As a paraprofessional for over 3 years and going on my 5th year as a certified special education resource teacher, I’ve learned that no two learners are ever quite the same. Each student brings unique strengths, challenges, and ways of processing the world around them. Each student has their own learning path and rate.
That’s why differentiation is not just a teaching strategy–it’s the heart of student engagement and student success. When students feel that lessons are designed for them, they become more confident, motivated, and curious learners.
Research supports this, too. Studies show that differentiated instruction can significantly increase student engagement and achievement, especially when supported by digital tools that allow for flexibility and personalization. Thankfully, today’s technology makes it easier than ever to meet students where they are, while still aligning instruction with grade-level state curriculum.
Below are two tools that have transformed how I differentiate instruction in my classroom and help my students feel successful every day.
Personalized practice for mastery
One of my go-to resources for differentiation is IXL, a digital platform that provides personalized skill practice across multiple subject areas. I love that IXL adapts to each student’s learning level, it meets them where they are and builds from there.
For example, in math, my students might all be working on problem-solving, but IXL tailors the level of difficulty and types of problems based on their individual performance. Some may start with basic word problems, while others are ready for multi-step reasoning. The immediate feedback helps students self-correct and celebrate their progress in real time.
IXL also helps me as a teacher. The diagnostic tools identify skill gaps and strengths, giving me insight into how to group students for small-group instruction or how to adjust future lessons. It’s a win-win: Students feel empowered to grow, and I have data-driven insights that make planning more intentional.
Engaging Resources for All Learners
Another tool I rely on daily is Discovery Education Experience. This classroom companion is packed with interactive lessons, quizzes, videos, virtual field trips, activities, and so much more that make learning come alive for my students.
I use Discovery Education Experience to differentiate my instruction based on the TEKS (Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills) standards we’re required to teach, but with flexibility to meet each student’s needs. I can easily find numerous resources that support both teacher planning and student learning, all from one spot. For example, when teaching a reading comprehension skill, I can assign a short video for visual learners, a guided reading passage for independent practice, and an interactive quiz for students who thrive on technology.
The best part? It allows me to blend digital and print options. Some students work best completing a printed activity, while others enjoy interactive online lessons. That flexibility means every student has an entry point into the learning experience, regardless of ability level.
Insider tips for differentiating with technology
Over the years, I’ve learned that differentiation doesn’t have to be complicated–it just needs to be intentional. Here are a few tips that help make it manageable and meaningful:
Start small: Pick one lesson or one tool to differentiate and build from there.
Use data as your guide: Platforms like IXL and Discovery Education Experience make it easy to see where students need support or enrichment.
Offer choice: Let students decide how they show what they’ve learned–through writing, drawing, creating a slide, or recording a short video.
Blend print and digital: Not every student thrives on a screen; mixing modalities keeps engagement high.
Incorporate positive reinforcement: Celebrate progress often, even in small steps. Stickers, praise, raffles, and/or printable certificates can motivate students to keep working toward their goals. Recognizing effort builds confidence and encourages persistence, especially for students who may struggle emotionally and academically. I also have students track their progress in their interactive journals to motivate and celebrate their successes. A progress tracker holds the students accountable and continues to engage them to work towards their academic goals.
Differentiation is all about giving every student what they need to succeed. Teachers can create classrooms that are not only more inclusive but also more engaging and empowering.
Each day, I’m reminded that when we meet students at their level and celebrate their progress, we help them discover their own love for learning. That’s what makes teaching so rewarding, and technology can be one of our best partners in making it happen.
Emily Skinner, Cypress Fairbanks Independent School District
Emily Skinner is a Special Education Teacher at Warner Elementary School of Cypress Fairbanks Independent School District in Texas. Emily has served as a paraprofessional for over 3 years and is going on her 5th year as a certified special education resource teacher. Outside of teaching, Emily enjoys spending time outdoors, crafting, and upcycling items.
Latest posts by eSchool Media Contributors (see all)
Even before I turned the key, I could feel my stomach knotting. The van sat there like a tomb in the hot Los Angeles morning sun — scarred, waiting. I’d been dreading this moment since my alarm buzzed at 6 a.m.
The van itself had seen better decades. Worn down, reeking of stale urine, sweat and something indefinable — maybe years of accumulated desperation. Torn seats, walls decorated with graffiti and frustration. Someone had carved “FUCK THIS PLACE” into the plastic behind my seat. Every morning, I stared at those words, wondering if today I’d finally agree.
I set off on my route: 10 students, mostly boys aged 10 to 18. For “safety,” I had a behaviorist riding along — in case someone decided to jump from a moving vehicle. I’d seen this wasn’t a one-off — it had happened before.
The aide climbing into the passenger seat was already scrolling his phone, earbuds in, checked out before we’d left the lot.
“No phones during transport,” I said, keeping my voice level. “We need all eyes on the kids.”
He glanced up with barely concealed irritation. “Yeah, OK.” Back to scrolling.
I was still finishing my special-education credential, working on a preliminary permit, when I took this job at a nonpublic school. These weren’t your neighborhood kids — they were the students their home districts had sent away after exhausting every other option. Ten boys, mostly from group homes and foster care, rejected by traditional schools and placed here. And I was supposed to transport them through LA traffic before I’d even completed my training.
My graduate program — the one I’d attended nights while my son did homework beside me — had covered theories and strategies, but nothing about surviving chaos in a rolling metal box. Yet here I was, keys in hand, essentially operating without a manual.
I pressed the gas. The van lurched forward.
Then Diego started pounding.
Not tapping the window. Not even knocking. Full-force hammering with both fists that made the entire van shudder. The sound crashed through my skull like a sledgehammer.
“I want out! Let me out! I WANT OUT!”
“Diego, stop!” My voice cracked.
Diego switched to his shoe, the sole smacking glass with sickening thuds. “LET ME OUT OF THIS FUCKING VAN!”
“Do something!” I pleaded with the behaviorist. “The window’s going to shatter!”
“Safety glass. It’ll hold.”
Safety glass. I wasn’t convinced. Any second: explosion, splinters everywhere, kids screaming and bleeding while I fought to control a van full of passengers barreling down a busy street.
I can’t do this. I’m going to die in this van. We’re all going to die.
Tuesday: Marcus lunged for the emergency exit while we rolled through traffic. The red handle jerked upward in my rearview mirror, and ice flooded my veins.
“I’m walking home!” He yanked harder.
I pictured his small body on asphalt, cars speeding past. Swerving onto the shoulder, horns screaming behind us, my hands shaking so violently I could barely steer.
“Marcus, step back!” The behaviorist called from his seat but didn’t budge.
“Help him!” My voice shattered. “PLEASE!”
“I can’t use physical restraint without authorization.”
“He could be killed!”
Finally, reluctantly, the aide unbuckled and shuffled toward the back. Marcus still gripped the handle, face twisted with desperation.
“I wanna walk! Twenty miles, I don’t care! I hate this van! I hate everything!”
At that moment, I recognized something in his face — a kid on the absolute edge, ready to throw himself into traffic rather than stay trapped.
“I know you hate it,” I said quietly. “I hate it, too. But we’re getting through this together.”
Something in my tone reached him. His grip loosened.
What sustained me through the darkest moments was stubborn Midwest grit and desperate financial need. As a single mom barely holding onto the home I’d fought to buy — money tight, fridge often empty — walking away wasn’t an option.
My father’s lessons echoed: Get a job, rely on yourself, be tough — the world doesn’t give handouts. Those deeply embedded threads of self-reliance became my lifeline. When everything inside screamed to quit, those early lessons whispered to stay.
Most mornings required a brutal pep talk just to leave the house: You have no choice. Make this work.
Friday night, I called my sister, who taught at a private school in the Midwest.
“I can’t do this anymore,” I whispered from my dark kitchen. “I’m losing my mind.”
“I can’t. I need this job.”
“You need to stay alive more than you need this job.”
But it wasn’t simple. Deep down, I started to sense that these students and I were kindred spirits — both hanging on desperately, trying to find our way. Behaviorists saw them as problems to manage. The district saw numbers on spreadsheets. I saw children being failed by every system meant to protect them.
No one warns you that most new special-education teachers don’t survive five years. Maybe that statistic doesn’t belong on glossy program brochures with hefty tuition tags. The chasm between training and reality wasn’t just frustrating — it was dangerous, leaving me scrambling daily to construct systems I’d never learned, improvising under pressure, praying nothing would implode.
So I stayed. Where was I gonna go? I’d just spent thousands on this new career. Every morning, I climbed into that battered van — my rolling coffin — turned the key and prayed we’d all reach school alive.
By the time I pulled up to our destination each morning, my hands shook against the steering wheel. The school sat like a fortress at the top of weathered steps: a pink stucco annex attached to a church. Inside that makeshift building were five cramped classrooms lined with dim corridors. Scarred desks carved with years of graffiti.
And something no one had mentioned during interviews: containment rooms tucked behind classroom closets — bare spaces barely larger than closets themselves, single flickering bulbs, burly behaviorists stationed outside while students inside screamed, kicked and banged.
The sounds were maddening: raw desperation mixed with fear. The smell — sharp, unmistakable urine when a child finally lost control.
I realized quickly this wasn’t about education. It was about containment and management.
The van had just been the beginning.
I stayed 20 years. I worked my way from that battered van to SELPA (Special Education Local Plan Area) director, overseeing services for thousands of students. I attended monthly meetings with 60-plus California SELPA directors — every district in the state represented in one room.
What I witnessed wasn’t isolated dysfunction. It was a playbook. Districts manufacturing budget crises while paying consultants $285 per hour. Students’ success was used as justification to cut their services. Compliance violations were so routine they only mattered when someone documented them. And administrators who spoke up? We got “restructured.”
I documented everything. Published editorials. Presented evidence to board members. When I refused to stay silent, the retaliation took a toll on my health that I’m still recovering from.
But I’m still here. And I won’t stop writing about what I saw behind that classroom door — what special-education teachers really do.
Sally Iverson served over 20 years in California’s special-education system, from classroom teacher to SELPA director. She is the author of ”THE UNLIKELY TEACHER: Down the Rabbit Hole of Special Education” (She Writes Press, April 2027). This essay is adapted from that book.
The 10-year-old was dragged down a school hallway by two school staffers. A camera captured him being forced into a small, empty room with a single paper-covered window.
The staffers shut the door in his face. Alone, the boy curled into a ball on the floor. When school employees returned more than 10 minutes later, blood from his face smeared the floor.
Maryland state lawmakers were shown this video in 2017 by Leslie Seid Margolis, a lawyer with the advocacy group Disability Rights Maryland. She’d spent 15 years advocating for a ban on the practice known as seclusion, in which children, typically those with disabilities, are involuntarily isolated and confined, often after emotional outbursts.
Even after seeing the video, no legislators were willing to go as far as a ban. Nor were they when Margolis tried again a few years later.
In 2021, however, the federal Justice Department concluded an investigation into a Maryland school district and found more than 7,000 cases of unnecessary restraint and seclusion in a two-and-a-half-year period.
Four months later, Maryland lawmakers passed a bill prohibiting seclusion in the state’s public schools, with nearly unanimous support.
“I can’t really overstate the impact that Justice can have,” said Margolis. “They have this authority that is really helpful to those of us who are on the ground doing this work.”
Related: Become a lifelong learner. Subscribe to our free weekly newsletter featuring the most important stories in education.
Within the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division is a small office devoted to educational issues, including seclusion, as well as desegregation and racial harassment. The division intentionally chooses cases with potential for high impact and actively monitors places it has investigated to ensure they’re following through with changes. When the Educational Opportunities Section acts, educators and policymakers take notice.
Now, however, the Trump administration is wielding the power of the Justice Department in new and, some say, extreme ways. Hundreds of career staffers, including most of those who worked on education cases, have resigned. The Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights also has been decimated, largely through layoffs. The two offices traditionally have worked closely together to enforce civil rights protections for students. The result is a potentially lasting shift in how the nation’s top law enforcement agency handles issues that affect public school students, including millions who have disabilities.
“There are those who would say that this is an aberration, and that when it’s over, things will go back to the way they were,” said Frederick Lawrence, a lecturer at Georgetown Law and former assistant U.S. attorney under President Ronald Reagan. “My experience is that the river only flows in one direction, and things never go back to the way they were.”
The Justice Department’s lawyers historically have worked on a few dozen education cases at once, concentrating on combating sexual harassment, racial discrimination against Black and Latino students, restraint and seclusion, and failure to provide adequate services to English learners.
As the Educational Opportunity Section’s mission shifted, it shrunk in size. In January, before President Donald Trump took office, about 40 lawyers tackled education issues. In the spring, the U.S. Senate confirmed Harmeet Dhillon as leader of the Civil Rights Division. Dhillon founded the conservative Center for American Liberty, which describes itself as “defending civil liberties of Americans left behind by civil rights legacy organizations.”
U.S. Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon speaks during a September news conference at the Justice Department in Washington, D.C. Credit: Andrew Harnik/Getty Images
By June, no more than five of the 40 lawyers were left, according to former employees. Some new staff have been hired or reassigned to the section, but the head count remains well below usual. It’s far from enough to sustain the typical workload, said Shaheena Simons, who was chief of the Educational Opportunities Section until she resigned in April. “There’s just no way the division can function with that level of staffing. It’s just impossible,” said Simons, who took over the section in 2016. “The investigations aren’t going to happen. Remedies aren’t going to be sought.”
Department officials responded to a list of questions from The Hechinger Report about changes to their handling of student civil rights protection with “no comment.”
