EDUCATIONAL REGRESSION

IS YOUR CHILD

LOSING OUT ON SERVICES ? 

14% -19% OF CHILDREN

ARE DUE COMPENSATORY EDUCATION SERVICES 

DUE TO STAGNATION OR REGRESSION!

BUT WILL THEY GET IT ???????

The COVID-19 pandemic created very unique challenges for schools, students, and parents but, School Districts had continued obligations to students with disabilities during COVID-19 school closures for students receiving IEPs and 504 plans.

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High Risk Students

In 2019–20, the number of students ages 3–21 who received special education services under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) was 7.3 million, or 14 percent of all public school students. Nationally, around 2.3 percent of students have 504 plans which is under used since in some schools 20% of students have a 504 plan and others are wrongly denied services and support for ADHD, anxiety, depression…

This is 16.3% of students receive supports that are at high risk of regression or stagnation due to instruction received during COVID-19.

In Denver 19% of students qualified for services. https://co.chalkbeat.org/2022/5/6/23060189/denver-public-schools-special-education-compensatory-services.

School’s Obligation

School districts were required to work to ensure that students with disabilities continue to receive a free appropriate public education (FAPE) “as appropriate and reasonable for each student’s circumstances.”

Schools provided education: virtually, in-person, or with a hybrid learning model. To meet their obligation to eligible students with disabilities to receive FAPE under IDEA and Section 504, Schools decisions had to consider the students' health, safety, and well-being.

Many schools are waiting for parent to file complaints rather than evaluate the students or assess the level of services received. Many parents are unaware of the compensatory education due their children.

Groups like the ARC, COPAA and the NCLD are NOT tracking this important area of compensatory education service delivery, as per the article by Melanie Asmar, May 6, 2022, from Chalkbeak in Colorado. In contrast the National Special Education Advocacy Institute has actively  been educating parents about their rights through national seminars and proactively seeing what school districts are providing ease of access to these services with and without filing of complaints by parents. NSEAI has received multiple complaints from parents about schools refusing to follow Department of Education protocols and misinformation dissemination. NSEAI has been proactive vs reactive in its advocacy for parents and students since 2008.

Violations of Rights

Many parents received NOREPs (notice of recommended educational placement)  reducing  or drastically reducing their child’s services without any indication that such changes are temporary due to COVID-19

Some parents even received  “emergency NOREPs” or a letter from my school district asking parents to waive their child’s right to all services or waive their child’s right to compensatory education services when school resumes.

Both of the above are and were significant violations to IDEA.

Regression

These children regress in skills and do not recoup quickly. What might have taken a child 1 year to progress – one year in reading skills, might take our children 2 years. They regress and recoupment puts them even farther behind. This is not a minor issue students experience DAMAGE and INJURY when they do not receive appropriate and timely services. This widens the achievement gap whether they were stagnate or regressed in learning. It should be noted that these services have previously been determined to be essential for their educational progress, they were entitled to these regardless of the reason for them not getting them due to COVID. Many students:

• Loss progress in critical emerging skills
• Developed behaviors related to instruction
• Shutdown – educational disengagement
• Dropped out of school
• Loss of academic motivation and engagement
• Social and emotional disruption
• Social isolation and anxiety
• Lack of employment opportunities
• Poorer post-secondary outcomes
• Developed depression or anxiety related disorders due to lack of supports

We also know from many studies that lack of educational attainment is linked to long term poor health, increased crime and incarceration levels, loss in earning potential, and decreased political participation.

A US study by Mckinsey and Company showed that the average loss in one year for neuro-typical students was:

• In person learning – typical learning rates
• Remote learning - 3-4 months of learning loss or  52% loss in learning
• Low quality remote learning - 7-11 months of learning loss (no growth or learning loss)
• No instruction/lack of access to instruction -  12-14 months of learning loss

https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/education/our-insights/covid-19-and-student-learning-in-the-united-states-the-hurt-could-last-a-lifetime

These losses were 50% greater in low income families and students with disabilities

In normal circumstances, students who miss more than ten days of school are 36 percent more likely to drop out. Research brief: Chronic absenteeism, Utah Education Policy Center, University of Utah, 2012, uepc.utah.edu.

We know that with school closures following natural disasters like a Hurricane, 14 to 20 percent of students never returned to school.  The Mckinsey study estimates “that an additional 2 to 9 percent of high-school students could drop out as a result of the coronavirus and associated school closures—232,000 ninth-to-11th graders (in the mildest scenario) to 1.1 million (in the worst one).”

A study in the Netherlands that was only shut down for only 8 weeks showed a learning loss of about one-fifth of a school year,  3 percentile points or 0.08 standard deviations for most students. These losses were up to 60% larger among students from less-educated homes. This study did not even address students with disabilities. https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2022376118

Compensatory Services

The Department of Education notes that “Compensatory Services are required to remedy any educational or other deficits that result from the student with a disability not receiving the evaluations or services to which they were entitled.” This could include: 

• Occupational or physical therapy during school closures
• Lack of instruction due to child not being able to access their education virtually
• Initial evaluations and re-evaluations not received in a timely manner and services that should have been provided as a result of these evaluation determinations

Compensatory education service determinations are individualized and are made by the IEP or school staff, knowledgeable about the student. This includes but is not limited to:

• Counselors,
• Doctors,
• Family members,
• Psychologists,
• Related service providers,
• Occupational therapy
• Physical therapist
• Speech and language therapist  

• School administrators,
• School nurses,
• Social workers and
• Teachers.

The following factors may be relevant for the group of knowledgeable persons to consider in determining the appropriate type, quantity and type of compensatory services:

• Appropriateness of special education and/or related services provided, based on the student’s individual needs,
• Evaluation delays,
• Frequency and duration of missed academic instruction,
• Frequency and duration of missed related services,
• Lack of appropriate supports during instruction:
• Instructional/behavioral supports  (aide),
• Specially Designed Instruction use, or
• Use of programming with fidelity
• Present level of performance,
• Previous rates of progress,
• Results of updated baselines,
• Updated evaluations, and
• Other relevant educational information

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