As the world determines how to handle the escalating outbreak of COVID-19, education leaders across the country are facing difficult and enormously impactful decisions. We hope this resource guide will assist educators and school practitioners in developing comprehensive plans for students with disabilities and creating effective and high-quality learning environments for all during this evolving national transition.
On March 17, 2020, the 74 Million wrote a piece examining the immediate impacts of COVID-19 school closures on students with disabilities and asked Lauren Morando Rhim about her concerns.
With the World Health Organization officially declaring that COVID-19 is a pandemic, a new sense of urgency has been introduced and we anticipate more schools will be closed. With this eventuality in mind, schools must think through the following critical considerations as they develop plans to educate students with disabilities.
On March 4, 2020, Education Dive wrote about how school choice affects families of students with disabilities, citing data from the Center’s CRDC analysis.
The Center calls upon Congress to reject the White House’s Fiscal Year 2021 budget, which proposes to completely decimate federal support for public schools, threatening access for students in every state.
On February 10, 2020, the Hechinger Report posted an op-ed by Lauren Morando Rhim about the pitfalls of President Trump’s proposed Education Freedom Scholarships and Opportunity Act.
In a statement in response to the Trump Administration’s promotion of the Education Freedom Scholarships program, the Center urged he Administration and Congress to only support regulated school choice so that parents can make decisions that will not limit or eliminate their child’s civil rights.
Together, two recent reports on special education by the US Government Accountability Office (GAO)—Varied State Criteria May Contribute to Differences in Percentages of Children Served (April 2019) and IDEA Dispute Resolution Activity in Selected States Varied Based on School Districts’ Characteristics (November 2019)—highlight the disturbing fact that the structures governing special education can contribute significantly to outcome disparities based on a student’s race and privilege.
On February 3, 2020, Laura Waters wrote in NJ Left Behind about ongoing tension between charter and traditional district public schools in Newark, drawing on Paul O’Neill’s January 31 op-ed in the New Jersey Star-Ledger.
On January 31, 2020, Paul O’Neill wrote an op-ed in the New Jersey Star-Ledger arguing that, given the ongoing success of charter schools in Newark, the city’s superintendent should work to bridge the walls between charter and traditional public schools, rather than creating conflict between them.