The Department of Justice, including its educational work, has always been somewhat subject to White House interests, said Neal McCluskey, director of the libertarian Cato Institute’s Center for Educational Freedom. During President Joe Biden’s term, for example, the agency pursued allegations of discrimination against transgender students, reflecting administration priorities.
McCluskey added, though, that the Trump administration is more aggressive in how it is pursuing its goals and is bypassing typical protocols, noting that in many cases “it’s like they’ve already decided the outcome.”
An investigation into allegations of antisemitism at the University of California, Los Angeles, for instance, took just 81 days before the department concluded the school had violated federal law. DOJ investigations typically have taken years, not months, to complete.
Lawrence, who also serves as president of the Phi Beta Kappa honor society, said he could not speak to specific investigations, but the UCLA timeline “does suggest a rather accelerated process.”
A federal judge recently ruled that the administration could not use the findings from its UCLA investigation as a reason to fine the university $1.2 billion, which if paid would have unlocked frozen federal research funding. She wrote that the administration was using a playbook “of initiating civil rights investigations of preeminent universities to justify cutting off federal funding.”
As new investigations are opened, older ones remain unresolved, including one of practices in Colorado’s Douglas County Public Schools.
In 2022, Disability Law Colorado submitted a complaint to the Justice Department about the district’s use of seclusion, as well as restraint, where school employees physically restrict a student’s movement.
The following year, three other families sued the school system, alleging racial discrimination against their children. The students were repeatedly called monkeys and the N-word, threatened with lynchings and “made by teachers to argue the benefits of Jim Crow laws,” according to the complaint.
The Department of Justice decided to investigate both issues. Four staffers were assigned to the restraint and seclusion investigation, said Emily Harvey, co-legal director at Disability Law Colorado.
As part of the inquiry, Justice officials visited the district twice. The second time was during the final week of Biden’s presidency.
After that visit, Douglas County didn’t hear anything about the investigation from the Trump administration until a mid-May email. “Good morning,” it read. “We are having some staffing changes.”
The email, which The Hechinger Report obtained through a public records request, said that going forward, the district could contact two staffers on the restraint and seclusion case. The racial harassment case would be reduced to only one employee until another Justice staffer returned from leave in the fall.
One Douglas County parent, who asked her name be withheld because she is afraid of retaliation from the district, said that although she knew the investigation could take a couple of years, the longer it goes without a resolution, the more children could be harmed.
“The justice system is just moving so incredibly slow,” she said.
The parent said she knows of dozens of families who have dealt with restraint and seclusion issues in the district. Her own son, she said, was secluded in kindergarten. “He was scared of the person who put him in there. He kept saying, ‘I can’t go back,’” she said. “I never envisioned, until my son was secluded, a world where the school would not care about my child.”
When Harvey, of Disability Law Colorado, first contacted the Department of Justice, she hoped for statewide reform. She wanted to see a ban on seclusion, like Margolis had helped secure in Maryland, and for the state to commit to more accurate tracking of use of restraints. The way Colorado law is written, restraints must be recorded only if they last more than a minute. Douglas County, the second largest in the state with 62,000 students, reported 582 restraints to the Colorado Department of Education in the 2023-24 school year. The number of shorter-term restraints, however, is unknown.
“We believe this is an arbitrary distinction,” Harvey said. “My hope was that the Department of Justice would potentially weigh in on that as a violation” of the Americans with Disabilities Act.
Douglas County school administrators said in a statement to The Hechinger Report that their “focus is on taking care of each and every one of our students” and that they take all concerns seriously.
They have worked with the federal government to set up school visits and interviews during their visits, according to emails from January.
Subsequent emails between district and federal officials describe a phone call over the summer and requests for additional documents. Another DOJ employee was included in the messages.
There are signs that the Justice Department is not abandoning restraint and seclusion work, said Guy Stephens, founder of the national advocacy group Alliance Against Seclusion and Restraint. A webpage about previous cases that was removed after Trump took office has been restored, and in July, the DOJ announced a settlement with a Michigan district over these issues.
Yet Stephens has concerns. “There are still people very, very dedicated to this work and the mission of this work, but it’s very hard to work in a system that is shifting and reprioritizing,” he said.
Former DOJ employees worry that it might not only be future investigations that are markedly different. The department has historically monitored places where it has reached agreements that demand corrective action, rewriting them if districts or colleges fail to live up to their promises. It also provides support to achieve the new goals. Now, provisions written into past resolutions might be at odds with Trump administration actions, and oversight of some settlements is ending early.
Take, for instance, a DOJ investigation into Vermont’s Elmore-Morristown Unified Union School District over allegations of race-based harassment against Black students. Investigators found that the district didn’t have a way to handle harassment or discrimination not targeted at a specific person, according to David Bickford, the school board chairman.
As part of a settlement agreement signed two weeks before Trump was inaugurated, the district agreed to provide staff training on implicit bias. A Trump executive order, however, calls for eliminating federal funding for anyone that discusses such a concept in schools.
Bickford said that the district has complied with everything the settlement called for, including professional development.
The investigation itself, he said, was extremely thorough, and required handing over nearly a thousand pages of documentation. Since then, the district has sent regular reports to the department but has not received any lengthy response or input, Bickford said. He also noted there had been staffing changes in who the district reports to.
Justice officials decided to end supervision of a 2023 settlement early following a racial harassment investigation in another Vermont district, Twin Valley. The original plan was to monitor the district for three years. In October 2024, investigators visited the district to check in. In a letter two months later, officials noted that while Twin Valley had made significant progress, they still had several areas of concern, including how the district investigated complaints, as well as “persistent biased language and behavior on the basis of multiple protected classifications; a pervasive culture of sexism; and lack of consistent and effective adult response to biased language and behavior.”
Even so, the department was pleased overall with its visit, said Bill Bazyk, superintendent of Windham Southwest Supervisory Union, which includes Twin Valley. “But things certainly sped up after the election,” said Bazyk, who started his job after the case had been settled.
Throughout the spring, Bayzk and his staff checked in with the department, and in May the district was told oversight of the settlement would end a year early, as Twin Valley had fully complied with the terms.
“We were doing all the right things,” Bayzk said, noting that the district’s work on diversity and equity is ongoing. “We took the settlement very seriously.”
The investigation began in 2021 after the American Civil Liberties Union of Vermont filed a complaint. Legal Director Lia Ernst said it is possible that Twin Valley resolved those lingering problems between December and May, stressing that it’s impossible to know from the outside. But still, she said, there is a larger pattern of ambivalence to the Justice Department’s approach to civil rights complaints.
“It is disappointing to see that one ending early,” she said. “It is my hope that it is ending early because Twin Valley has made so much progress, but it is my fear that it is ending early because DOJ just doesn’t care.”
Since you made it to the bottom of this article, we have a small favor to ask.
We’re in the midst of our end-of-year campaign, our most important fundraising effort of the year. Thanks to NewsMatch, every dollar you give will be doubled through December 31.
If you believe stories like the one you just finished matter, please consider pitching in what you can. This effort helps ensure our reporting and resources stay free and accessible to everyone—teachers, parents, policymakers—invested in the future of education.
Thank you. Liz Willen Editor in chief
Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license.
America’s special education system is facing a slow-motion collapse. Nearly 8 million students now receive services under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), but the number of qualified teachers and related service providers continues to shrink. Districts from California to Maine report the same story: unfilled positions, overworked staff, and students missing the services they’re legally entitled to receive.
“The promise of IDEA means little if there’s no one left to deliver it.”
The data tell a clear story. Since 2013, the number of children ages 3–21 served under IDEA has grown from 6.4 million to roughly 7.5 million. Yet the teacher pipeline has moved in the opposite direction. According to Title II reports, teacher-preparation enrollments dropped 6 percent over the last decade and program completions plunged 27 percent. At the same time, nearly half of special educators leave the field within their first five years.
By 2023, 45 percent of public schools were operating without a full teaching staff. Vacancies were most acute in special education. Attrition, burnout, and early retirements outpace new entrants by a wide margin.
Why the traditional model no longer works
For decades, schools and staffing firms have fought over the same dwindling pool of licensed providers. Recruiting cycles stretch for months, while students wait for evaluations, therapies, or IEP services.
Traditional staffing firms focus on long-term contracts lasting six months or more, which makes sense for stability, but ignores an enormous, untapped workforce: thousands of credentialed professionals who could contribute a few extra hours each weekif the system made it easy.
Meanwhile, the process of credentialing, vetting, and matching candidates remains slow and manual, reliant on spreadsheets, email, and recruiters juggling dozens of openings. The result is predictable: delayed assessments, compliance risk, and burned-out staff covering for unfilled roles.
“Districts and recruiters compete for the same people, when they could be expanding the pool instead.”
The hidden workforce hiding in plain sight
Across the country, tens of thousands of licensed professionals–speech-language pathologists, occupational therapists, school psychologists, special educators–are under-employed. Many have stepped back from full-time work to care for families or pursue private practice. Others left the classroom but still want to contribute.
Imagine if districts could tap those “extra hours”through a vetted, AI-powered marketplace. A system that matched real-time school requests with qualified providers in their state. A model like this wouldn’t replace full-time roles; it would expand capacity, reduce burnout, and bring talent back into the system.
This isn’t theoretical. The same “on-demand” concept has already modernized industries from medicine to media. Education is long overdue for the same reinvention.
What modernization looks like
AI-driven matching: Districts post specific service needs (evaluations, IEP meetings, therapy hours). Licensed providers choose opportunities that fit their schedule.
Verified credentials and provider profiles: Platforms integrate state licensure databases and background checks to ensure compliance and provide profiles with all candidate information including on-demand, video interviews so schools can make informed hiring decisions immediately.
Smart staffing metrics: Schools track fill-rates, provider utilization, and service delays in real time.
Integrated workflows: The system plugs into existing special education management tools. No new learning curve for administrators.
A moment of urgency
The shortage isn’t just inconvenient; it’s systemic. Each unfilled position represents students who lose therapy hours, districts risking due-process complaints, and educators pushed closer to burnout.
With IDEA students now representing nearly 15 percent of all public school enrollment, the nation can’t afford to let a twentieth-century staffing model dictate twenty-first-century outcomes.
We have the technology. We have the workforce. What we need is the will to connect them.
“Modernizing special education staffing isn’t innovation for innovation’s sake, it’s survival.”
Kevin Eberly, FillerB
Kevin Eberly is the co-founder of FillerB, a platform modernizing special education staffing by connecting schools with licensed providers. He has over two decades of experience in education and technology leadership.
Latest posts by eSchool Media Contributors (see all)
When I first started experimenting with AI in my classroom, I saw the same thing repeatedly from students. They treated it like Google. Ask a question, get an answer, move on. It didn’t take long to realize that if my students only engage with AI this way, they miss the bigger opportunity to use AI as a partner in thinking. AI isn’t a magic answer machine. It’s a tool for creativity and problem-solving. The challenge for us as educators is to rethink how we prepare students for the world they’re entering and to use AI with curiosity and fidelity.
Moving from curiosity to fluency
In my district, I wear two hats: history teacher and instructional coach. That combination gives me the space to test ideas in the classroom and support colleagues as they try new tools. What I’ve learned is that AI fluency requires far more than knowing how to log into a platform. Students need to learn how to question outputs, verify information and use results as a springboard for deeper inquiry.
I often remind them, “You never trust your source. You always verify and compare.” If students accept every AI response at face value, they’re not building the critical habits they’ll need in college or in the workforce.
To make this concrete, I teach my students the RISEN framework: Role, Instructions, Steps, Examples, Narrowing. It helps them craft better prompts and think about the kind of response they want. Instead of typing “explain photosynthesis,” they might ask, “Act as a biologist explaining photosynthesis to a tenth grader. Use three steps with an analogy, then provide a short quiz at the end.” Suddenly, the interaction becomes purposeful, structured and reflective of real learning.
AI as a catalyst for equity and personalization
Growing up, I was lucky. My mom was college educated and sat with me to go over almost every paper I wrote. She gave me feedback that helped to sharpen my writing and build my confidence. Many of my students don’t have that luxury. For these learners, AI can be the academic coach they might not otherwise have.
That doesn’t mean AI replaces human connection. Nothing can. But it can provide feedback, ask guiding questions, and provide examples that give students a sounding board and thought partner. It’s one more way to move closer to providing personalized support for learners based on need.
Of course, equity cuts both ways. If only some students have access to AI or if we use it without considering its bias, we risk widening the very gaps we hope to close. That’s why it’s our job as educators to model ethical and critical use, not just the mechanics.
Shifting how we assess learning
One of the biggest shifts I’ve made is rethinking how I assess students. If I only grade the final product, I’m essentially inviting them to use AI as a shortcut. Instead, I focus on the process: How did they engage with the tool? How did they verify and cross-reference results? How did they revise their work based on what they learned? What framework guided their inquiry? In this way, AI becomes part of their learning journey rather than just an endpoint.
I’ve asked students to run the same question through multiple AI platforms and then compare the outputs. What were the differences? Which response feels most accurate or useful? What assumptions might be at play? These conversations push students to defend their thinking and use AI critically, not passively.
Navigating privacy and policy
Another responsibility we carry as educators is protecting our students. Data privacy is a serious concern. In my school, we use a “walled garden” version of AI so that student data doesn’t get used for training. Even with those safeguards in place, I remind colleagues never to enter identifiable student information into a tool.
Policies will continue to evolve, but for day-to-day activities and planning, teachers need to model caution and responsibility. Students are taking our lead.
