Since last spring we have been hearing that students who receive special education services and are unable to access remote learning would be prioritized for in-person learning.
How has that worked out?
It has been an individual IEP team decision, requiring review of data before qualifying a student for in-person. In the fall, many families were told that the District would need to collect data for weeks before making a decision. After the IEP team qualified a student, additional extensive health screening was required. On October 29, the Seattle Times reported that only 1 student was receiving services in-person.
Two and a half months later – according to a report to the Student Support, Curriculum & Instruction Committee yesterday — about 85-90 students are now receiving services (although it’s not clear whether that number includes students receiving services at outside placements, not at a Seattle school) and about another 100 students are in the pipeline, meaning they are going through the extensive screening process.
The March 1 plan, on the other hand, is to welcome back students in grades pre-K through 1 and students in the intensive service pathways in grades 2-12 – apparently without the need for individual qualification that each student requires being in-person to make progress and apparently without the need for the extensive health screening that has been required up to now.
While it’s a welcome change for families whose children cannot learn online because of disability, we have to ask – why wasn’t this possible sooner? Why did Seattle adopt a highly restrictive plan for the students it claimed to be prioritizing while other neighboring King County Districts have been serving hundreds of students with disabilities in-person since September?
As you move forward with the March 1 plan and any reopening plans after that, please keep in mind that students with disabilities have not in fact been prioritized and are being left even further behind than they were before.
