Introduction

Over the last year, the COVID-19 pandemic has led to widespread virtual and hybrid learning and required educators to change how they instruct and support students with disabilities. NCLD and Understood conducted research through surveys and focus groups with educators across the country to understand their experience during the pandemic. We identified trends in how they are instructing and supporting students with learning and attention issues and opportunities for continued growth and change in our schools.

Here, you can learn more about our research findings and what educators shared with us. You can also explore new resources to help educators use evidence-based strategies to meet the growing needs of students with learning and attention issues during COVID-19 and as schools prepare for a full return to in-person learning. This work builds upon our previous  Forward Together project and our Distance Learning Toolkit :

Forward Together: Helping Educators Unlock the Power of Students who Learn Differently

NCLD and Understood sought to better understand how to help educators unlock the potential of the 1 in 5 individuals with learning and attention issues. Through an extensive literature review of empirical studies and surveys from educators, we found evidence of 3 specific critical mindsets and 8 key practices that can improve outcomes for students with learning and attention issues — and all students.

Distance learning toolkit: Key practices to support students with learning differences during COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to widespread virtual and hybrid learning. As a result, educators, families, and students have been struggling to adapt to distance learning, particularly for students with learning and attention issues. The Distance Learning Toolkit was created to share how educators can apply these evidence-based mindsets and practices in virtual and hybrid settings during the pandemic.

Who we are

Teacher Feedback Shows a Need for Expanded Support Systems

Despite their love for teaching, educators have had a tough time during the pandemic. In January 2021, the National Center for Learning Disabilities (NCLD) and Understood commissioned the CERES Institute for Children & Youth at Boston University Wheelock College of Education & Human Development to examine general educators’ experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic, with a specific focus on their experiences teaching students with learning and attention issues. The survey pointed to a need for supports and resources to address educator burnout, student disengagement, and unfinished learning.

Supporting Teachers With Student Re-engagement

1. Develop and disseminate resources and strategies for engaging students who have learning and attention issues. It is evident that many, if not most, students will need additional attention to overcome the negative impact of lower levels of school engagement experienced during the pandemic. States and districts should allocate resources toward employing evidence-based strategies for both academic and social-emotional re-engagement with school. To disseminate strategies, states and districts should develop and promote communities of practice or web-based clearinghouses for teachers to both share and access information.
2. Engage with parents and caregivers, paying special attention to students with disabilities who are also impacted by poverty and/or are English learners (ELs). Teachers reported similar patterns of low-level school engagement among students impacted by poverty and among EL students. Parents are critical players in re-engaging students, and efforts must be made to equitably improve communication with them. Consistent, clear resources on remote engagement of family members may assist teachers in reducing barriers to participation and collaboration. At the state or district level, resources should be invested to create culturally relevant family engagement practices, including translation services or translated materials, digital literacy training, or other evidence-based strategies for developing and sustaining productive family-school relationships.

Supporting Teachers With Learning Acceleration and Social-Emotional Learning

1. Invest in resources to build teacher confidence on positive behavior strategies, flexible grouping, and collaboration. In addition to developing materials and conducting professional development sessions, resources should be invested to establish sufficient shared planning time for educators to learn, collaboratively implement, and reflect on these practices. As concerns about learning recovery have dominated national conversations, there is an opportunity to invest in key pedagogical strategies to catch students up to grade level and provide the support for behavioral growth that is critical for all students — and particularly important for students with learning and attention issues.
2. Invest in social-emotional supports for students, including building data capacity. The majority of teachers surveyed reported having to rely upon their own personal assessment or “gut instincts” when evaluating student engagement. States and districts should engage experts to advise on the creation of tools and procedures necessary for screening and data collection regarding students’ social, emotional, and mental health needs. School districts should invest in district-wide professional development to allow educators to build the relationships and inform supportive contexts for learning. These investments should build on existing, effective multi-tiered systems of support (MTSS), Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports (PBIS), and/or Response to Intervention (RTI) systems, or seek to create new programs and systems that provide equitable, universal, and targeted supports for students’ social, emotional, and academic learning and development.

What Are Positive Behavior Strategies?

Positive behavior strategies are evidence-based approaches for promoting behavior that is conducive to learning. We start with the understanding that behavior is a form of communication. In other words, behavior is a message about what a student needs. Our goal as teachers is to receive these messages and set our students up for success.