Professional growth for a changing profession
The truth of the matter is most of us have not been professionally trained to do this. My teacher preparation program certainly did not include modules on prompt engineering or data ethics. That means professional development in this space is a must.
I’ve grown the most in my AI fluency by working alongside other educators who are experimenting, sharing stories, and comparing notes. AI is moving fast. No one has all the answers. But we can build confidence together by trying, reflecting, and adjusting through shared experience and lessons learned. That’s exactly what we’re doing in the Lead for Learners network. It’s a space where educators from across the country connect, learn and support one another in navigating change.
For educators who feel hesitant, I’d say this: You don’t need to be an expert to start. Pick one tool, test it in one lesson, and talk openly with your students about what you’re learning. They’ll respect your honesty and join you in the process.
Preparing students for what’s next
AI is not going away. Whether we’re ready or not, it’s going to shape how our students live and work. That gives us a responsibility not just to keep pace with technology but to prepare young people for what’s ahead. The latest futures forecast reminds us that imagining possibilities is just as important as responding to immediate shifts.
We need to understand both how AI is already reshaping education delivery and how new waves of change will remain on the horizon as tools grow more sophisticated and widespread.
I want my students to leave my classroom with the ability to question, create, and collaborate using AI. I want them to see it not as a shortcut but as a tool for thinking more deeply and expressing themselves more fully. And I want them to watch me modeling those same habits: curiosity, caution, creativity, and ethical decision-making. Because if we don’t show them what responsible use looks like, who will?
The future of education won’t be defined by whether we allow AI into our classrooms. It will be defined by how we teach with it, how we teach about it, and how we prepare our students to thrive in a world where it’s everywhere.
Ian McDougall, Yuma Union High School District
Ian McDougall is a history teacher and edtech coach at Yuma Union High School District in Arizona. He also facilitates the Lead for Learners Community, an online hub for learner-centered educators nationwide. With extensive experience in K–12 education and technology integration, Ian supports schools in adopting innovative practices through professional development and instructional coaching. He holds a master’s degree in United States history from Adams State University, further strengthening his expertise as both a teacher and coach.
Latest posts by eSchool Media Contributors (see all)
Two months after Education Secretary Linda McMahon was confirmed, she and a small team from the department met with leadership from the National Center for Learning Disabilities, an advocacy group that works on behalf of millions of students with dyslexia and other disorders.
Jacqueline Rodriguez, NCLD’s chief executive officer, recalled pressing McMahon on a question raised during her confirmation hearing: Was the Trump administration planning to move control and oversight of special education law from the Education Department to Health and Human Services?
Rodriguez was alarmed at the prospect of uprooting the 50-year-old Individuals with Disabilities in Education Act (IDEA), which spells out the responsibility of schools to provide a “free, appropriate public education” to students with disabilities. Eliminating the Education Department entirely is a primary objective of Project 2025, the conservative blueprint that has guided much of the administration’s education policy. After the department is gone, Project 2025 said oversight of special education should move to HHS, which manages some programs that help adults with disabilities.
But the sprawling department that oversees public health has no expertise in the complex education law, Rodriguez told McMahon.
“Someone might be able to push the button to disseminate funding, but they wouldn’t be able to answer a question from a parent or a school district,” she said in an interview later.
For her part, McMahon had wavered during her confirmation hearing on the subject. “I’m not sure that it’s not better served in HHS, but I don’t know,” she told Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., who shared concerns from parents worried about who would enforce the law’s provisions.
But nine days into a government shutdown that has furloughed most federal government workers, the Trump administration announced that it was planning a drastic “reduction in force” that would lay off more than 450 people, including almost everyone who works in the Office of Special Education Programs. Rodriguez believes the layoffs are a way that the administration plans to force the special education law to be managed by some other federal office.
Related: Become a lifelong learner. Subscribe to our freeweekly newsletter featuring the most important stories in education.
The Education Department press office did not respond to a question about the administration’s plans for special education oversight. Instead, the press office pointed to a social media post from McMahon on Oct. 15. The fact that schools are “operating as normal” during the government shutdown, McMahon wrote on X, “confirms what the President has said: the federal Department of Education is unnecessary.”’
Yet in that May meeting, Rodriguez said she was told that HHS might not be the right place for IDEA, she recalled. While the new department leadership made no promises, they assured her that any move of the law’s oversight would have to be done with congressional approval, Rodriguez said she was told.
The move to gut the office overseeing special education law was shocking to families and those who work with students with disabilities. About 7.5 million children ages 3 to 21 are served under IDEA, and the office had already lost staffers after the Trump administration dismissed nearly half the Education Department’s staff in March, bringing the agency’s total workforce to around 2,200 people.
For Rodriguez, whose organization supports students with learning disabilities such as dyslexia, McMahon’s private assurances was the administration “just outright lying to the public about their intentions.”
“The audacity of this administration to communicate in her confirmation, in her recent testimony to Congress and to a disability rights leader to her face, ‘Don’t worry, we will support kids with disabilities,’” Rodriguez said. “And then to not just turn a 180-degree on that, but to decimate the ability to enforce the law that supports our kids.”
She added: “It could not just be contradictory. It feels like a bait and switch.”
Five days after the firings were announced, a U.S. district judge temporarily blocked the administration’s actions, setting up a legal showdown that is likely to end up before the Supreme Court. The high court has sided with the president on most of his efforts to drastically reshape the federal workforce. And President Donald Trump said at a Tuesday press briefing that more cuts to “Democrat programs” are coming.
“They’re never going to come back in many cases,” he added.
In her post on X, McMahon also said that “no education funding is impacted by the RIF, including funding for special education,” referring to the layoffs.
But special education is more than just money, said Danielle Kovach, a special education teacher in Hopatcong, N.J. Kovach is also a former president of the Council for Exceptional Children, a national organization for special educators.
“I equate it to, what would happen if we dismantled a control tower at a busy airport?” Kovach said. “It doesn’t fly the plane. It doesn’t tell people where to go. But it ensures that everyone flies smoothly.”
Katy Neas, a deputy assistant secretary in the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services during the Biden administration, said that most people involved in the education system want to do right by children.
“You can’t do right if you don’t know what the answer is,” said Neas, who is now the chief executive officer of The Arc of the United States, which advocates for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. “You can’t get there if you don’t know how to get your questions answered.”
Families also rely on IDEA’s mandate that each child with a disability receives a free, appropriate public education — and the protections that they can receive if a school or district does not live up to that requirement.
Maribel Gardea, a parent in San Antonio, said she fought with her son’s school district for years over accommodations for his disability. Her son Voozeki, 14, has cerebral palsy and is nonverbal. He uses an eye-gaze device that allows him to communicate when he looks at different symbols on a portable screen. The district resisted getting the device for him to use at school until, Gardea said, she reminded them of IDEA’s requirements.
Gardea, the co-founder of MindShiftED, an organization that helps parents become better advocates for their children with disabilities, said the upheaval at the Education Department has her wondering what kind of advice she can give families now.
For example, an upcoming group session will teach parents how to file official grievances to the federal government if they have disputes with their child’s school or district about services. Now, she has to add in an explanation of what the deep federal cuts will mean for parents.
Voozeki Gardea, who attends school in the San Antonio area, uses an eye-gaze communication device with the assistance of school paraprofessional Vanessa Martinez. The device verbalizes words and phrases when Voozeki looks at different symbols. Credit: Courtesy Maribel Gardea
“I have to tell you how to do a grievance,” she said she plans to tell parents. “But I have to tell you no one will answer.”
Maybe grassroots organizations may find themselves trying to track parent complaints on their own, she said, but the prospect is exhausting. “It’s a really gross feeling to know that no one has my back.”
In addition to the office that oversees special education law, the Rehabilitation Services Administration, which is also housed at the Department of Education and supports employment and training of people with disabilities, was told most of its staff would be fired.
“Regardless of which office you’re worried about, this is all very intentional,” said Julie Christensen, the executive director of the Association of People Supporting Employment First, which advocates for the full inclusion of people with disabilities in the workforce. “There’s no one who can officially answer questions. It feels like that was kind of the intent, to just create a lot of confusion and chaos.”
Those staffers “are the voice within the federal government to make sure policies and funding are aligned to help people with disabilities get into work,” Christensen said. Firing them, she added, is counterintuitive to everything the administration says it cares about.
For now, advocates say they are bracing for a battle similar to those fought decades ago that led to the enactment of civil rights law protecting children and adults with disabilities. Before the law was passed, there was no federal guarantee that a student with a disability would be allowed to attend public school.
“We need to put together our collective voices. It was our collective voices that got us here,” Kovach said.
And, Rodriguez said, parents of children in special education need to be prepared to be their own watchdogs. “You have to become the compliance monitor.”
The Hechinger Report provides in-depth, fact-based, unbiased reporting on education that is free to all readers. But that doesn’t mean it’s free to produce. Our work keeps educators and the public informed about pressing issues at schools and on campuses throughout the country. We tell the whole story, even when the details are inconvenient. Help us keep doing that.
Every year, tens of thousands of infants are born prematurely, at a low birthweight, or with other conditions that would make them automatically eligible for therapeutic services that could help them thrive.
When everything goes smoothly, early intervention provides those services, required by federal law for children ages birth to 3. Funding sources for the program can vary, but it’s often paid for by a mix of federal, state, local, and private insurance dollars.
But far too few of the youngest children actually receive that help. (It’s an issue I wrote about earlier this year.) One particular gap is in services provided to infants from birth to 1. Only about 1.3 percent of babies that age receive early intervention services, compared to 7.5 percent of 2- to 3-year-olds, according to a new report from the think tank New America.
Kayla Khan, a long-time speech therapist, has experienced that gap herself.
When her infant daughter was released after a month and a half in neonatal intensive care, she asked the discharge team about early intervention services. Because of her background, she knew about the therapies.
At the time, the family lived in the Washington D.C. area, and no one at the hospital was helpful. “They said, ‘You don’t want that,’ or, ‘It’s not going to help you,’” Khan recalled.
After moving to Seattle a few months later, Khan finally connected with early intervention services that provided physical and feeding therapy to her daughter. She now helps lead a decade-old effort in Seattle to provide care and support specifically to families of “tiny babies” who are transitioning from the hospital to home.
The program relies on building trust and communication with hospital staff to ensure eligible babies get referred to early intervention and speeding up the evaluation timeline so babies get seen within three days of a referral — “really, really, really fast” for a system where the requirement for referral is 45 days, Khan said. Her program also connects families with therapists who are skilled and trained in the specific needs of newborns.
“We’re making this process that was designed for all children, birth to 3, work for the tiniest babies,” Khan said.
This kind of targeted attention for the youngest is desperately needed, according to the New America report and another that focused on Illinois, from early nonprofit advocacy group Start Early. (I recently completed a reporting fellowship with New America which supported some of my writing on early intervention, among other topics.)
Among the two reports’ recommendations:
Make the list of conditions that automatically qualify a baby for early intervention easy to understand and find. States have identified scores of different qualifying conditions that make a child more likely to develop a delay, including extreme prematurity, low birthweight, a parent with a substance use disorder, and child welfare involvement. But, as the New America report points out, finding a user-friendly list of the conditions can be a challenge. “The eligibility criteria and the way things work varies so much from one state to the next,” said report co-author Carrie Gillispie, the Early Development & Disability project director at New America.
The Start Early report noted that in a related study, two families were judged ineligible for early intervention despite their children having medical conditions that should have made them automatically eligible.
Consider co-locating early intervention staff in the NICU to make the transition as smooth as possible. Coordinators would be physically present in NICUs to build relationships, participate in medical rounds, and lead the process to enroll children in early intervention programs, the Start Early authors wrote. Both reports stress the importance of providing the family with a personal connection to early intervention before a baby gets discharged from the hospital.
Improve coordination and communication with the early intervention system, hospitals and pediatricians. Pediatricians are not always notified when doctors in the hospital refer a child to early intervention services. And well-child visits are often so short that physicians miss the full developmental picture. Too often, referrals come after a child is already starting to struggle, said Sarah Gilliland, a senior policy analyst in the New Practice Lab at New America, who co-wrote the report.
Bridge cultural and language barriers with families by hiring more multilingual hospital and early intervention staff. Cultural divides are pervasive throughout the early intervention system, where the overwhelming majority of the therapists and other providers in many communities are white, English-speaking women. But even simple forms often go untranslated: One survey found that nearly three-quarters of state early intervention referral forms are only available in English, the New America report noted. The report also stressed that families should be reassured that early intervention services are meant to be support, not surveillance. “Hesitant families might benefit from a connection with families within their own communities who can explain what to expect from early intervention,” the authors wrote.
Strengthen electronic referral systems and centralize enrollmentin early intervention programs. When I reported on the too-often broken path from the NICU to early intervention in Chicago, I heard stories of a system that relied heavily on faxing paper forms. NICU physicians often had no idea what happened with referrals they made. Indeed, surveys have found that only a fraction of early intervention coordinators have access to technology that links children’s electronic health records to the referral system.
Some states and communities are introducing technological advances which could be implemented more widely, the New America report noted. For instance, one state is trying to address the problem using “e-referrals,” which share an infant’s medical records directly with the early intervention system.
We want to hear from you
We want to help you make sense of the first year of the Trump administration and the effects on education. What have you experienced? What do you want to know more about? Tell us, and you will help inspire reporting by our journalists. Email editor@hechingerreport.org.
This story about preemies was produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for the Hechinger newsletter.
