Navigating Special Education Evaluations for Specific Learning Disabilities Amid the Covid-19 Pandemic (PDF)
This brief describes practical steps that school psychologists and school districts can consider to assess students for a specific learning disability. It provides recommendations to adapt state policies on evaluations for specific learning disabilities in light of the pandemic, with ensuring that students get timely and thorough evaluations to develop educational programs that meet their needs. The brief discusses four challenges: 1) Interruptions to instruction, 2) Administering assessments under new circumstances, 3) Ruling out exclusionary factors 4) Addressing the backlog of evaluations under tight timelines.
Citation/Source
National Center for Learning Disabilities, National Association of School Psychologists. 2020. Navigating Special Education Evaluations for Specific Learning Disabilities Amid the Covid-19 Pandemic. National Center for Learning Disabilities, National Association of School Psychologists https://www.ncld.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Navigating-Special-Education-Evaluations-for-Specific-Learning-Disabilities-SLD-Amid-the-COVID-19-Pandemic.pdf
Publication Date 2024
School Closure And English Learners: A Review of COVID-19 Operations Written Reports (WEBPAGE)
This report reviews 79 California school districts with a focus on how they managed school closures and the quality of education that English Learners received. Six key indicators were identified: 1. Designated and Integrated English Language Development (ELD) 2.Live Interactive Instruction 3.Bridging the Digital Divide A PowerPoint is included with the article 4. Family Collaboration 5. Social-Emotional Support Early Child Education (ECE).
Citation/Source
Williams, Dr., C.P. 2020. School Closure And English Learners: A Review of COVID-19 Operations Written Reports. Long Beach, California: Californians Together. https://www.californianstogether.org/school-closure-and-english-learners/
Publication Date 2024
Do Parents Trust Schools? Where the Fault Lines Are During COVID-19 (ARTICLE)
This article is about a parent survey on whether parents trust that the schools will safeguard their children's health while they attend in-person classes during the pandemic.
Citation/Source
Samuels, Christina A. 2020. Do Parents Trust Schools? Where the Fault Lines Are During COVID-19. Bethesda, Maryland: Education Week. https://www.edweek.org/leadership/do-parents-trust-schools-where-the-fault-lines-are-during-covid-19/2020/09
Publication Date 2024
How We Go Back to School (WEBSITE)
This is an eight part series with a broad spectrum of opinions for how to open and operate schools in the COVID-19 crisis, it explores specific strategies that some districts will adopt and explains pros, the cons, and the costs. The eight part series includes: 1. The Socially Distanced School Day 2. Scheduling the COVID-19 School Day 3. Getting Kids to School: Tackling the COVID-19 transportation 4. COVID-19 & Remote Learning: How to Make It Work 5. Teaching and Learning in the Pandemic 6. Overcoming COVID-19 Learning Loss 7, Teaching Social -Emotional Skills Amid COVID-19 8. Closing COVID-19 Equity Gaps in Schools.
Citation/Source
Will, Madeline , Lieberman, Mark. 2020. How We Go Back to School. Education Week. https://www.edweek.org/leadership/how-we-go-back-to-school
Publication Date 2024
COVID-19 Resources for Students in Special Education (WEBSITE)
This is a compilation of resources that the San Francisco Unified School District has collected on COVID-19 concerning special education with a focus on autism.
Citation/Source
San Francisco Unified School District. COVID-19 Resources for Students in Special Education . San Francisco Unified School District. https://www.sfusd.edu/resources-families-1
Publication Date 2024
Advancing Equity in an Era of Crisis: Conversations for Administrators, Teachers, Parents, and Para-Educators About Ways to Best Serve Every Student During the COVID-19 Pandemic (WEBPAGE)
The California Association of African-American Superintendents and Administrators (CAAASA) and the University of California Los Angeles Center for the Transformation of Schools (CTS) have collaborated to offer this free online series, which provides families and educators with the tools and strategies they need to ensure greater equity for students who continue to be impacted by the COVID-19 school closures. With support from the California Collaborative for Educational Excellence (CCEE), they are inviting educators and equity leaders to make use of this video archive, and to discover new practices and approaches that will ensure their students continue to learn and thrive, even as their schools remain closed. There are a total of 30 presentations that include achieved resources and presentations.
Citation/Source
California Association of African American Superintendents and Administrators (CAAASA), California Collaborative for Educational Excellence (CCEE), UCLA Center for the Transformation of Schools, Working by Design. 2020. Advancing Equity in an Era of Crisis: Conversations for administrators, teachers, parents, and para-educators about ways to best serve every student during the COVID-19 pandemic. California Association of African American Superintendents and Administrators (CAAASA), California Collaborative for Educational Excellence (CCEE), UCLA Center for the Transformation of Schools, Working by Designhttps://www.caaasa.org/advancing-equity-in-crisis
Publication Date 2024
Covid-19 and Student Learning in the United States: The Hurt Could Last a Lifetime. (WEBPAGE)
This article discusses data collected that shows that the COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated the existing achievement gaps across income levels and between white students and students of black and Hispanic heritage. Also, the article discusses how the current situation is leading to more students of color dropping out and the long term effects on these student's long-term economic well-being and on the US economy as a whole.
Citation/Source
Dorn, E., Hancock, B., Sarakatsannis, J., Viruleg, E. 2020. Covid-19 and Student Learning in the United States: The Hurt Could Last a Lifetime. San Francisco, California: McKinsey & Company https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/public-and-social-sector/our-insights/covid-19-and-student-learning-in-the-united-states-the-hurt-could-last-a-lifetime#
Publication Date 2024
Exercise Key to Fight COVID-19’s Toll On Mental, Behavioral Health (Website)
This author argues that physical activity and fitness is essential to maintain good mental health, and that a regimen of exercise is an effective treatment for a range of mental illnesses including mild to moderate depression.
Citation/Source
National Alliance on Mental Health, (2020).
Publication Date 2024
How California Districts Seek to Recruit, Retain Black Teachers Amid Shortage (Article)
Experts attribute the lack of Black K-12 teachers in California to a number of barriers, including underrepresentation in teacher credentialing programs, as well as workplace discrimination that prompts some to leave the profession.
Citation/Source
Tadayon, A. "How California Districts Seek to Recruit, Retain Black Teachers Amid Shortage." Edsource, (2022).
Publication Date 2024
Lost Instruction Time in California Schools: The Disparate Harm from Post-pandemic Punitive Suspensions
This report highlights how post-COVID suspensions in 2021–2022 have added to the pandemic’s harmful impact of instructional loss, especially for students from “high-needs” groups, who were most harmed by the pandemic. In addition, the analysis of district level data demonstrated that many districts have bucked the overarching statewide trend showing a slight reduction in rates of lost instruction due to OSS in comparison to the pre-COVID years. The report also describes evidence of extreme differences in how some districts responded to student misconduct in 2021–2022. This report uses the data on student enrollment and the raw count of days lost due to OSS to establish a baseline measure for calculating comparable rates of lost instruction for every group in every district in California.
Citation/Source
Flores, R.T. and Daniel J. Losen (2023). Lost Instruction Time in California Schools: The Disparate Harm from Post-Pandemic Punitive Suspensions. Civil Rights Project/Proyecto Derechos Civiles, University of California Los Angeles. Accessed March 25, 2024.
Publication Date 2024