Effective instructional practices that engage students in academic success are an essential component of any positive behavior support system. A strong relationship exists between effective instruction and students’ social, emotional, and behavioral outcomes. It might seem counterintuitive to focus on instruction over traditional classroom management methods like stop lights or consequence charts. However, positive behavior strategies such as teaching positive behavior, intervening early, and creating a positive classroom climate are most effective when implemented with engaging academic instruction. By integrating behavior supports (e.g., instructional choice, preteaching, opportunity to respond) into our instruction, we strengthen proactive behaviors and reduce the probability that challenging behaviors will occur. That makes it less likely that we’ll need to rely on rewards or consequences to encourage positive behavior.

Positive behavior strategies will be a key classroom practice when you return to in-person learning. We can imagine the excitement of our students to see their peers and re-engage in friendships. We can also predict the varied needs — social-emotional, behavioral, and academic — with which students will return to in-person learning. We need to provide students with a safe and supportive environment and we need to maximize learning time. Positive behavior strategies can help us accomplish these goals.

Positive behavior strategies support all students — including the 1 in 5 with learning and attention issues. Research shows that the 1 in 5 often face emotional, social, and behavioral challenges that can have serious, life-altering consequences.¹ Students with disabilities face higher rates of discipline in school, including higher rates of suspension. They also have higher rates of absenteeism.^2,3 Practices and situations that remove students from classrooms result in the loss of instructional time, putting the 1 in 5 farther behind their peers. This can start a cycle that is hard to exit. Positive behavior strategies promote engaging, effective instruction, something we want all students to experience, and which especially benefits the 1 in 5. And by maximizing instructional time, positive behavior strategies can ensure that the 1 in 5 have all of their academic needs met. This approach helps put all students on the path to graduation.

Why Positive Behavior Strategies Meet the Needs of the Post-COVID-19 Classroom

This spring, NCLD and Boston University’s CERES Institute surveyed over 2,400 teachers. We asked about their perceptions and feelings on the school year and how their students handled learning during the pandemic, particularly those with learning and attention challenges. We heard feedback on lessons learned throughout the pandemic, including what teachers want to keep for next year and what they hope would change.

One key finding was that nearly half of respondents said that their students with learning and attention challenges demonstrated lower levels of engagement. Related to this, teachers said they would benefit from strategies to keep their students engaged and motivated. Respondents also identified needing strategies to bring students up to grade-level expectations. Since positive behavior strategies support effective and engaging instruction — and have demonstrated success with the 1 in 5 — we’re confident that it addresses teachers’ — and students’ — immediate needs.

How to Implement Positive Behavior Strategies

Try these moves to implement positive behavior strategies in your classroom. Recall that we’re integrating these behavior supports into effective and engaging instruction.