The Hechinger Report provides in-depth, fact-based, unbiased reporting on education that is free to all readers. But that doesn’t mean it’s free to produce. Our work keeps educators and the public informed about pressing issues at schools and on campuses throughout the country. We tell the whole story, even when the details are inconvenient. Help us keep doing that.
In New Jersey, fewer than half of 6- and 7-year-olds in special education spend the vast majority of their day with their classmates without disabilities. That might change, though, because a state special education advisory group has pledged to examine the issue.
Earlier this year, a Hechinger Report investigation revealed New Jersey is the worst in the nation when it comes to what’s known as inclusion — measured by how often students of all abilities are learning alongside one another in the classroom for at least 80 percent of the day. For young students, specifically, the rate is especially low.
In September, the council that advises New Jersey state education officials on special education issues announced plans to focus on the placement of young children with disabilities this year. It will examine how the state trains educators and administrators and study whether there’s a link between a child’s disability and their placement.
Nationwide, 68 percent of students with disabilities spend at least 80 percent of the school day learning alongside peers without disabilities, according to The Hechinger Report’s analysis of federal data. New Jersey has the lowest rate at 45 percent.
And just 48.5 percent of 6- and 7-year-olds with disabilities in New Jersey spend the vast majority of their day in a general education classroom, compared with nearly three-quarters nationally. Researchers say including those young students is often easier and more beneficial — while observers say the data shows New Jersey isn’t doing enough to protect children’s rights to try learning in inclusive classrooms in their first years of schooling.
Vin Gopal, a New Jersey senator and chair of the state Senate Education Committee, called the statistics “extremely disconcerting” and said they demonstrate that New Jersey must make “fundamental changes.”
“Evidence clearly indicates that students with disabilities, and often general education students as well, benefit profoundly from inclusive educational settings, and understanding that, New Jersey needs to do better,” Gopal, a Democrat who also serves as Senate majority conference leader, said in an email.
Under federal law, students have the right to learn alongside their peers without disabilities as much as possible. Special education experts say most students, especially young ones, can learn in a general education classroom with proper support and accommodations.
New Jersey state Sen. Vin Gopal, a Democrat, is chair of the state Senate Education committee. He’s calling for the state to improve the inclusion of students with disabilities in the general education classroom. Credit: Julio Cortez/AP Photo
Although there are some promising signs of change in New Jersey, advocates and parents say there are still many obstacles at both the state level and at the federal level as the Trump administration continues to target the Department of Education.
One potential factor behind New Jersey’s low inclusion rates: how exactly districts write and enforce individualized education programs, or IEPs. These agreements lay out what kinds of services students are required to receive, and where.
Between 2016 and 2023, state officials determined at least 50 school districts — nearly a third of those monitored — at times failed to justify where they placed students with disabilities, according to a Hechinger Report review of state records. All school districts undergo monitoring every six years in New Jersey, according to state policy.
That’s a violation of New Jersey law, which requires IEP teams — whose members include school officials and educators — to annually review and provide a written explanation for student placements. For example, if a student is assigned to be in a separate classroom, their IEP should spell out why they can’t be taught in an inclusive classroom with additional support. And IEP teams are required to come up with plans to return students to classrooms with peers without disabilities, if possible.
Districts are cited even if there is insufficient documentation in only one student’s IEP, according to Michael Yaple, a spokesperson for the New Jersey Department of Education. In a statement, Yaple said the department is focused on making sure all decisions about a child’s placement “are individualized, federally compliant, and regularly reviewed to promote inclusive opportunities.”
To Gopal, problems with IEPs point to a need for more parental involvement in these decisions and better procedures to help parents object if they disagree about their child’s placement.
“Failure to justify these placements should not be acceptable,” Gopal said. He has long focused on addressing problems with special education in the state, including sponsoring a bill last year to improve communication between schools and parents.
The bill, which was signed into law in the summer, will require districts to provide parents with details about their student’s academic progress ahead of IEP meetings, and it will also require that the state launch a working group to monitor parental involvement.
Efforts to train teachers in how to teach in inclusive classrooms are growing too.
The New Jersey-based nonprofit All in For Inclusive Education received interest from three times as many school districts as it could serve in this year’s round of applications for its New Jersey Inclusion Project program, which provides support to districts looking to improve inclusion rates. About a dozen districts were chosen to receive the training.
Advocates hope rising interest means New Jersey is on the cusp of taking the steps that school leaders in other states have taken to improve inclusion and reduce reliance on separate classrooms.
For example: Hawaii, which once had the nation’s lowest percentage of students with disabilities learning in the general education classroom at least 80 percent of the time, set a goal to improve its inclusion rate to 51 percent by 2020. Over the past decade, Hawaii increased the proportion of students who spend most of their time in general education classes by 10 percentage points to 55.6 percent.
Even if New Jersey does improve its inclusion rates, advocates say it’s important to follow what happens next. For example, federal data has never captured whether students with disabilities are receiving the services and aids they need to thrive in a general education classroom.
State efforts could be even more crucial than before as the White House works to dismantle the federal Department of Education.
In March, the Trump administration laid off half the staff of its civil rights enforcement arm, which in the past typically investigated thousands of complaints annually from students with disabilities. Last week, the Trump administration laid off nearly all employees of the U.S. Department of Education office that makes sure states are providing special education services required under federal law.
The administration has also canceled more than $30 million for 25 special education programs in 14 states, according to Education Week. The letters to those programs cited references to diversity, equity, inclusion and racism in their application materials.
The Education Department did not respond to a request for comment.
Overall, advocates — including Lindsay Kubatzky, director of policy and advocacy at the National Center for Learning Disabilities — worry Trump’s anti-DEI push will worsen efforts to integrate the nation’s 7.5 million students with disabilities in general classrooms.
“We are the ‘I’ in DEI,” Kubatzky said. “If you start attacking diversity, equity and inclusion, you’re, of course, looking at students with disabilities.”
The Hechinger Report provides in-depth, fact-based, unbiased reporting on education that is free to all readers. But that doesn’t mean it’s free to produce. Our work keeps educators and the public informed about pressing issues at schools and on campuses throughout the country. We tell the whole story, even when the details are inconvenient. Help us keep doing that.
The D.C. region could be doing more to attract and retain special education and English language learner teachers, according to a new analysis from the National Council on Teacher Quality.
The D.C. region could be doing more to attract and retain special education and English language teachers, according to a new analysis from the National Council on Teacher Quality.
The report found that Hawaii is the only state that pays special education teachers enough to “make a meaningful difference” in attracting new educators into the classroom.
In the D.C. area, Heather Peske, the council’s president, said incentives are critical, because D.C. and Maryland are in the top 10 jurisdictions with the highest proportion of English language learning students.
Broadly, “the stakes are really high right now,” Peske said.
“We see chronic shortages of special education and English learner teachers, and this means that students miss out on the effective instruction they need,” she said. “What we see in the data is that students with disabilities and English learners face persistent and troubling academic disparities, because we’re not giving them enough access to effective teachers.”
The report considered different factors — including compensation, financial incentives such as loan forgiveness and licensure tests — to determine how districts could attract and retain teachers.
D.C. is offering strong professional learning to English learner and special education teachers, Peske said. However, the city “could be doing much more when it comes to offering financial incentives.”
Maryland, she said, does a good job of providing specific standards for teacher and principal preparation programs, but similarly falls short for providing financial incentives. Virginia, according to Peske, does well in providing standards and expectations for teacher and principal preparation.
“D.C., Maryland and Virginia all could be doing much more when it comes to offering financial incentives, differentiated pay, for example, for teachers of English learners and teachers who teach special education,” Peske said.
Offering more money or a loan forgiveness program helps to boost the number of teachers that can be drawn to a district or state, Peske said.
Stronger preparation programs, compensation and other financial incentives can help states “really tackle persistent special ed and English language teacher vacancies,” Peske said.
Get breaking news and daily headlines delivered to your email inbox by signing up here.
When pediatricians diagnose preschoolers with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, there are clear steps they are supposed to take.
Families should first be referred to behavior therapy, which teaches caregivers how to better support their children and manage challenging behaviors that may be related to ADHD. If therapy isn’t making a significant difference, the American Academy of Pediatrics advises, pediatricians can then consider medication.
Nationwide, this process — behavior therapy, then medication if needed — isn’t being followed as often as it should, according to a study recently released by Stanford Medicine and published in JAMA Network Open. Instead, more than 42 percent of 3- to 5-year-olds with ADHD were prescribed medication within a month of their diagnosis.
Missing out on behavior therapy has worrisome implications for children and families, said Dr. Yair Bannett, assistant professor of pediatrics at Stanford Medicine and lead author of the study. Behavioral management training for parents over the course of several months has been found to reduce children’s ADHD symptoms and behavioral problems, and improve parent skills and their relationships with their children.
Without that support, families may be left facing additional challenges. Behavioral training “reduces the chaos in the house and can improve the quality of life for the parents and the child,” Bannett said.
There are several reasons families may be missing this intervention. Some pediatricians aren’t familiar with the purpose of behavior therapy, Bannett added, which is specifically aimed at the adults who support children with ADHD, not the children. “It’s really more of an advanced type of parenting course,” he said. Families also may have trouble finding affordable local therapists.
Bannett said parents should use three key practices to support young children with ADHD. (These strategies also work well for teachers, he added.)
Focus on building a strong, positive relationship: Having a strong attachment between the child and parent or teacher is an important first step to managing behavior, Bannett said. That means spending quality one-on-one time with the child. “That’s the child’s motivation, they want to please you,” he added. “Without that first piece, none of this will work.”
Use positive reinforcement: Rather than punishing a child’s negative behavior, Bannett said, parents and teachers will see more success if they praise good behaviors and develop reward systems to encourage them.
Adjust the child’s environment: Children with ADHD may thrive with simple environmental changes, such as “visual schedules” — charts that use pictures to show a child daily activities or tasks — and a consistent, structured routine.
Parents who can’t find in-person therapists can substitute online therapy, Bannett said. The training is also useful for families even after their children are prescribed medication.
To make sure more families have access to helpful strategies, Bannett would like to see more education for doctors and clinicians on these best practices.
“The pediatricians could also counsel families in the office about these techniques,” Bannett said. “Some written materials and resources could be enough” to at least introduce these practices, he added. “That’s what I’m hoping could make a change.”
Reading list
This story about children with ADHD was produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for the Hechinger newsletter.
The Hechinger Report provides in-depth, fact-based, unbiased reporting on education that is free to all readers. But that doesn’t mean it’s free to produce. Our work keeps educators and the public informed about pressing issues at schools and on campuses throughout the country. We tell the whole story, even when the details are inconvenient. Help us keep doing that.
A 9th Circuit Court of Appeals panel revived a lawsuit this week filed by Orthodox Jewish families that sued California education officials over the state’s policy of refusing to fund special education programs at religious schools.
Two religious schools and three Orthodox Jewish parents whose children have autism filed the lawsuit against the California Department of Education and the Los Angeles Unified School District last year. The parents sought to send their children to Orthodox Jewish schools and argued that the state’s policy of barring funding for religious institutions was discriminatory.
Other states allow certain religious private schools to receive special education funding. For decades in California, those dollars have only been permitted to go to schools that are nonsectarian.
Judge Kim Wardlaw, writing for the panel, ruled that California’s requirement burdens the families’ free exercise of religion. The panel’s decision sends the case back for reconsideration to a federal court that had previously rejected it.
Attorney Eric Rassbach, who represents the families in the lawsuit, called the court’s decision a “massive win for Jewish families in California.”
“It was always wrong to cut Jewish kids off from getting disability benefits solely because they want to follow their faith. The court did the right thing by ruling against California’s bald-faced discrimination,” he said in a statement.
The California Department of Education argued in legal filings that by not certifying religious schools to educate children with disabilities, which would be required for them to receive federal funds, it was upholding the “principle that the government must be neutral toward and among religions.”
The California Department of Education declined to comment, citing pending litigation.
Funding for special education can be directed to a private school if a local school board determines, on an individual basis, that it would be the best way for a particular student with disabilities to receive an education, the department wrote in court papers.
Attorneys for the California Department of Education wrote in court papers that the nonsectarian requirement was necessary because without it, local district officials would wield significant power to direct students to their favored religious institutions.
“This is the opposite of the government neutrality toward religion that the Constitution requires…” the department’s attorneys wrote.
However, Wardlaw wrote in her ruling that the state failed to show that its nonsectarian requirement is “narrowly tailored to serve” the interest of religious neutrality.
Wardlaw added that it puts parents in the position of being forced to choose between an education for their disabled children and religion.
“Parent Plaintiffs are required to choose between the special education benefits made available through public school enrollment (and subsequent referral to a private nonsectarian nonpublic school placements) and education in an Orthodox Jewish setting,” she wrote.
A U.S. district judge last year dismissed the case and denied a request for a preliminary injunction to block the state from enforcing the rule.
Wardlaw affirmed the lower court’s decision to dismiss claims from Shalhevet High School and Samuel A. Fryer Yavneh Hebrew Academy because neither school could satisfy the requirements necessary to be certified to educate students with special needs, according to the decision.
Teach Coalition, a group that helps secure government funding for Jewish day schools, lauded the ruling as a major victory for religious liberty.
“This is a game changing moment for our community and for religious families of children with disabilities — not only requiring change in the state of California but holding nationwide implications,” Teach Coalition chief executive and founder Maury Litwack said in a statement.
Annandale is one of nine schools in Virginia to be recognized as a Special Olympics National Unified Champion School. The award honors schools that meet 10 “standards of excellence” and help create an inclusive environment.
