Accelerate Academic Achievement This blog series is designed to support school-based administrators in addressing the US Department of Education’s call to action, via the Return to School Roadmap, for federal, state, and local leaders to close the performance gap for students with disabilities during the 2021–2022 school year. Our first post was a quick reference guide providing suggestions for implementing each of the priorities set forth in Landmark 2: Build School Communities and Support Students’ Social, Emotional, and Mental Health. [More]
Build School Communities and Support Students’ Social, Emotional, and Mental Health The American Rescue Plan Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ARP ESSER) Fund provides substantial funding to support the reopening of schools and to address the academic, social, emotional, and mental health concerns that have arisen as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. [More]
Back-to-School Blog Series to Support the 2021 “Return to School Roadmap” The COVID-19 pandemic has brought about an unprecedented number of challenges facing schools and students as they approach in-person learning this fall. Students with disabilities were disproportionately affected by school closures during the 2019–2020 and 2020–2021 school years... [More]
The School Bell Rings: Basic Realities of the 20-21 School Year and the Need for a COVID-19 Special Education Steering Committee The 2020-21 school year will be unlike any other experienced by American schoolchildren and their teachers since the Spanish Flu outbreak of 1918. The expectations placed on school district administrators and educators are unprecedented. If the Spanish Flu taught us anything, it is that we may be faced with extended social distancing until the pandemic is managed. [More]
Presuming Competence in Students with Significant Disabilities For too long, students with significant disabilities (SWSD) have been understood as little more than collections of low test scores and high needs. The very nature of a significant disability prevents educators from knowing with any certainty what a student’s true capabilities are, but the simple fact that a student’s IQ has been identified as “low,” or that they have complex physical or communication challenges, doesn’t automatically mean they are incapable. [More]