Carol Ann Heath, Ed.D. COVID, Early Intervention Services

Implementing Services for Young Children, birth to 3, Post Covid

While many families have been struggling to work from home, stay healthy, and provide opportunities for their children, young children who may be eligible for early intervention services are not being referred to agencies providing Part C services. Referrals have declined due to a decrease in visits to pediatricians and fewer children in early care settings. Parents may have been unaware of the more subtle indicators of delay or reduced muscle tone given the chaos of pandemic issues for work, social activities, fewer play dates with age peers, and COVID anxiety.

States are being encouraged to increase their efforts to implement “child find” activities to identify, and evaluate all infants and toddlers who may be eligible for early intervention services. This will require increased efforts as families may still be working from home and options for child care remain more limited. Pediatricians nationwide are being encouraged to reach out to patients for routine well baby care and developmental assessments.

Any children, who were referred prior to the pandemic and services were disrupted by the pandemic, may be eligible for compensatory services. Referral sources are required to refer a child within seven days of when the child is suspected of having a disability. If the child is determined eligible, the initial child and family assessment must conducted and the individualized family service plan (IFSP) meeting held within 45 days. Higher priority is to be given to those children referred prior to the pandemic and if the child is over three, the EIS system must coordinate with the Part B Preschool program to meet their child find requirements. If parents have declined services during the pandemic, the State Lead Agency is encourage to recontact parents and encourage the parent to re-engage. If the child is over the age of three, information about the Part B Preschool program should be provided.

As parents and local early intervention systems become more comfortable with in-person evaluations and services, a return to a more typical model of service delivery. Getting past a backlog of referrals and evaluations may require additional temporary staff to ensure timelines and delivery of services in a more timely manner.

Check out this article from Disability Scoop: https://www.disabilityscoop.com/2021/11/01/ed-department-reminds-states-of-early-intervention-obligations-under-idea/29574/ 

Carol Ann Heath, Ed.D. Children with Disabilities, COVID, Special Education

Knowing the Impact of Learning Loss

            March 14, 2020, ushered in an unanticipated and fundamental change in the delivery of services for children with disabilities, upending the timely identification, assessment, evaluation, and delivery of services.  While education for all children changed, the pandemic required a unique interpretation of services for children with disabilities and a cataclysmic revisioning of the meaning of timely services and the where and location for the delivery of services.  Timelines and delivery modes were revamped, striving to revision a mode of virtual and hybrid services in a constrained model of what are early intervention and special education services consistent with federal and state laws and regulations. Initially, it was thought that federal waivers would be available. Instead, broad guidance was provided, leaving states with the responsibility to devise a broad range of substitute strategies for identification of eligible children and the delivering of services to implement diverse and individualized educational programs. 

            The myriad of issues and initial service solutions was confusing, leaving many families with the complete cessation of services and others with a near perversion of therapeutic strategies designed to address the needs of the more severely disabled.  Social and income inequities surfaced immediately with many families lacking access to internet and without the necessary technologies to participate in any form of virtual learning or services. Issues of childcare and parents as teachers have plagued the implementation of the varied models of services.  States floundered in the specific guidance needed by local systems and funding lagged to assist in modification of classrooms, delivery models, and the need to address transportation.  Solutions were as diverse as there are local systems and funding options.  

Initially many educators and parents relied on the guidance that children would return to school in the fall of 2020.  Young children and students with disabilities face significant education challenges as the beginning of school in the fall approaches. Around the country, school districts are grappling with the format and pace of programming while at the same time accommodating the learning needs of many children.  The physical obstacles include transportation of children while observing social distancing and variations in hybrid models of in-school and virtual learning.          

Many young children and students with disabilities may not be willing to tolerate masks, particularly when riding for long periods of time on a bus or when attempting to communicate if dependent on sign language or communication supports.  Variability in routines will challenge children if the schedules are intermittent or are unexpectedly changed due to recurrent school closures for student or teacher illness.     

Some children with IFSPs and IEPs that have not been implemented during the quarantine period may be eligible for extended school year, as well as compensatory services.  Team meetings, with parent participation, will evaluate the current levels of student functioning within the curriculum and determine any revisions that will assist the child to be successful. Additional educational and therapeutic services may be necessary to support the child with regressions during distance learning.

Carol Ann Heath, Ed.D. Children with Disabilities, COVID, Special Education, Uncategorized

The Unexpected Benefits of Remote Learning for Neurodivergent Students | EdSurge News

Learning disruptions have been an unfortunate but all-too-frequent sight during the pandemic. But not every student felt those effects evenly as …
— Read on www.edsurge.com/news/2021-08-04-the-unexpected-benefits-of-remote-learning-for-neurodivergent-students

This story reminds us of the importance of individualized compensation for loss learning since March 20, 2020. Every IEP needs to be reviewed in a meeting with appropriate educators and professionals able to determine the services and frequency needed to provide an opportunity to regain prior skills and learning.

Carol Ann Heath, Ed.D. Children with Disabilities, COVID, Uncategorized

Severely Disabled Children and the Need for Home-Based Services

www.nytimes.com/2021/06/04/health/nursing-shortage-disabled-children.html

Another of the less apparent impact of COVID is the personal toll the lack of health professionals has meant for families with severely disabled children. It took years for the health system to understand the need for home-based nursing and the benefits for the family and the savings in health care dollars. Now….so few health professionals are available and families are struggling. No one can walk on their path, experiencing the pain and exhaustion of keeping a child alive, 24 /7.

Carol Ann Heath, Ed.D. Children with Disabilities, COVID, Special Education

Detroit’s Covid vaccination queue is one of first to include people with ADHD, other disabilities

Detroit is now giving Covid-19 vaccinations to people with ADHD, autism, vision or hearing impairments, and other intellectual and developmental disabilities.
— Read on www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/detroit-s-covid-vaccination-queue-one-first-include-people-adhd-n1258399

An important decision to improve access for those individuals having problems with mask wearing and social distancing.

Carol Ann Heath, Ed.D. Children with Disabilities, COVID, Special Education

Are You a Parent of a Student with Disabilities?

Students with educational disabilities have an IEP which details the special education services to be provided to your child. No children with IEPs have has these services provided in accordance with their IEPs since the closures of schools nationwide in March 2020. Most of America assumed, based on confusing advice from our leadership and health officials, that schools would open for in-person learning, waving farewell to the ill-conceived notion of virtual learning for students with IEPs.

Many of these children may be non-verbal, have physical disabilities, or attention deficits. Many parents work. In order to access an appropriate education, often speech and language therapy, physical therapy, and occupational therapy are required.

What is a family to do? How will these children with significant learning challenges be able to access the appropriate curriculum? Regression in learning is taking place for regular and special education students when only able to access their learning virtually.

To counteract this loss of access, some school systems are transporting students with disabilities to schools on certain days, in combination with virtual learning. Since many of these students have health conditions placing them at risk if exposed to COVID, returning to a physical classroom, mainstreamed with their appropriate grade and age peers, is too dangerous.

In-home services by teachers and other appropriately trained therapists should begin as soon as these personnel can be identified. School systems are struggling to engage personnel, provide safe transportation, physically distanced classrooms, and assess how to compensate students for their interruption of services.

While in the long-run parents will need to decide for their family what is best for their child, school systems need to provide the safe and effective environments for special education which can be safely selected by parents and children.

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