Special education teacher at Annandale High School, Jae Lee (center).(Credit FCPS Photographer Donnie Biggs )
Special education teacher at Annandale High School, Jae Lee (center).(Credit FCPS Photographer Donnie Biggs )
In his first year as a special-education teacher at Annandale High School, Jae Lee capitalized on the opportunity to bring a Special Olympics program to the Fairfax County campus.
It started out with 10 athletes and just a handful of general education peer helpers. It offered a unified basketball team, pairing students with disabilities with other students.
But since that inaugural year in 2017, the program has expanded, and now includes soccer and track and field teams, too. There are 20 athletes across the three sports, and 25 helpers that are involved.
“It was a chance for our students, especially in our special education program, to have access to sports and activities that, traditionally, they wouldn’t have access to because they normally would not try out for a varsity or a JV team,” Lee said.
Now, years after the program started, Annandale is one of nine schools in Virginia to be recognized as a Special Olympics National Unified Champion School. The award honors schools that meet 10 “standards of excellence” and help create an inclusive environment.
“Inclusivity is just a really big thing that, here at Annandale, we stand for and support,” student Sage Nagle said.
It may look different depending on the time of day, but Nagle said the group meets up with athletes in a classroom, and then will walk with them to a court, field or track that’s usually on the school’s campus. The general education students stretch, pass and dribble with them, and they’re “either next to them or on the sideline, cheering them on, giving them that support that they need to really succeed,” she said.
The buy-in, Lee said, is evident in the hallways, where the students connect and support each other, even if it’s brief.
When teacher Katie Shaw started at the school last year, she was struck by the way everyone in the building was aware of what the program does.
“Everyone in this building supports that and stands by it with us,” Shaw said. “So it’s a whole-school approach, and it’s a team effort in inclusion and just promoting what we stand by.”
The program has been especially helpful for students such as Sonny Hernandez, who started playing basketball as part of a Special Olympics program in middle school. Initially, he had sensory overload upon walking into a crowded gym, because of all the lights and commotion. But now, his mom Autumn said, he’s confident and grabs the ball without hesitation.
“I never see him as comfortable as he is when he’s on the field with his teammates,” Autumn said. “He just looks so relaxed and happy to be there.”
While the program gives Sonny the chance to enjoy sports, Autumn said it’s also helpful for the general education students, because “the more interaction they get to have with people with disabilities, the more comfortable they become, so that it just becomes a normal interaction and not something to be uncomfortable with.”
The standards used to evaluate schools for the award include activities such as unified sports and making sure a whole school campus plays a role in promoting an inclusive environment. Lee said he applied for the honor almost every year that the school’s been a part of the program, but there were certain parts of standards they hadn’t reached.
“Looking at the standards made me realize, ‘Oh, we’re not doing this as well. Maybe this is how we get to become a more inclusive school,’” Lee said.
Get breaking news and daily headlines delivered to your email inbox by signing up here.
NORTH ANDOVER — As the school district works to recover from a deficit of more than $3 million, officials have some breathing room with the budget.
Interim Superintendent Pam Lathrop provided an update on the fiscal 2025 budget to the School Committee on Thursday.
North Andover Public Schools’ starting budget for the year was $62 million, including $13.9 million for special education and $52.9 million for salaries. But the initial figure did not include encumbered salaries, reducing the budget significantly.
While the district has $4.7 million remaining in its budget, encumbered costs are expected to total $4 million this year. It leaves the district with wiggle room of potentially $667,000 left over, Lathrop said.
“It is challenging to look at that number, but we know we had financial issues and it is hard to recover from a financial deficit of where we were,” Lathrop said. “We are mindful of the money and tracking it very carefully.”
“This is positive,” she added.
Former Superintendent Gregg Gilligan resigned in August after being on paid administrative leave since April. In the spring, he informed the Select Board that the school district faced a $3.12 million deficit for fiscal 2024.
Gilligan attributed the deficit to “major hits” such as special education increases, homeless student transportation costs, and a lack of elementary and secondary school emergency relief funding.
For fiscal 2025, Lathrop said there are costs such as staff salaries for hourly positions that have not been encumbered yet. But these are costs the district is projected to incur this year.
The hourly pay is for substitute teachers, long-term substitute teachers, noon attendants and athletic coaches. Academic stipends, out-of-district tuition, tuition reimbursement, custodial overtime, teaching assistants’ stipends and special education and regular transportation are other areas for which the district would need to set aside money.
The district looked at data from the last few years to determine the projected costs for this year. Combined, the district estimates it will spend about $4 million to cover those costs.
“We believe this largely shows what we will have to spend on things in the district,” Lathrop said. “This is good data for us moving forward.”
Lathrop added that it is a positive knowing where the district has to spend money or the areas for which to reserve money.
The 2025 budget does not include any grants or Title I, II and III federal funding that the district would receive over the course of the year. Only one grant – for special education tuition – is in the budget now.
The district receives the title grants each year from the Department of Education. School officials are also seeking other competitive grants.
The district would have to purse a transfer of $1.5 million for special education. Lathrop said they have the money to fund the special education program, but it has to be taken from another budget line.
The district wants school officials to be able to see where money is being spent. A new feature for each North Andover school this year is for its officials to have a substitute teaching budget they can track. Schools are watching their own budgets to see how they are using the district’s allotment for costs associated with substitutes.
Lathrop said there is still a “soft freeze” on the budget where principals and other school officials can only purchase essential items. This may affect how the fiscal 2026 budget is set up to help schools receive items they could not purchase this year.
“We know that we had some issues and we are seeing that now,” Lathrop said. “Our budget wasn’t what it needed to be, but we have the funds to be able to handle it.”
It’s been a busy year for me filling in as co-author of the early education newsletter for Hechinger Report senior reporter Jackie Mader. Jackie returned earlier this month after spending the academic year as a Spencer Education Journalism Fellow at Columbia University (stay tuned for some fantastic stories that she reported during her fellowship year).
Hechinger is a pioneer in prioritizing early childhood coverage in its journalism, with an increasing number of news organizations thankfully starting to establish it a beat in its own right: The Associated Press and the Baltimore Banner are among the outlets adding early childhood beat reporters in recent months. As I wrote in October, it’s my favorite beat, because the inequities are so vast, but so is the potential for positive change.
I will still be reporting and editing for Hechinger in the coming year (including on the early education beat), but I am signing off, for now, by sharing a few of the most personally memorable projects that I’ve worked on since last fall.
Up to 20 percent of the U.S. population has dyslexia, a neurological condition that makes it difficult to decipher and spell written words. Yet only a fraction of affected students get a dyslexia diagnosis or the specialized assistance that can help them learn to read well. One reason so many diagnoses are missed is that scores of schools continue to use IQ tests to assess children for learning disabilities. Because of biases in those tests, and other reasons, a disproportionate number of those diagnosed — and helped — have been white and wealthier.
The critical shortage of therapists who provide essential support for children under age 3 with developmental delays has received little public attention. A half dozen experts shared potential strategies for expanding and diversifying the workforce.
Six ideas to ease the early intervention staffing crisis The critical shortage of therapists and others who provide critical early intervention therapies for children under age 3 with developmental delays has received comparatively little notice from policy makers, the media or the general public. A half dozen experts shared potential strategies for expanding and diversifying the workforce.
Fixing the child care crisis One of my favorite roles is helping manage the eight-newsroom Education Reporting Collaborative, which produces solutions-oriented journalism on many of the most urgent issues of the day. In the spring, six of the partners delved into the impact of the child care crisis on mothers’ ability to stay employed, highlighting a range of solutions at all levels of government, and in the private sphere.
This story was produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for the Hechinger newsletter.
Related articles
The Hechinger Report provides in-depth, fact-based, unbiased reporting on education that is free to all readers. But that doesn’t mean it’s free to produce. Our work keeps educators and the public informed about pressing issues at schools and on campuses throughout the country. We tell the whole story, even when the details are inconvenient. Help us keep doing that.
BETHESDA, Md.—EPS Learning, the leading provider of PreK-12 literacy solutions, is excited to announce that its recent SPIRE® study has earned Level 3 certification for alignment with Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) standards. SPIRE is a research-proven, comprehensive, structured literacy and multisensory reading intervention program that has supported reading success for all striving readers through an intensive and structured science-of-reading aligned curriculum for over 30 years.
LXD Research conducted a third-party study to determine the relationship between the usage of SPIRE and student reading outcomes in 13 schools in Martin County School District, Florida. The study’s positive, statistically significant findings support a relationship between SPIRE progress and improved literacy skills for special education students. The findings were robust across Grades 3, 4, and 5 after controlling for key predictors such as previous FAST (Florida’s statewide, standardized assessment) scale scores, gender, LEP status, grade level and race/ethnicity.
This study met the following criteria for ESSA Level 3 achievement:
Correlational design; students new to the program compared to students with more progress in the program
Proper design and implementation with at least two teachers and 30 students per group
Study uses a form of a program that could be replicated
Statistical controls through covariates
At least one statistically significant, positive finding
EPS Learning Chief Academic Officer Dr. Janine Walker-Caffrey spoke to the company’s recent rating, stating, “We are incredibly proud of the decades of impactful support SPIRE has provided for readers across the country and are elated about the recent ESSA rating! While this is a wonderful achievement, we are just beginning our bolstered efficacy research efforts. Upcoming research will re-demonstrate that this effective and evidence-based program for reading intervention is still positively impacting students in becoming fluent readers. We are excited to accomplish the next level of ESSA certification as studies continue to be released.”
SPIRE was developed by Orton-Gillingham (OG) Fellow, Sheila Clark-Edmands, and is based on structured literacy principles and the OG approach. The program incorporates evidence-based best practices for reading and language development. It also includes skills that are key to fluent reading acquisition: phonemic awareness, phonics, handwriting, spelling, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension. Each SPIRE lesson employs 10 steps that enhance student learning and memory by engaging multisensory pathways to the brain in rapid succession, ensuring orthographic mapping and automaticity.
About EPS Learning
EPS Learning has partnered with educators for more than 70 years to advance literacy as the springboard for lifelong learning and opportunity. The 20+ literacy solutions included in the EPS Literacy Framework are based on the science of reading and support grades PreK through 12, all tiers of instruction, and every pillar of reading. EPS Learning offers evidence-based intervention and customized professional learning to help move students toward growth, mastery, and success. Visit www.epslearning.com to learn more.
eSchool Media staff cover education technology in all its aspects–from legislation and litigation, to best practices, to lessons learned and new products. First published in March of 1998 as a monthly print and digital newspaper, eSchool Media provides the news and information necessary to help K-20 decision-makers successfully use technology and innovation to transform schools and colleges and achieve their educational goals.
Spaulding Academy & Family Services is a small, non-profit special education school and residential facility serving students with a wide range of abilities, including many who are on the autism spectrum, some who have medical or physical limitations, some who have been diagnosed with other learning challenges, and some who have been victims of trauma, abuse, or neglect. Our students are with us because they require more support than their previous schools were able to provide, and it is central to our philosophy that our programs and offerings meet the needs of all of our students.
Since our last blog post, we’ve been hard at work exploring new and exciting ways of using ClassVR to support our students! The first step in achieving this was continuing to leverage our on-campus experts. We have an extremely talented team of administrators, board certified behavior analysts & clinicians, social workers, speech-language pathologists, occupational & physical therapists, teachers, medical experts, and staff who all bring a unique perspective to this project, and their input and support has allowed us to thoughtfully expand the scope and methods of our ClassVR implementations.
ClassVR in staff training and social-emotional learning
In the past year, our school has undergone a remarkable cultural shift that centers SEL and the Choose Love program within our curriculum and everyday operation. This shift has already provided results that have been inspiring to witness among both students and staff alike, and we were very interested in exploring how to leverage virtual reality (VR) in this area.
One important thing we’ve decided to do is use ClassVR as part of our staff training process. Our interest is in using VR to strengthen compassion, empathy, and perspective-taking among new staff. We identified a video by the National Autistic Society (Autism TMI), which consulted people with autism to create a first-person simulation of what sensory overload feels like for them, and we are now using that VR experience on ClassVR headsets to help train and inform new school staff. It’s difficult for a ‘neurotypical’ person to truly understand the perspective of those who are neurodiverse, but this immersive experience brings tremendous value in helping our staff understand and empathize with our students – as a result it helps staff provide better service and support for them.
After staff experience the video, we have a discussion about how this new information can impact the way we approach supporting our students in given moments, and how we can proactively take steps to avoid those situations or to offer solutions in the moment – that could mean rethinking our learning spaces entirely, or proactively offering the student sensory tools like noise-reducing headphones, or anything in between. We’re also working with our school BCBAs and others to begin filming custom 360° perspective-taking videos for use in staff training, in which we record simulated student-staff interactions with the intent of showing the trainee a student’s perspective during various situations. The hope is that this will further develop empathy and understanding among our staff!
School Training Supervisor Brion Schaffnit demonstrates ClassVR in a staff training.
With that same logic in mind, we’re also continuing to explore VR strategies in the world of SEL for our students. We want to look beyond using the headsets as calming devices, so we’re finalizing plans to create and film custom 360° content that also focuses on compassion, empathy, and perspective-taking. We’re using various research papers as a jumping-off point, but as usual, our creative and innovative specialists have taken the ideas and run with them to develop solutions that are most likely to work for our specific students.