Go-To Teacher Moves in Any Setting	Additional Considerations for Hybrid Settings
Provide frequent opportunities to respond along with appropriate wait time.4When students are responding frequently, they are engaged and less likely to be off-task. Vary opportunities to respond individually or chorally. Use different methods of response like white boards, gestures, or verbal. Be sure to provide verbal reinforcement for the specific behaviors that the students demonstrate.  Example: “On your whiteboards, I want you to solve 72 + 19. You have 30 seconds.” “Now, hold up your whiteboards.” “I see that almost everyone found the correct sum. Juan, great job finding the correct sum. Can you share the correct response?”	Leverage student engagement platforms like Classkick, Nearpod, or Kahoot to build in frequent opportunities to respond.
Use behavior-specific praise5 Provide positive feedback to recognize and affirm specific, desired student behaviors. Clearly tell students what they did correctly. Be authentic in your delivery and use culturally responsive language, as appropriate.  Example: “Carlos, I really like how you immediately hung up your coat and backpack and got started on your Do Now.”	Prepare behavior-specific praise for common challenges during hybrid learning, like transitioning to breakout rooms quickly or having all materials ready.
Actively supervise.6 Circulate in your classroom so students know that you clearly see every student. A key part of active supervision is teaching routines and procedures so you can couple your supervision with feedback.	Create multiple breakout room links so you can easily move from room to room to supervise students’ work.  Use a master document of students’ individual Google Docs to monitor work completion and progress.
Give immediate feedback.7 Students need affirmative and corrective feedback to know if they are on track to meet a learning outcome. Feedback can be verbal or written. Example: “Yes, Maria! The product of 6 × 7 is 42.”	Use verbal feedback methods to provide efficient and accessible feedback to students. Provide links to supplemental resources (e.g., a review video) as an additional corrective feedback support.
Implement high-probability request sequences.8 Give simple and short requests just before asking a student to do something they typically avoid. Example: “Destiny, take out your notebook.” (High-probability request) “And now take out your completed outline.” (High-probability request) “Thank you. Take out your pencil.” (High-probability request) “Great. Put your name and date at the top of the page.” (High-probability request) “Excellent, Destiny. Can you read the learning objective for today?” (High-probability request) “Thank you, Destiny. You can start on your independent writing now.” (Low-probability request) “Great job getting started immediately on your independent writing, Destiny!”	Create a checklist of steps students need to complete before engaging in individual or group work. Include high-probability steps like opening up relevant browser tabs, creating a duplicate interactive handout, plugging in headphones, and so forth.
Try pre-correction.9 Use action-oriented language to explicitly teach appropriate responses and behaviors. These prompt students with the behaviors that meet your expectations. Pre-corrections can be delivered verbally, visually, with a gesture, and with direct modeling. Example: “Today is our first fire drill. A fire drill is when our school practices what to do in the event of an actual fire. We’re going to show safe behavior by being quiet, walking quickly in a line, and actively listening.”	Use pre-correction to teach students expectations during online or blended learning. Follow-up with praise when students are successful. Consider using visuals to prompt students (e.g., use a chat icon on slides that require discussion).
Give students choices.10 Present information in different ways. Give students more than one way to demonstrate their learning. Offer different types of materials or locations for completing work.  Example: “Today you’re going to have the option of meeting the learning objective by completing a written passage or recording an oral reflection.”	Incorporate explicit instruction into your routines so that students can effectively use the variety of accessibility options available to digital learners (e.g., text-to-speech, speech-to-text). Prompt students to take meaningful movement breaks during extended periods of online learning and during transitions.

Progress Monitoring Is the Key to Effective Positive Behavior Strategies

Progress monitoring is an important component of positive behavior strategies. Positive behavior strategies are inclusive and support all learners, but it’s likely that some of your students will require additional support. To know which students require more support, you’ll need to collect and analyze data. Data such as percentage of directions followed, assignments completed, and responses given will help you determine whether your positive behavior strategies are working. And collecting and sharing data with your students provides opportunities to set mutual goals and give positive feedback about behavior. 

Remember that behavior is a form of communication. If a challenging behavior occurs frequently, you’ll want to determine the reason for it. We can generally categorize behavior functions using the acronym EATS. EATS stands for Escape, Attention, Tangible gains, and Sensory needs. (Learning for Justice, an organization that provides resources to create inclusive school communities, has additional information on EATS.) Knowing the reason, or function, of a particular behavior can help you identify additional strategies to support your students. And if you’re unsuccessful in reducing the frequency or intensity of behavior on your own, this data can be helpful to a collaborative team of school professionals.

Learn More

Positive Behavior Strategies: What You Need to Know (Understood)

Gives information on positive behavior strategies, including additional guidance on implementing this approach in the classroom.

Distance Learning Toolkit: Key Practices to Support Students Who Learn Differently (Understood)

A toolkit to help educators meet the needs of all students during distance learning. It includes additional ideas for implementing positive behavior strategies.

Evidence-Based Behavior Strategy: Nonverbal Signals (Understood)

Gives a detailed explanation of how teachers can foster communication while limiting interruptions during instruction (and allowing students to communicate their needs without drawing attention to themselves) by using nonverbal signals.

Evidence-Based Behavior Strategy: Pre-correcting and Prompting (Understood)

Gives a detailed explanation of how teachers can use pre-correcting and prompting to tell and remind students of behavior expectations before potential behavior problems occur.

PBIS.org

Website of the Technical Assistance Center on PBIS, funded by the U.S. Department of Education to support schools, districts, and states in building systems capacity for implementing a multi-tiered approach to social, emotional, and behavior support. The website includes detailed information and resources.

Acknowledgments

Author: Lindsay DeHartchuck, M.A.
Expert Reviewers: George M. Batsche, Ed.D. and Christina Cipriano, Ph.D.
Teacher Contributor: MaryEllen Noonan, M.A., Ed.S.

