Experts insist kids with special needs should be allowed back in the classroom

HOUSTON - As Texas school districts ponder the return of in-person classroom instruction, experts insist a pair of at-risk student populations should be at the very top of that list – the youngest learners and those with special needs.

“While online learning is not working for most kids, it’s especially not working or our youngest kids, pre-K, K, [grades] one, two, and three. These are the kids that are really going to have severe after-effects for not going to school,” said Dr. Bob Sanborn, leader of the advocacy group Children at Risk. 

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Sanborn says leaving K-3 kids online for a full year will cripple the ability of many students to remain on grade level.

“These are foundations we are building here and when you go for a year without these foundational tools, what we are really saying is that we are leaving these kids behind,” said Sanborn.

Well known Special Education advocate Lou Geigerman says in the months since instruction moved on-line, parents of disabled students report “exponential” loss of learning.

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“The special needs population is already behind the eightball. Not having that face-to-face instruction just doesn’t allow them to get the material,” said Geigerman.

Geigerman is urging school districts to welcome kids who need special education back to classrooms staffed with additional teachers and para-professionals sooner rather than later.
The alternative, he contends, will put years of student progress in jeopardy.

“You know they may never recoup the losses they had in regression, that’s the real fear,” said Geigerman.