Pandemics and Power: Ep1 Transcript
Episode 1: "COVID-19 and Special Education"
[Intro music]
Afia:
Hey hey hey! Welcome to the very first episode of Pandemics and Power. We're a group of Harvard students from all backgrounds, working to shine a light on COVID-19 related social issues that deserve more attention. You’re stuck with us for our lovely three episode arc covering hopefully things you hadn’t considered in full. We hope that at the end of each episode you’ll find yourself armed with new questions to ask, people to consider and institutions to question. I’m Afia, and I’m here to facilitate our conversations on COVID-19 and issues of social power and justice.
If you’ve watched the news in the past six months you’ve heard the phrase, “The virus doesn’t discriminate.”
[Montage of news clips]:
The virus does not discriminate.
Afia:
And yet the statistics show that it does. In reality different communities are feeling the effects of COVID-19 very differently. While the virus itself may not discriminate, pre-existing societal inequities make some more vulnerable to it, and that is what we are here to discuss.
To kick this series off, we’ll be talking about education. Education has been a primary concern during this pandemic. Parents wonder, will my child’s school be open in person, online or a weird hybrid? Will my child receive a quality online education? How will school closure’s affect my children’s emotional wellbeing? How am I supposed to find technology so that all of my children can be in class at the same time? How can I afford childcare since I’m an essential worker? These are all very important issues that have actually been discussed at length and looked into while schools create their reopening plans. In this episode, however, we’d like to zoom in to focus on one specific aspect of education that has been struggling a lot during this crisis: special education.
[Audio clip from WHDH: https://whdh.com/news/many-special-needs-students-left-to-own-devices-
during-coronavirus-crisis/ (0:48-1:02)]:
It’s so tough, ‘cause other children, like, without special needs have their difficulties with it, I’m sure, but then you take a child that really doesn’t have comprehension of what's going on and it’s just a mess.
Afia:
Today, I’m having K, one of our producers who's been researching this topic, join me to discuss this issue. Welcome K.
K:
Thank you Afia, I’m looking forward to talking with you today. Education is so important for all kids, but when making plans about how to best approach education during this crisis, we need to make sure we’re really talking about all kids.
Afia:
You are so right! So let’s dive straight into it, how do schools guarantee a quality education for students with special needs?
K:
The federal government ensures the right to a free and appropriate public education, that’s kind of the standard that they use, which basically means public schools have to provide education for everyone in their district, regardless of ability level.
Afia:
So what exactly falls under “special needs?” And more specifically how do schools guarantee this quality education?
K:
A lot of things are categorized under special needs. It can refer to anything from dyslexia to autism - all of which look really different in every person. And sometimes we categorize things as disabilities that really shouldn’t be, like deafness.
So all of that is to say, to meet this wide array of needs, schools provide a wide variety of accommodations for students, tailored to fit their specific needs. This can include physical therapy, speech therapy, behavioral therapy, sign language interpretation, one-on-one support from paraprofessionals, and the list goes on.
Afia:
Whew, ok, that was a list. You said physical therapy, speech therapy, behavioral therapy and the list goes on, okay. And I know that’s not an exhaustive list. So, how is it possible to guarantee all these resources in a largely underfunded public school system?
K:
Honestly, special education is often super under-funded and short-staffed, so sometimes schools are not able to entirely fulfill the needs of their students, but in general schools work to provide this wide array of services to give every student the opportunity to learn.
Afia:
What exactly are schools doing right now in the age of the COVID-19 pandemic?
K:
Well, it varies a lot district to district. Some staff members have been really dedicated and innovative, and we see a handful of success stories about new possibilities opened by remote learning. And some of that is from private schools that are much better funded and more equipped than some public schools.
However, by and large that is not a good way to characterize the circumstances that most special education students find themselves in. In a survey of families of students with disabilities following school closures in the spring, only one out of five respondents said their student was receiving all the services they were entitled to, while two out of five said they were receiving no support at all. Our system is not doing its job if even one student falls through the cracks.
[Transition music]
Afia:
Let’s take it back to the spring, to that lovely moment when Harvard told us we had I think 5 days and 8 hours to get off campus. We didn’t have to go home but we had to get the hell off of that campus.
So it was hectic for us as students but it also was a rough transition for these institutions. They had to transform an entire educational program, and this wasn’t just colleges. This was every institution that serves students. No one was equipped to handle this rocky transition. What made this experience especially difficult for special education programs?
K:
Yeah, it was a super difficult situation. Part of it is trying to figure out the logistics of getting physical resources, such as braille readers, that were in the physical school buildings, to students when no one is allowed to enter the buildings. Another thing is that there is no obvious way to adapt certain services. Like, how do you do physical or occupational therapy online? How do you interact with students who are nonverbal? These were the issues that individual schools and staff members were dealing with.
Afia:
Yeah I think on an individual level, many of us felt that transitioning a curriculum to Zoom was the hardest task. But what it sounds like you’re saying is that some tasks literally just cannot take place through a screen.
Were there any policy level barriers to adapting these mechanisms for distance learning?
K:
Oh my goodness, yes! Federal policy was massively affecting how we approached special education. The Department of Education initially said that schools would not have to provide any additional services for students with special needs during remote learning.
Afia:
I’m sorry, what? Did I hear you right? Wow, okay, what is Betsy DeVos doing? If you don’t know Betsy leads the Department of Education and has done a horrible job at protecting our children.
K:
Yeah, it seems like every single decision the Department of Education makes is the worst possible one. The Department of Education ended up backtracking on that policy pretty quickly, but the damage was already done. They should have been doing all they could from the very beginning to make sure these kids didn’t slip through the cracks, but instead they gave the go-ahead to disregard them.