Footnotes

1. Horowitz, S. H., Rawe, J., & Whittaker, M. C. (2017). The state of learning disabilities: Understanding the 1 in 5. National Center for Learning Disabilities.
2. U.S. Department of Education (2016, October 27). Chronic absenteeism in the nation’s schools: A hidden educational crisis (interactive website). U.S. Department of Education.
3. Balfanz, R., Byrnes, V., & Fox, J. (2013). Sent home and put off-track: The antecedents, disproportionalities, and consequences of being suspended in the ninth grade. Prepared for the National Conference on Race and Gender Disparities in Discipline, Dec. 21, 2012; Losen, D., Hodson, C., Keith, M. A. II, Morrison, K., & Belway, S. (2015). Are we closing the school discipline gap? Civil Rights Project.
4. Lane, K. L., Menzies, H. M., Ennis, R. P., & Oakes, W. P. (2015). Supporting behavior for school success: A step-by-step guide to key strategies (1st ed.). The Guilford Press.
5. Ibid.
6. Ibid.
7. Ibid.
8. Ibid.
9. Ibid.
10. Ibid.

What Is Flexible Grouping?

Flexible grouping is a highly effective strategy for creating an inclusive classroom culture that honors learner variability. Use data to put students into small groups for instruction. Your groups should change frequently in response to the lesson outcome and student needs. Students can be grouped at the same skill level or with varying skill levels.

Flexible grouping will be a key classroom practice when you return to in-person learning. Flexible grouping can support accelerated learning and address foundational skill needs. It also increases your students’ engagement and supports their social-emotional needs. 

Flexible grouping supports students with disabilities — the 1 in 5. It helps students get the right support, in the right way, at the right time. You can deliver individual support and intervention within the general education classroom, rather than removing students. When flexible grouping is an expected routine for all students, it reduces the stigma the 1 in 5 can experience from working more frequently with the teacher. When used for collaborative learning activities, flexible grouping supports the 1 in 5 in using their assets.

Why Flexible Grouping Meets the Needs of the Post-COVID-19 Classroom

This spring, NCLD and Boston University’s CERES Institute surveyed over 2,400 teachers. We asked about their perceptions and feelings on the school year and how their students handled learning during the pandemic, particularly those with learning and attention challenges. We heard feedback on lessons learned throughout the pandemic, including what teachers want to keep for next year and what they hope would change.

How to Implement Flexible Grouping

As you return to in-person learning, use peer collaboration and small group instruction to meet academic and social-emotional needs. Try these moves to implement flexible grouping in your classroom.

Go-To Teacher Moves in Any Setting	Additional Considerations for Hybrid Settings
Identify your learning outcome. The objective will inform the group size and make-up.	Group students according to their location. Keep virtual students together and in-person students together.
Determine student needs using data appropriate for the task. What student skills will be required for the task? Can you group students to complement skill levels and needs? How can the task use student interests to maximize engagement?	Consider student personalities. Aim for a balance of introverts and extroverts.
Set group norms with your students.	Modify group norms for virtual students. For example, when can students use the chat?
Practice routines and transitions to and from flexible grouping locations.	Set expectations for virtual transitions too. For example, how long does a student have to join a breakout room?
Provide the whole group explicit instruction to present key vocabulary and engage background knowledge.	Provide the whole group explicit instruction on the use of technology.
Reduce social anxiety. Provide your students the steps needed to complete a task, one step at a time. Assign roles to students like a reader and a recorder. Use sentence stems.	Build in extra time for an icebreaker. Give students individual thinking time. Use the chat to share initial ideas to start the conversation.
Check for understanding of the learning activity, at each step. Provide immediate feedback.	Create multiple breakout rooms so you can “move” from group to group easily.
Debrief by asking students how the learning experience was and how to improve.	Use a Jamboard, Google Doc, or Kudoboard to capture feedback from students.

Progress Monitoring Is the Key to Effective Flexible Grouping

A key element to flexible grouping is collecting, analyzing, and responding to student data. Meaningful progress monitoring is even more important as schools emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic. Without effective progress monitoring, you run the risk of misunderstanding where challenges lie and potentially inappropriately referring students for special education.

Ongoing progress monitoring helps identify students who need individualized support. Progress monitoring can also ensure that students in an accelerated learning environment are mastering content. If students are not on track, progress monitoring identifies who needs timely intervention. 