The starting point will be filming simulated social scenarios in a similar fashion to the perspective-taking strategy mentioned above. Students will be able to experience social situations from specific viewpoints, and the intent is for teachers or clinicians to guide the implementation and elicit feedback from students in the moment, as they’re immersed in the experience. Given our focus on SEL and Choose Love, we’ll be starting with scenarios that involve courage, gratitude, forgiveness, and compassion in action.
We also plan to create student-produced SEL content where students develop materials for other classrooms to engage with. This may take the form of 360-degree videos, which could be anything from a student-produced puppet show to students writing a scene and acting it out, but I’m also interested in having students create and code custom SEL CoSpaces for other students to use. Imagine having students build a ‘Courage Castle’, full of SEL information and videos and coded interactive elements, for younger students to explore and interact with?
ClassVR in proactive needs-management
As highlighted in our last blog post, one of our most established strategies for using ClassVR is in providing vestibular-ocular stimulation for students who require movement to be successful in the classroom. We’ve amassed a library of custom-made and outsourced 360-degree videos that meet the specific needs and interests of specific students, all of which provide different levels of sensory stimulation intended to ‘trick the brain’ into thinking it has received needed movement.
With that in mind, our next step was to identify whether proactive vestibular-ocular VR implementations could lead to overall improvement in behavior and time on task in the classroom. One of our students tended to hit a speed bump at about the same time every day, where they would lose interest in classwork and we would see increases in outburst behaviors. So, every day for two weeks, we implemented ClassVR to provide simulated movement about a half-hour before the typical speed bump – we saw notable decreases in outburst behaviors and notable increases in time on task throughout the rest of each day following VR use!
The next phase is pre-loading headsets with content, customized to the students in each classroom, which will be available to classroom teachers so they can more easily, both proactively and reactively, provide students with immersive content that meets their specific needs. Once the technology is in place, we will continue to use our data collection infrastructure to help us understand whether each implementation is effective.
ClassVR in medical applications:
Based on research papers from Oxford and others, which show decreased anxiety and pain perception when VR is implemented during routine medical procedures, we began using VR for select students who struggle with things like blood draws and immunizations. This involved significant pre-teaching – we introduced the VR to the student to get them comfortable with the experience and to determine the level of sensory input they prefer, and then we separately introduced the student to the process of the blood draw. That included breaking down the steps of a blood draw and practicing by using fake equipment in a safe environment. These steps allowed the student to be comfortable with both processes when the time came to combine them.
Another specific need we’ve begun to address in the medical space is the fear of unknown or anxiety-inducing spaces, like medical and dental offices. We’ve had several students who have significant anxiety around the dentist, which can lead to refusal to attend appointments or refusal to cooperate when in the office, so we coordinated with our local dental office to film a 360° tour of their entire facility. We’re guided on the tour by their head Dental Hygienists, who meet us at the front door and walk us around while describing each step of the visit, explaining each piece of equipment, and reassuring the viewer (the student) that everything is safe.
We then took it a step further and filmed a second version of the video – in this one, a popular staff member takes the place of the student for a fake dental visit. The viewer watches the staff member as he walks into the office, sits in the chair, goes through a teeth cleaning, and assures the viewer that nothing is painful or scary.
Paraeducator Pedro Perez models a dental visit.
This type of video modeling practice is well-established, but the immersive nature of VR video modeling has proven to be even more successful for our students. We’ve since expanded this strategy to other new or scary places, including filming custom content for students who are being discharged out of Spaulding to new schools (typically in their home districts). In a recent scenario we traveled to a student’s new school and filmed a guided 360-degree walkthrough video of the student’s new environment, including their classroom and other important resources. Transitions like this are scary, sometimes particularly for students with Autism, and the hope is that this strategy will help alleviate some of the anxiety that comes along with them.
Looking forward
The thing that strikes me personally about all this is the way ClassVR uniquely expands our toolbox to help meet the individual needs of our students. Every day at Spaulding is filled with successes small and large, all of which inspire me, and I’ve found our VR implementations to be among the most interesting and inspiring that I’ve witnessed. There’s something special about a team working together to come up with a new and innovative solution to a persistent problem, and then seeing a student do something they never thought they’d be able to do, or experience something they’ve never experienced before, or smile more than we’ve ever seen them smile.
In the future we will continue to explore new and exciting methods of implementation, always with the goal of meeting the diverse individual needs of our students, and we hope that these ideas help spark other new and innovative ideas for you!
Charley Suter, M.Ed, Spaulding Academy & Family Services
Charley Suter, M.Ed is the Director of Technology & Innovation at Spaulding Academy & Family Services, where he has worked and been inspired for 9 years.He also serves on the Board of Directors of New Hampshire’s ISTE Affiliate, NHSTE, where his aim is to bring together the vast expertise that exists among NH technology educators and leaders.He’s a devoted educator, an advocate for equity and inclusion, a tech geek, a privacy proponent, and a lifelong guitar player!
Latest posts by eSchool Media Contributors (see all)
[ad_2]
Charley Suter, M.Ed, Spaulding Academy & Family Services
Every night before going to bed, Antonio would tuck in his three younger siblings. After school, he’d tinker with toy cars, or help his dad, a mechanic, fix things around the house.
“He’s quiet, but he’s caring in his own way,” said his mother, Yanelie Marquez. The Hechinger Report is using her son’s middle name to protect his privacy.
But four years ago, the then-12-year-old Antonio suddenly lost interest in everything and everyone. It started with school: He complained he couldn’t focus or understand the teacher’s instructions. “I’d open up his notebooks and they were completely empty,” Marquez said.
Then Antonio’s behavior began to change, too: He stopped showering and coming downstairs for dinner. Eventually, he refused to leave his room. And whenever Marquez would ask about his day, he would throw a tantrum.
“He’d say, ‘None of the teachers like me, I hate it,’ and then he’d take that anger out on himself,” she said.
Worried that Antonio was struggling with depression, his mother enrolled him in therapy at Yale Child Study Center in New Haven, Connecticut.
The children’s library at the Yale Child Study Center in New Haven, Connecticut. The center houses the first medical-legal partnership focused on children’s behavioral health. Credit: Yunuen Bonaparte for The Hechinger Report
After ruling out stressors in Antonio’s family environment, the Yale team learned more about the challenges he was facing at school, including severe learning difficulties in the classroom and bullies outside of school. And though the clinicians did everything they could do to help address those behavioral health stressors on their own, they realized they needed another team member to help: a lawyer.
This teamwork comes through Yale Child Study Center’s Medical-Legal Partnership — a collaboration in which health and law professionals team up to address patients’ “health-harming legal needs” from food and housing to public benefits and school supports. Their unique partnership functions as a kind of legal prescription. To treat a child’s behavioral health symptoms, clinicians and lawyers target the root cause, which can sometimes be a school environment where the child’s legally enshrined academic and emotional needs aren’t being met.
Though the concept of medical-legal partnerships has existed since the 1990s, the Yale partnership, launched in November 2020, is the first in the nation focused exclusively on children’s behavioral health. Last year, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services invested $1.6 million in the first federally funded demonstration program for medical-legal partnerships, including one at Yale, focused in primary health care.
Kathryn Meyer, left, attorney at the Center for Children’s Advocacy, and Christiana Mills, are part of the Yale Child Student Center in New Haven, Connecticut. Credit: Yunuen Bonaparte for The Hechinger Report
“When families come in, they tell us about struggles that might be adding stress and impacting their functioning, which could result in anxiety or depression,” said Christy Mills, a licensed clinical social worker and an associate clinical director at the Yale center. Especially since COVID, she says those struggles have increasingly included “school climate issues,” like a student’s experience of bullying and classroom challenges, both of which could lead to school avoidance.
The post-COVID data shows that New Haven is far from alone. One study quoted in a White House report found that the number of chronically absent public school students nearly doubled, from around 15 percent in the 2018-19 school year to around 30 percent in 2021-22.
Another survey focused on students with disabilities experiencing “school refusal” — a behavioral pattern describing problems with attending or staying at school — revealed 57 percent of these students had no symptoms prior to the pandemic. And for students who do attend school, their behavior struggles have increased, too; a national report of public schools in 2021-22 found more than 80 percent agreed that the pandemic negatively affected their students’ socioemotional and behavioral development. A recent study found that depression, anxiety and suicidal thoughts in teen girls has reached record highs, and that the number of mental health hospitalizations for children more than doubled between 2016 and 2022.
And teachers want more support, too. A recent survey of U.S. teachers found that 9 in 10 reported they need more resources to care for their students’ mental health.
Kathryn Meyer, an attorney at the Center for Children’s Advocacy at the Yale Child Study Center, said much of her role is explaining to families the legal options that exist to help them. Credit: Yunuen Bonaparte for The Hechinger Report
“Educators are doing the very best they can, but most of the time, in advocating for our low-income families, the issue cited is due to school district resources,” said Kathryn Meyer, an attorney at the Center for Children’s Advocacy, the legal partner of the Yale center.
That’s where the medical-legal team can help, by letting the school know how a child’s experience is affecting their behavior — and to connect the child’s needs to their legal rights, Meyer said. “Sometimes we’re just trying to get the student an [individualized education program], and then, if we have the IEP, we’re trying to increase the service, or make sure that whatever is on the IEP is actually happening,” she said.
In Antonio’s case, after joining Marquez at school meetings, the medical-legal team pushed for the school to conduct another IEP evaluation, which revealed a key part of his story: Though an earlier evaluation diagnosed Antonio with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, the second evaluation found he had an intellectual disability as well. And once the team made the legal case that the current school couldn’t address the services his IEP mandated, Antonio was placed in a school that could.
“In moving him, our goal was to have his academic needs addressed, emotional support to keep him safe, and a smaller structure so people could really have the time to work with him,” Meyer explained.
Sure enough, that worked. According to his mother, the new school didn’t just help Antonio improve in the classroom; it improved his behavioral health, too. “Being in a place that understood him for his differences relieved a lot of his pressure and stress,” said Mills, the Yale center associate clinical director.
Antonio now spends his days outside of his room, riding bikes with his new friends, or hanging out with his new girlfriend, whom he just took to prom.
“Finally, it’s like, he’s free,” his mother said. “That was the Antonio I wanted to see all these years.”
As word of the medical-legal partnership model spreads in Connecticut, educators are taking note, too. “As a former Bridgeport public school superintendent, I know just how valuable educational advocates can be for our families,” said Fran Rabinowitz, the executive director of the Connecticut Association of Public School Superintendents. “Despite districts doing our best with the limited resources we have, it’s important that we continue to elevate the voice of families, and advocacy can provide a vehicle for that voice.”
Dr. Barry Zuckerman, who created the first medical-legal partnership in Boston more than 30 years ago, saw the need for family advocacy first hand during his childhood, in the 1950s. He grew up with a younger brother with “significant disabilities.” But 60 years ago, Barry says, there were virtually no laws, resources or community services that could support him. His brother was eventually placed in an institution.
“Imagine a parent sending away their 8-year-old who’s never been on his own,” Zuckerman said. “It was extraordinarily traumatic for all of us.”
By the 1970s, the United States passed laws requiring schools to identify and evaluate students with disabilities, and provide them with “free, appropriate public education” tailored to their needs through individualized education programs. But Zuckerman, by then a pediatrician, realized that vulnerable families also needed support to enforce these protective laws.
In 1993, he discovered that need on the job, at Boston Medical Center, through a group of asthmatic patients. When the patients kept returning to the hospital with no improvement, Dr. Zuckerman learned that all of their homes had mold, which can trigger asthma attacks. The landlords didn’t respond to the families or to Dr. Zuckerman when they asked for mold remediation. But they did remove the mold after a lawyer friend of Dr. Zuckerman’s called.
A woman enters a building housing the offices of the Yale Child Study Center. Credit: Yunuen Bonaparte for The Hechinger Report
That case would become the first of many medical-legal partnership success stories, in a model that’s expanded to over 450 health care organizations around the nation. One randomized trial found that families referred to legal support through the partnership had fewer emergency room visits six months later. Another found that patients given legal interventions had less asthma symptom severity and took fewer medications. A more recent study of a hospital in Cincinnati found that the medical-legal partnership reduced all-cause hospitalizations of children by 38 percent over five years.
Most evidence around medical-legal partnerships comes from models in primary health care. But those models have demonstrated behavioral health benefits, too. “When parents have concerns about their children’s mental health, the first place they turn is their pediatrician,” said Josh Greenberg, one of the founding medical-legal partnership lawyers in Boston.
One of Greenberg’s earliest success stories came while shadowing a 7-year-old boy during a well checkup. He learned that the boy had been out of school for six months, suspended after pushing his teacher. “The school just sent the child home and then never followed up, and never offered anything in the way of their legal rights around expulsions,” he said.
By “prescribing” legal support the same way they prescribe other kinds of medicine, health workers can see the benefits in their patients just the same. “When you have a life that’s full of stress, you can only do a few things as a doctor, but the lawyer was helping them achieve something they needed,” Dr. Zuckerman said. It also helps to level the playing field. Before, “if a child wasn’t getting their developmental needs met, many schools would blow them off, and well-to-do people got their own lawyers,” he said.
But even with the new federal funding and nationwide expansion, the number of patients who need legal support far outnumbers the supply of lawyers who can provide it, Greenberg cautioned.
That’s one reason why legal professionals are also spreading their knowledge through training and educational resources, and are reserving formal representation for extreme cases. Through the Yale partnership, for instance, of 120 patient referrals made in the program’s first year, just 20 cases went to full representation.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services invested $1.6 million in 2023 for a medical-legal partnership demonstration program.
