BY CHRIS FORTUNE
Tracy Boley can tell how much her son loves having Zoom calls with his elementary classmates.
Jaxton, who has Down syndrome, is nonverbal, but Boley said he gets excited when he gets to see his school friends.
“He does love the little Zoom calls because he loves to see people,” she said. “I don’t think we’ve been on one Zoom call where every single one of the kids hasn’t said hello to Jaxton, so that’s something that I know that he really likes, too, because that’s him being included with the group.”
Boley has been pleased with the progress Jaxton has made while learning at home, even though it has been challenging at times since he is routine oriented.
“We’ve gotten great ideas from his therapist and his special education teacher on things to do with him at home,” she said. “He actually has been progressing very nicely. I’ve actually been a little surprised with how nicely he’s been progressing.”
Kansas has more than 77,000 students with a disability, according to December 2019 data from the Kansas State Department of Education.
As these students must also adapt to school closures and lack of regular routines, the Kansas State Department of Education released a 19-page guide providing information about compliance with the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act and the Kansas
Special Education for Exceptional Children Act during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Schools using continuous learning plans must ensure these students have equal access to the same opportunities.
Daniel Wray, director of the East Central Kansas Cooperative in Education, said he reached out to Eudora parents in a mass email last month and said special education teachers have been in contact with parents.
“When the shutdown was first initiated, I sent a mass email to parents with my contact information to let them know if they had any concerns that I would be glad to help resolve them, but to date I have only received a handful of clarifying questions, which we have been able to address,” Wray said in an email. “So far, to my knowledge, the overwhelming majority of parents have been very receptive and pleased with the supports their children have been provided.”
Jacqui Folks, whose 19-year-old son Ethan has autism, thinks local educators are working hard to help students with special needs. Ethan participates in the Bridges cooperative program, which is an extension of high school for area special education students who are 18- to 21-years-old.
“I think, as a whole, the Eudora School District and the co-op are doing an amazing job,” she said. “The teachers are all going above and beyond.”
Jennifer Ramirez, one of Ethan’s teachers in the Bridges program, has been working to deliver life skills education through distance learning.
“I had no idea that I could find people on Facebook willing to put how-to videos online about drawing or creating paintings,” she said via email. “Never having any formal training in art or music, these have become my new favorites as a means of reaching out to students, getting them involved in a creative process, all the while learning to learn in a new format.”
Folks was worried about Ethan missing out on months of work skills. Learning work skills in school can help students with disabilities find jobs as they transition to adulthood.
“Ethan was working at Sonic for his job training and obviously he can’t do that now,” she said. “So what’s getting subbed for that is he just comes to the office with me a few days a week and works on filing and alphabetizing.”
While supporting Ethan and taking care of her family at home, Folks also does her best to help other families who have children with autism through the “Adventures with Big E” Facebook page. For example, she may post what Ethan is doing for the day and how he’s staying productive.
“I try to help as much as I can. We have a lot of followers on our Facebook page,” she said. “We kind of post what we’re going through when we post some at-home resource tips, and I get a lot of questions that way and I love helping other parents.”
Melissa Rock also was initially concerned about her daughter Helayna’s transition from going to school to learning at home. Helayna was diagnosed with 1P36 deletion syndrome, which has characteristics of autism.
“I will admit that I was very scared and apprehensive and intimidated by what this was going to look like for her,” she said. “She really looks forward to that one-on-one interaction with her teachers and peers.”
However, she was impressed by the approach of Eudora Elementary’s special education teachers.
Helayna participates in Zoom meetings with her kindergarten class where she gets to interact with other students. She also goes to a Zoom meeting with her life skills classroom during math and science classes for modified instruction with other students who have disabilities.
“They work on their math and they talk about what is going on a daily basis. They celebrate birthdays,” Rock said. “They are communicating like they normally would in the classroom, and they are doing lesson plans and she is still heavily engaged on the Zoom meetings just by seeing everybody.”
Rock said the past month has allowed for her to slow down and rethink Helayna’s schedule, which would normally consist of Rock driving her from school to Kansas City for therapy three days a week.
“I am seeing that there was so much redundancy between the therapy that she was doing in Kansas City and therapies that she’s doing at Eudora Elementary that I’m actually now re-evaluating whether we’re going to continue with a schedule like that when school reopens,” she said. “Eudora has really led the way here with her development.”
Reach reporter Chris Fortune at eudoratimes@gmail.com.
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