s circumstances (access, services and collaboration with families).  That may look different for each family.  
  3. Treat each student, family and situation individually.    
  4. Continue to review both federal and state guidance as it is provided on a weekly and/or daily basis.    

Specific Focus of Special Ed Staff Work:

  1. Recognize each student’s level of progress on IEP goals in Mid-March, when in-person services stopped.
  2. Provide materials (virtual and/or paper) for students to support IEP goal maintenance prior to closure.
  3. Document attempts to provide these materials and other supports to students with IEPs around their IEP goals to ensure we are best serving our students.
  4. Collaborate with regular education teachers to ensure access of materials sent by regular education teachers.  
  5. Regularly engage with and communicate with students and families, based on each individual family’s situation.
  6. Continue to meet our required annual IEP meeting timelines by providing regularly scheduled annual IEP meetings via Zoom.
  7. Work with families to complete evaluations, seek extensions or waive reevaluations, when needed.  

IEP’s and Special Education Services were not built for this amount of change, in such a short period of time.  I can’t thank all of our families enough for the support and understanding during this time of change!  It is an honor to serve our students with disabilities in any manner we can during this challenging time.  Please reach out to your child’s special education teacher or myself with any questions.  We all can’t wait to see our students when it is safe for everyone!  

Stay Well!

Terri Olsen

Director of Pupil Services/Special Education