Instead, most of the Yale legal team’s work is focused on educating clinicians, psychiatrists, social workers and families about legal options that exist for children, and that they can access on their own. “Sometimes it’s just like, ‘Go to this place,’ or ‘Call this hotline’ — it’s really as simple as that,” Meyer said.
Through those trainings, clinicians can ask the legal professionals questions, too. “Sometimes we need help knowing, is this a fair legal ask? Does a family or child actually have a right to this expectation, or do we need to think about this in a different lens?” said Mills, the Yale associate clinical director.
Outside of the formal medical-legal partnership model, other organizations, like the Council for Parent Attorneys and Advocates — a national nonprofit working to protect the legal and civil rights of students with disabilities — have been similarly addressing families about their options. Selene Almazan, their legal director, said that these kinds of trainings can help prevent behavioral health struggles before they develop, especially when a student has more than one disability.
“The more information you have, the more that you know how to take care of yourself and advocate for yourself in a school setting,” Almazan said.
In her organization’s work, training parents and students on their rights has been “transformative” for students’ mental health and self-esteem. And in cases where students would otherwise be punished, Almazan says, the advocacy can completely change the trajectory of a child’s health and life.
“When kids are traumatized by exclusionary discipline or restraint and seclusion in schools, that can cause them to act out and can exacerbate any kind of mental health issues that they may already have,” she said. “Getting students what they need in school can break a pattern of family trauma and generational trauma and prevent the school-to-prison pipeline.”
This story about medical-legal partnerships was produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education.
Related articles
The Hechinger Report provides in-depth, fact-based, unbiased reporting on education that is free to all readers. But that doesn’t mean it’s free to produce. Our work keeps educators and the public informed about pressing issues at schools and on campuses throughout the country. We tell the whole story, even when the details are inconvenient. Help us keep doing that.
LOS ANGELES — When Abram van der Fluit began teaching science more than two decades ago, he tried to ward off classroom disruption with the threat of suspension: “I had my consequences, and the third consequence was you get referred to the dean,” he recalled.
Suspending kids didn’t make them less defiant, he said, but getting them out of the school for a bit made his job easier. Now, suspensions for “willful defiance” are off the table at Maywood Academy High School, taking the bite out of van der Fluit’s threat.
Mikey Valladares, a 12th grader there, said when he last got into an argument with a teacher, a campus aide brought him to the school’s restorative justice coordinator, who offered Valladares a bottle of water and then asked what had happened. “He doesn’t come in … like a persecuting way,” Valladares said. “He’d just console you about it.”
Being listened to and treated with empathy, Valladares said, “makes me feel better.” Better enough to put himself in his teacher’s shoes, consider what he could have done differently — and offer an apology.
This new way of responding to disrespectful behavior doesn’t always work, according to van der Fluit. But “overall,” he said, “it’s a good thing.”
In 2013, the Los Angeles Unified School District banned suspensions for willfully defiant behavior, as part of a multi-year effort to move away from punitive discipline. The California legislature took note. Lawmakers argued that suspensions for relatively minor infractions, like talking back to a teacher, harmed kids, including by feeding the school-to-prison pipeline. Others noted that this ground for suspension was a subjective catch-all disproportionately applied to Black and Hispanic students.
A state law prohibiting willful defiance suspensions for grades K-3 went into effect in 2015; five years later, the ban was extended through eighth grade. Last year, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a law adding high schoolers to the prohibition. It takes effect this July.
A Hechinger Report investigation reveals that the national picture is quite different. Across the 20 states that collect data on the reasons why students are suspended or expelled, school districts cited willful defiance, insubordination, disorderly conduct and similar categories as a justification for suspending or expelling students more than 2.8 million times from 2017-18 to 2021-22. That amounted to nearly a third of all punishments reported by those states.
As school districts search for ways to cope with the increase in student misbehavior that followed the pandemic, LAUSD’s experience offers insight into whether banning such suspensions is effective and under what conditions. In general, the district’s results have been positive: Data suggests that schools didn’t become less safe, more chaotic or less effective, as critics had warned.
From 2011-12 to 2021-22, as suspensions for willful defiance fell from 4,500 to near zero, suspensions across all categories fell too, to 1,633, a more than 90 percent drop, according to state data. Those numbers, plus in-depth research on the ban, show that educators in LAUSD didn’t simply find different justifications for suspending kids once willful defiance was off limits. Racial disparities in discipline remain, but they have been reduced.
Meanwhile, according to state survey data, students were less likely to report feeling unsafe in school. During the 2021-22 school year for example, 5 percent of LAUSD freshmen said they felt unsafe in school, compared with more than three times that nine years earlier. As for academics, state and federal data suggest that the district’s performance didn’t fall after the disciplinary shift, although the state switched tests over that decade, making precise comparison difficult.
Suspended for…what?
Students miss hundreds of thousands of school days each year for subjective infractions like defiance and disorderly conduct, a Hechinger investigation revealed.
“It really points out that we can do this differently, and do it better,” said Dan Losen, senior director for the education team at the National Center for Youth Law.
A pile of research demonstrates that losing class time negatively affects students. Suspensions are tied to lower grades, lower odds of graduating high school and a higher risk of being arrested or unemployed as an adult. Losen said this is in part because students who are suspended not only miss out on educational opportunities, but also lose access to the web of services many schools offer, including mental health treatment and meals.
That harm is less justifiable for minor transgressions, he added. And “what makes it even less justifiable is that there are alternative responses that work better and involve more adult interface for the student, not less.”
In part because of this research, Los Angeles, and then California, increasingly focused on disciplinary alternatives as they eliminated or narrowed the use of suspensions for willful defiance.
A “restorative rounds” poster on the wall of Brooklyn Avenue School in East L.A. creates a protocol with steps and “sentence-starters” that teachers and students can use to process conflict, reconnect and be heard. Credit: Gail Cornwall for The Hechinger Report
LAUSD gradually scaled up its investment, rolling out training in 2015 for teachers and administrators in “restorative” practices like the ones Valladares described. Educators were also encouraged to implement an approach called positive behavioral interventions and supports. Together, these strategies seek to address the root causes of challenging behavior. That means both preventing it and, when some still inevitably occurs, responding in a way that strengthens the relationship between student and school rather than undermining it.
The district also created new positions, hiring school climate advocates to give campuses a warm, constructive tone, and “system of support advisors,” or SOSAs, to train current employees in the new way of doing discipline. From August to October 2023, SOSAs offered 380 such sessions; since July 2021 alone, more than 23,000 district staff members and 2,400 parents have participated in restorative practices training, according to LAUSD.
All that work has been expensive: The district budgeted more than $31 million for school climate advocates, $16 million for restorative justice teachers and nearly $9 million for the SOSAs for this school year. Combined with spending on psychiatric social workers, mental health coordinators and campus aides, the district’s allocation for “school climate personnel” totaled more than $300 million this year.
That’s money other districts don’t have. And it’s part of what prompted the California School Boards Association to support the recent legislation only if it were amended to include more cash for alternative approaches to behavior management.
At William Tell Aggeler High School, Robert Hill, the school’s dean, calmly shadows an angry, upset student, prepared to help restore calm rather than impose a punishment. His response is part of LAUSD’s transition to a more positive, relational form of discipline meant to keep students from losing educational minutes. Credit: Gail Cornwall for The Hechinger Report
Troy Flint, the organization’s chief communications officer, said administrators in many remote, rural districts in particular do not have the bandwidth, or the ability to hire consultants, to train staff on new methods. Their schools also often lack a space for disruptive students who have had to leave class but can’t be sent home, and lack the adults needed to supervise them, he said. “You often have situations in these districts where you have a superintendent or principal who’s also a teacher, and maybe they drive a bus – they don’t have the capacity to implement all these programs,” said Flint.
The state’s 2023 budget allocated just $7 million, parceled out in grants of up to $100,000, for districts to implement restorative justice practices. If each got the full amount, only approximately 70 districts would receive funding — when there are more than a thousand districts in the state. Even then, the grants would give each district only a small fraction of what LAUSD has needed to make the shift.
Even in LAUSD, the money only goes so far. The district of more than 1,000 schools employs nearly 120 restorative justice teachers, meaning only about a tenth of schools have one. Roughly a third of schools have a school climate advocate. SOSAs are stretched thin too, in some cases supporting as many as 25 schools each, and some budgeted SOSA positions haven’t been filled. There’s also the continual threat of lost funding: In recent years, the district has been using federal pandemic funding, which ends soon, to pay for some of the work. “School sites are having to make hard choices,” said Tanya Ortiz Franklin, an LAUSD school board member.
And money hasn’t been the district’s only challenge. Success requires buy-in, and buy-in requires a change in educators’ mindsets. Back in 2013, van der Fluit recalls, his colleagues’ perspective on the ban on willful defiance suspensions was often: “What is this hippie-dippie baloney?” Teachers also questioned the motives of district leaders, wondering if they wanted to avoid suspending kids because school funding is tied to average daily attendance.
LAUSD’s office of Positive Behavior Interventions & Support/Restorative Practices works with schools to develop and implement behavioral expectations. Credit: Gail Cornwall for The Hechinger Report
Now, most days, van der Fluit sees things differently — but not always.
Last year, for example, when he asked a student who was late to get a tardy slip, she refused. She also refused when a campus aide, and then the restorative justice coordinator and then the principal, asked her to go to the school’s office. The situation was eventually resolved after her basketball coach arrived, but van der Fluit said it had been “a 20-minute thing, and I’m trying to teach in between all of this stuff.”
That sort of scene is rare at Maywood, van der Fluit said, but it happens. There are students “who just want to disrupt, and they know how to manipulate and control and are gaslighting and deflecting.” He described seeing a student with his phone out. When van der Fluit said, “You had your phone out,” the student denied it. Van der Fluit said there are days he feels “the district doesn’t have my back” under this new system. Researchers, legislators and school board members, he said, wear “rose-colored glasses.”
Critics warned that eliminating suspensions for “willful defiance” would render schools more chaotic and less effective, but Maywood Academy High School is calmer than it used to be, according to teachers and principal Maricella Garcia. Credit: Gail Cornwall for The Hechinger Report
His concerns are not uncommon. But according to Losen, in LAUSD, “The main issue for teachers was that the teacher training was phased in while the policy change was not.”
In recent years there has been some parental pushback too: At a November 2023 meeting of the school district safety and climate committee, for example, a handful of parents described their kids’ schools as “out of control” and decried a “rampant lack of discipline.”
Ortiz Franklin acknowledged an uptick in behavioral incidents over the last three years, but attributed it to the pandemic and students’ isolation and loss, not the shift in disciplinary approach. Groups like Students Deserve, a youth-led, grassroots nonprofit, have urged LAUSD to hold the line on its positive, restorative approach.
“Our schools are not an uncontrollable, violent, off-the-wall place. They’re a place with kids who are dealing with an unprecedented level of trauma and need an unprecedented level of support,” said W. Joseph Williams, the group’s director.
District survey data presented at the same November meeting, meanwhile, suggests most teachers remain relatively committed to the policies: On a 1 to 4 scale, teachers rated their support for restorative practices at around a 3, on average, and principals rated it close to a 4.
Even van der Fluit, who maintains that the new way takes more work, said: “But is it the better thing for the student? For sure.”
When restorative justice coordinator Marcus Van approached a student who was out of class without permission, he led with curiosity rather than threatening suspension. Maywood is a calmer school more than a decade after LAUSD shifted to restorative practices and positive behavior interventions and supports, teachers and administrators say. Credit: Gail Cornwall for The Hechinger Report
At Maywood, Marcus Van, the restorative justice coordinator who met with Valladares after the teen argued with a teacher, said students have a chance to talk out their problems and grievances and resolve them. In contrast, Van said, “When you just suspend someone, you do not go through the process of reconciliation.”
Often, so-called defiant behavior is spurred by some larger issue, he said: “Maybe somebody has parents who are on drugs [or] abusive, maybe they have housing insecurity, maybe they have food insecurity, maybe they’re being bullied.” He added: “I think people want an easy fix for a complicated problem.”
Valladares, for his part, knows some people think suspensions breed school safety. But he said he feels safer — and behaves in a way that’s safer for others — when “I’m able to voice how I feel.”
Twelfth grader Yaretzy Ferreira said: “I feel like they actually hear us out, instead of just cutting us out.”
Her first year and a half at Maywood, she was “really hyper sassy,” according to Van. But, Ferreira recalled, that changed after Van invited her mom and a translator to a meeting: “He was like, ‘Your daughter did this, this, this, but we’re not here to get her in trouble. We’re here to help.’” Now, the only reason she ends up in Van’s office is for a water or a snack.
LAUSD’s office of Positive Behavior Interventions & Support/Restorative Practices falls under the “joy and wellness” pillar of the district’s strategic plan. Information pushed out by the PBIS/RP office aims to help students and staff connect in a positive, forward-looking manner. Credit: Gail Cornwall for The Hechinger Report
Van der Fluit said the new approach is better for all kids, not just those with a history of defiance. For example, the class that watched the tardy slip interaction unfold saw adults model how to successfully manage frustration and de-escalate a situation. “That’s incredibly valuable,” he said, “more valuable than learning photosynthesis.”
The Maywood campus is calmer than it used to be, educators at the school say. Students, for the most part, no longer roam the halls during class time. There’s less profanity, said history teacher Michael Melendez. Things are going “just fine” without willful defiance suspensions, he said.