Afia:
I hate it here. Every day, I learn new things and it only makes me hate it here more. [laughs] And unfortunately things like this happen all the time, it’s not even like we’ll go back to good when the pandemic ends.
So, let’s actually make a transition here. Let’s hear some first-hand experiences from a couple parents of students with special needs about the struggles they faced. First, we have David Perry, who is a father from Minnesota.
David Perry:
My son is 13, he’s one of two kids, um, my daughter is 10, he has Down Syndrome and is autistic. He’s, I guess what the professionals call, functionally nonverbal. He often requires a set of highly specific and intensive supports. Um, I am not a trained special ed teacher. I’m not trained in providing him those supports. We try to do the assignments we can do, we look for the ones that are well-adapted and seem to make sense, uh, and we let a lot of things go. We are letting a lot of things slide. And if what I did all day was just sit with him and work on education, I really think we could accomplish a lot. But I’m not able to do that because I’m working from home.
K:
Next, we’ll hear from Erin Croyle, a mom from New York.
Erin Croyle:
I have three children. I have a 9 year old, um, who has Down Syndrome and ADHD, and some other medical complexities that make it really, really difficult right now. My son, my oldest, requires a team of anywhere between 3 to 10 people at a time to help him learn. I try to do a schedule and I try to get something to happen every day, and every day, I feel like a failure. Um, and I get emotional because I care so deeply about his education, but it’s not possible.
[Transition music]
Afia:
Wow, those stories are really emotional to hear - and this is only the parts that their families felt comfortable sharing. They also bring up a lot of important aspects of this issue, so let’s dive into them a little bit. Let’s first talk about David’s story. David talked about the struggles of helping his son, who has autism and Down Syndrome.
K:
Yeah, one of the things that really stuck out to me in David’s story was how he wished he could do more to help his son but he had to work. This brings up the topic of socioeconomic status. If parents need to work, childcare can be really hard, both in terms of not having the time to directly look after your kids and not being able to afford to hire someone to watch them.
Afia:
And that’s something that affects all students. Kids from families that have more money can hire an at-home tutor or can afford for a parent to stay home. These resources help to ensure those children don’t fall behind. But students from low income backgrounds usually experience what is called the “summer slide” where they lose a large part of what they learned from the previous year over summer vacation. Education experts are terrified that this effect will happen on a much larger scale since students have inequitable access to educational support during this crisis.
K:
Absolutely, and that problem becomes amplified for a host of reasons when we start talking about special education students. First off, special education students are disproportionately from low income backgrounds. Also, the level of support they usually receive at school is so high, so it’s exponentially harder to fill that void. And even if families have the money to potentially hire someone to help, it can be a lot harder to find someone who is able to meet the particular needs that their student has.
Afia:
Let’s switch gears now to Erin’s story. She said her son has Down Syndrome, ADHD, and other medical complexities.
K:
Yeah, it’s not uncommon for special education students to have medical conditions in addition to learning disabilities. Erin didn’t go into details about what these complexities are for her son so this isn’t necessarily the case for him, but these medical conditions can put these kids at a greater risk for contracting COVID or make their bodies have a much harder time fighting the disease.
Afia:
We’ve been talking about how detrimental online learning can be to the ability to access resources, but the solution can’t be as simple as reopening all the schools. Obviously online learning is less than ideal, we can both speak to that, but going back in person can be really dangerous for some of these students as well.
K:
Exactly, and it is really difficult to impose COVID precautions in special education classrooms. Some students have sensory issues and therefore can’t wear masks, and some students require physical support, meaning there’s a lot of contact going on there.
Afia:
So it’s never just one person that they’re in contact with. Erin also said her son usually works with a team of three to ten people at any given time during the school day. That must be so much responsibility that’s shifted onto the families now.
K:
David also touched on this topic when he mentioned he is not an expert on special education. All of the support special education students receive is really built into the school system, and all of that was abruptly taken away. The unpredictability of the situation can be detrimental to both their academic progress and social and emotional wellbeing.
Afia:
Wow, I so appreciate this discussion that we had today. You’ve really opened my mind, and opened my eyes to so much of what’s going on.
So we've covered a lot of ground today, but there’s still so much more that we don’t have time to cover, because every individual story is different. K, do you have any final thoughts on this topic as we wrap up?
K:
Yeah, I think you hit the nail on the head when you said that every individual story is different. That’s what makes this such a complex issue. There is no one blanket solution for how to approach special education during COVID, but it is a topic that needs to be included in every conversation we have about remote learning and school reopenings.
Afia:
Well K, thank you so much for joining us today, and schooling me, and schooling our audience, on all things special education and COVID.
K:
Thank you so much for having me.
[Outro music]
Alyssa:
Hello listeners! I hope you enjoyed our first episode of Pandemics and Power! My name is Alyssa Panton, and I am an author of this episode of Pandemics and Power. We hope that this episode is only the beginning of a larger conversation about the significance of educational rights during the COVID-19 pandemic. If you heard something interesting in this conversation, we encourage you to stay engaged and learn more about this topic. We recommend using the Federation for Children with Special Needs as a resource. We also want to highlight the importance of being an active participant in local and federal reform through advocacy and exercising your right to vote! This episode was written, recorded, and edited by Arambi Eyong, Nora Marzouqa, Alyssa Panton, K. Stawasz, and Afia Tyus. This episode was produced as a part of the Harvard University History of Science course Significant Stories, taught by Dr. David Unger and Shireen Hamza.