Special education students fall behind as Texas schools struggle with distance learning

Texas schools are still adapting to distance learning, which has students with disabilities falling behind as their parents have no choice but to become special education instructors. 

There are over half a million children with disabilities in Texas that receive special education in public schools, according to the Texas Tribune. Many of these programs create individual plans to educate the students, which can include extra time during tests or having a full-time aide or trained specialists to help them walk or speak, the Texas Tribune reported. 

But the shift to online school has been a process that both special education teachers and students with disabilities are slowly adapting to, according to the Texas Tribune. With shutdowns from COVID-19, special education students are receiving inadequate education that has them falling behind further, while causing their parents to handle many challenges at once, according to the Texas Tribune. 

Federal law requires school districts to provide equal education to special education students and the general population, according to the Texas Tribune. This has many special education teachers unsure of how to provide education for their students virtually, which causes more delays in giving them an education, according to the Texas Tribune. 

“You may not be able to provide related services like you have been able to in person. But that doesn’t mean you offer nothing,” Kristin McGuire, director of governmental relations at the Texas Council of Administrators of Special Education, told the Texas Tribune. “You document what you can do and what you’re not able to do, and we’ll figure it out later.”

Students who fall behind will likely be able to receive extra help the following school year, but until then parents will have to step up as a special education teacher for their children, according to the Texas Tribune. 

For Robyn Garza, this means educating her 14-year-old son with autism and who is immunocompromised, a condition that puts him at risk of disease or death from any visitors, the Texas Tribune reported. 

Logan Heller, Garza's son, was enrolled in the Cuero Independent School District (ISD) and has been participating in distance learning, which gives him meltdowns that result in him hitting himself, according to the Texas Tribune. 

But Garza told the school district in a virtual meeting that she couldn't homeschool Heller or her other children in general education. The school district offered to send her a speech device to help with Heller's speech therapy, but Garza refused, according to the Texas Tribune. 

Garza told the Texas Tribune its difficult enough with all five of her children home during the school shutdown and doesn't have to time to be a speech therapist, special education instructor, occupational therapist and physical education teacher for her son as well. 

“I made it clear to them that there’s no homeschooling happening in my house, even for my general education kiddos, because we’re all in survival mode,” Garza told the Texas Tribune. 

Many school districts are asking the Trump administration to waive the guidelines for distance learning, since many of these guidelines are falling behind when trying to meet the needs of special education students, the Texas Tribune reported. 

But Steven Aleman, a lawyer for Disability Rights Texas, said this could be awful for students with disabilities. 

“This disparity between this subpopulation of kids with disabilities versus any other grouping is wide. Any delays … are going to exacerbate that gap. That’s a child’s future that you’re diminishing,” Aleman told the Texas Tribune.

Instead, Aleman suggested that school districts find ways to train parents to be temporary special education teachers for their children and other alternatives for the therapies the children need, the Texas Tribune reported.