Nationally, researchers have come to a similar conclusion: A 2023 report from the Learning Policy Institute, based on data for about 2 million California students, concluded that exposure to restorative practices improved academic achievement, behavior and school safety. A 2023 study on restorative programs in Chicago Public Schools, conducted by the University of Chicago Education Lab, found positive changes in how students viewed their schools, their in-school safety and their sense of belonging.
In Los Angeles, many students say the hard work of transitioning to a new disciplinary approach is worth it.
“We’re still kids in a way. We are growing, but there’s still corrections to be made,” said Valladares. “And what’s the point in a school if there’s no corrections, just instant punishment?”
This story about PBIS was produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for theHechinger newsletter.
Related articles
The Hechinger Report provides in-depth, fact-based, unbiased reporting on education that is free to all readers. But that doesn’t mean it’s free to produce. Our work keeps educators and the public informed about pressing issues at schools and on campuses throughout the country. We tell the whole story, even when the details are inconvenient. Help us keep doing that.
For the first 57 minutes of the basketball game between two Bend, Oregon, high school rivals, Kyra Rice stood at the edges of the court taking yearbook photos. With just minutes before the end of the game, she was told she had to move.
Kyra pushed back: She had permission to stand near the court. The athletic director got involved, Kyra recalled. She let a swear word or two slip.
Kyra has anxiety as well as ADHD, which can make her impulsive. Following years of poor experiences at school, she sometimes became defensive when she felt overwhelmed, said her mom, Jules Rice.
But at the game, Kyra said she kept her cool overall. Both she and her mother were shocked to learn the next day that she’d been suspended from school.
“OK, maybe she said some bad words, but it’s not enough to suspend her,” Rice said.
The incident’s discipline record, provided by Rice, lists a series of categories to explain the suspension: insubordination, disobedience, disrespectful/minor disruption, inappropriate language, non-compliance.
Broad and subjective categories like these are cited hundreds of thousands of times a year to justify removing students from school, a Hechinger Report investigation found. The data show that students with disabilities, like Kyra, are more likely than their peers to be punished for such violations. In fact, they’re often more likely to be suspended for these reasons than for other infractions.
For example, between 2017-18 and 2021-22, Rhode Island students with disabilities were, on average, two and a half times more likely than their peers to be suspended for any reason, but nearly three times more likely to be suspended for insubordination and almost four times more likely to be suspended for disorderly conduct. Similar patterns played out in other states with available data including Massachusetts, Montana and Vermont.
Federal law should offer students protections from being suspended for behavior that results from their disability, even if they are being disruptive or insubordinate. But those protections have significant limitations. At the same time, these subjective categories are almost tailor-made to trap students with disabilities, who might have trouble expressing or regulating themselves appropriately.
Districts have wide discretion in setting their own rules and many students with disabilities quickly earn reputations at school as troublemakers. “Unfortunately, who gets caught up in a lot of the vagueness in the codes of conduct are students with disabilities,” said attorney Robert Tudisco, an expert with Understood.org, a nonprofit that provides resources and support to people with learning and attention disabilities.
Students on the autism spectrum often have a hard time communicating with words and might yell or become aggressive if something upsets them. A student with oppositional defiant disorder is likely to be openly insubordinate to authority, while one with dyslexia might act out when frustrated with schoolwork. Students with ADHD typically have a hard time controlling their impulses.
Kyra’s disability created challenges throughout her school career in the Bend-La Pine School District. “Nobody really understood her,” Rice said. “She’s a big personality and she’s very impulsive. And impulsivity is what gets kids in trouble and gets kids suspended.”
Suspended for…what?
Students miss hundreds of thousands of school days each year for subjective infractions like defiance and disorderly conduct, a Hechinger investigation revealed.
Kyra, now 17, said that too few teachers cared about her individualized education program, or IEP, a document that details the accommodations a student in special education is granted. She’d regularly butt heads with teachers or skip class altogether to avoid them. Her favorite teacher was her special ed teacher.
“She understood my ADHD and my other special needs,” Kyra said. “My other teachers didn’t.”
Scott Maben, district spokesperson, said in an email he could not comment on specific disciplinary matters because of privacy concerns, but that the district had a range of responses to deal with student misconduct and that administrators “carefully consider a response that is commensurate with the violation.”
In Oregon, “disruptive conduct” accounted for more than half of all suspensions from 2017-18 to 2021-22. The state department of education includes in that category insubordination and disorderly conduct, as well as harassment, obscene behavior, minor physical altercations, and “other” rule violations.
Disruptive behavior is the leading cause of suspensions because of its “inherently subjective nature,” the state department of education’s spokesperson, Marc Siegal, said in an email. He added that the department monitors discipline data for special education disparities and works with school districts on the issue.
The primary protections for students with disabilities come from the federal government, through the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, or IDEA. But that law only requires districts to examine whether a student’s behavior stems from their disability after they have missed 10 total days of school through suspension.
At that point, districts are required to hold a manifestation hearing, in which officials must determine whether a student’s behavior was the result of their disability. “That’s where it gets very gray,” Tudisco said. “What happens in the determination of manifestation is very subjective.”
In his experience, he added, the behavior is almost always connected to a student’s disability, but school districts often don’t see it that way.
“Manifestation is not about giving Johnny or Susie a free pass because they have a disability,” Tudisco said. “It’s a process to understand why this behavior occurred so we can do something to prevent it tomorrow.”
The connections are often much clearer to parents.
A Rhode Island mother, Pearl, said her daughter was easily overwhelmed in her elementary school classroom in the Bristol Warren Regional School District. (Pearl is being referred to by her middle name because she is still a district parent and fears retaliation.)
Her child has autism and easily experiences a sensory overload. If the classroom was too loud or someone new walked in, she might start screaming and get out of her seat, Pearl said. Teachers struggled to calm her down, as other students were escorted out of the room.
Sometimes, Pearl was called to pick up her daughter early, in an unrecorded informal removal. A few times, though, she was suspended for disorderly conduct, Pearl recalled.
Between 2017-18 and 2020-21, students with disabilities in the Bristol Warren Regional School District made up about 13 percent of the student body, but accounted for 21 percent of suspensions for insubordination and 30 percent of all disorderly conduct suspensions.
The district did not respond to repeated requests for comment.
The Rhode Island Department of Education collects data on school discipline from districts, but special education and discipline reform advocates in the state say that the agency rarely acts on these numbers.
Department spokesperson Victor Morente said in an email that the agency monitors discipline data and is “very clear that suspension should be the last option considered.” He added that the department has published resources about alternatives to suspension and discipline specifically for students with disabilities.
A 2016 state law that limits the overall use of out-of-school suspensions also requires that districts examine their data for inequities. Districts that find such disparities are supposed to submit a report to the department of education, said Hannah Stern, a policy associate at the Rhode Island American Civil Liberties Union.
Her group submits public records requests for copies of their reports every year, but has never received one, she said, “even though almost every single school district exhibits disparities.”
Pearl said that her daughter needed one-on-one support in the classroom instead of punishment. “She’s autistic. She’s not going to learn her lesson by suspending her,” Pearl said. “She actually got more scared to go back. She actually felt very unwelcome and very sad.”
Students with autism often have a hard time connecting their actions to the punishment, said Joanne Quinn, executive director of The Autism Project, a Rhode Island-based group that offers support to family members of people with autism. With suspension, “there’s no learning going on and they’re going to do the same thing incorrectly.”
Quinn’s group provides training for schools throughout Rhode Island and beyond, aimed at helping teachers understand how the brain functions in people with autism and offering strategies on how to effectively respond to behavior challenges that could easily be labeled disobedient or disorderly.
Federal law provides a road map for schools to improve how they respond to misconduct related to a student’s disability. Schools should identify a student’s triggers and create a behavior intervention plan aimed at preventing problems before they start, it says.
But, doing these things well requires time, resources and training that can be in short supply, leaving teachers feeling alone, struggling to maintain order in their classrooms, said Christine Levy, a former special education teacher and administrator who works as an advocate for individual special education students in the Northeast, including Rhode Island.
Levy recently worked with a student with disabilities who was suspended after he tickled a peer at a locker on five straight days. But, she said, the situation should have never reached the point of suspension: Educators should have quickly identified what the boy was struggling with and set a plan in motion to help him, including modeling appropriate locker conduct.
Had this boy’s teachers done that, the suspension could have been avoided. “The repair of that is so much longer and so much harder to do versus, let’s catch it right away,” she said.
Cranston Public School officials would regularly call Michelle Gomes and tell her to come get her daughter for misbehaving in class, she said. Credit: Sarah Butrymowicz/The Hechinger Report
Many parents described similar situations, though, in which a child routinely got in trouble for repeated behavior. When Michelle Gomes’s daughter became upset in her kindergarten classroom, she’d often run out and refuse to come back in. Sometimes, she’d tear things off the walls.
“Whenever she gets like that, it’s hard to see,” Gomes said. “I hurt for her. It’s like she’s not in control.”
Gomes received regular calls from Cranston Public School officials to come pick her daughter up. A couple of times, the child was formally suspended, Gomes said. The school described her as a safety risk, Gomes recalled.
“She obviously doesn’t feel safe herself,” she said.
Cranston Public Schools did not respond to requests for comment.
Gomes’s daughter had a speech delay and anxiety and qualified for special education services. A private neurological evaluation concluded that she was compensating for that delay with her physical responses, Gomes said.
This can be a common cause of behavior challenges for students with disabilities, experts say.
“Behavior is communication,” said Julian Saavandra, an assistant principal and an expert at Understood.org. “The behavior is trying to tell us something. We as the IEP team, the school team, have to dig deeper.”
On her own, Gomes found strategies that helped. Gomes’ child struggled with transitions, so they’d go over her day in advance to prepare her for what to expect. A play therapist taught both her and her daughter breathing exercises.
Her daughter was switched to another district school where a social worker would sometimes walk the girl to class. When the child got worked up, she’d sometimes be allowed to sit with that social worker or in the nurse’s office to calm down. That helped, but sometimes, those staff members weren’t available.
In the end, Gomes moved her daughter to a school outside the district that was better equipped to help the girl deescalate. Her behavior problems lessened and she started enjoying going to school, Gomes said.
But Gomes still can’t understand why more teachers weren’t able to help her child regulate herself. “Do we need retraining or do we need new training?” she said. “Because this is mindblowing to me, not one of you can do that.”
Note: The Hechinger Report’s Fazil Khan had nearly completed the data analysis and reporting for this project when he died in a fire in his apartment building. USA TODAY Senior Data Editor Doug Caruso completed data visualizations for this project based on Khan’s work.
The Hechinger Report provides in-depth, fact-based, unbiased reporting on education that is free to all readers. But that doesn’t mean it’s free to produce. Our work keeps educators and the public informed about pressing issues at schools and on campuses throughout the country. We tell the whole story, even when the details are inconvenient. Help us keep doing that.
The Council of Administrators of Special Education (CASE) has re-endorsed Classworks® for an additional three years. The CASE Executive Committee designated the award-winning platform as a CASE-endorsed product that delivers high-quality assessment and instructional resources to special education teachers and students.
CASE has recognized Classworks as a tool that “successfully addresses the inherent challenges of special education,” since 2010. This month, CASE re-endorsed Classworks as a top-tier special education resource through 2027. Every three years, the platform undergoes a rigorous evaluation by the CASE Executive Committee. As part of the review process, CASE considers the impact on achievement for special education students as well as any new enhancements. In addition to the tremendous impact Classworks has on special education students, two significant product changes were made:
Classworks released a new student experience focused on student ownership over their learning and growth
Dyslexia and Dyscalculia indicators were added to the screener assessments
These and several other new Classworks enhancements answer the imminent need in the marketplace for comprehensive, valid and reliable programs that simplify processes for special education teachers, and provide a more engaging and motivating experience for students.
“Our special education teachers are dedicated to creating high-quality IEPs customized to each student’s areas of need. However, that process can be cumbersome without the right data and tools. Classworks data is easy to understand and gives us exactly what we need to create meaningful goals,” states Katrina Jackson, director of special education, Montgomery Public Schools, Alabama. “Teachers are thrilled that they have reliable data and documentation. Classworks has cut their IEP writing time in half!”
With Classworks, educators have access to assessments to identify present levels of performance and develop ambitious annual goals, progress monitoring to measure and document progress toward goals, and evidence-based, individualized, Specially Designed Instruction (SDI) to help students achieve their IEP goals. Classworks screener and progress monitoring assessments are validated by the National Center on Intensive Intervention (NCII). Learn more.
About Classworks
Classworks leverages technology and evidence-based learning practices to transform how school districts support students’ academic, social-emotional, and behavioral needs. Our CASE-endorsed, comprehensive Special Education and Multi-Tiered System of Supports (MTSS) solution includes academic screeners, math and reading interventions, specially designed instruction, progress monitoring, and powerful data. Classworks Universal Screener and Progress Monitoring Assessments are validated by the National Center on Intensive Intervention (NCII).
About The Council Of Administrators Of Special Education
The Council of Administrators of Special Education (CASE) is an international professional educational organization affiliated with the Council for Exceptional Children (CEC). Members are dedicated to enhancing the worth, dignity, potential, and uniqueness of each individual in society. The mission of CASE is to provide leadership and support to members by shaping policies and practices that impact the quality of education. For more information, visit www.casecec.org.
eSchool Media staff cover education technology in all its aspects–from legislation and litigation, to best practices, to lessons learned and new products. First published in March of 1998 as a monthly print and digital newspaper, eSchool Media provides the news and information necessary to help K-20 decision-makers successfully use technology and innovation to transform schools and colleges and achieve their educational goals.