When implementing flexible grouping, be aware that groups — or students — might present their learning differently. You should consider multiple ways to determine if students mastered the task. This flexibility in assessment is critical to determining if the 1 in 5 mastered a task or skill. Consider using rubrics to provide a consistent method for assessing students when providing flexibility in the ways they can demonstrate those skills.

Learn More

Flexible Grouping: What You Need to Know (Understood)

A research-backed, expert-vetted, and classroom teacher-reviewed article on flexible grouping, including additional ideas for implementing the strategy and applying the practice to distance learning.

Distance Learning Toolkit: Key Practices to Support Students Who Learn Differently (Understood)

A toolkit to help educators meet the needs of all students during distance learning. It includes additional ideas for implementing flexible grouping.

High-Leverage Practice: Establish a Consistent, Organized, and Respectful Learning Environment (Council for Exceptional Children)

A 20-minute video designed to augment professional learning for establishing a consistent, organized, and respectful learning environment. The video:

• Describes important steps
• Shows how a variety of teachers implement the practice with all students, not just students with learning and attention issues

Differentiated Instruction: Maximizing the Learning of All Students (IRIS Center)

Three-hour interactive, multimedia learning module for educators. Topics include:

• Understanding the key elements of differentiated instruction
• Differentiating instruction based on students’ readiness level, interests, and learning needs
• Differentiating instruction for three main instructional components: content, process, and product
• Evaluating and grading differentiated products
• Preparing students and classrooms for differentiated instruction

Ability Grouping, Tracking and Grouping Alternatives (Learning for Justice)

Five-minute video in which experts discuss the history, practice, and perils of grouping students for classroom instruction according to their perceived abilities, as well as alternatives.

Acknowledgments

Author: Lindsay DeHartchuck, M.A.
Expert Reviewers: George M. Batsche, Ed.D. and Douglas Fisher, Ph.D.
Teacher Contributor: Julian Saavedra, M.A.

What Is Collaboration?

Collaboration is an effective tool that allows general educators, special educators, learning specialists, administrators, and other stakeholders to work together to meet the needs of students. Collaboration is particularly important to sustain inclusive settings. No single educator should be responsible for holding the expertise in the infinite presentations of learner variability. Further, students work with multiple adults within a school building. Collaboration creates safe conditions for students and educators to share knowledge and collectively problem-solve. The primary purposes of collaboration include: identifying and sharing effective academic, behavior, and social-emotional instructional practices, ensuring that practices are consistent across all providers, and ensuring that the students benefit from those practices.

Effective collaboration depends on good communication practices. Examples of high-impact collaboration practices include: collaborative lesson planning across providers (particularly in a multi-tiered system of supports), collaboration with parents and caregivers to extend the teaching and learning process “beyond the bell,” and collaboration with student support personnel like related-service providers and paraprofessionals.

Collaboration will be a key classroom practice when you return to in-person learning. We know that students will be returning to school with varying needs, including academic, behavioral, and social-emotional. To effectively meet these needs, collaboration with students’ previous teachers and support staff will help ensure that students begin the school year on the right foot. Consider implementing “hand-off” meetings — even quick ones — with your students’ previous teachers. Ask your students’ former teachers to identify students who did exceedingly well during the pandemic, as well as students for whom the last year was a challenge. Asking last year’s teachers about their successful strategies for instruction and engagement should be a high priority. This practice can inform how you approach relationship-building and differentiation of content.

Collaboration with families and caregivers will also be critical for this school year. Families and caregivers took an active role in their child’s education during the COVID-19 pandemic. They assisted with technology needs, supported their child’s learning of material, and provided social-emotional support.

Make a plan to learn from your students’ families and caregivers with similar “hand-off” meetings or empathy interviews. Seek to understand what did and didn’t work last year. You could even include students in these conversations, as they will have the most insight to share. Early collaboration with families will help establish lines of communication and build positive relationships for the school year.

Collaboration supports all students — including the 1 in 5 with learning and attention issues. Several studies have shown that students with disabilities in schools with collaborative culture outperform similar students in schools without these structures.¹ Collaboration can bring together teachers with different perspectives and different knowledge to meet learner variability. For example, a general education teacher collaborating with a literacy specialist can efficiently identify strategies to support students with reading abilities that are above or below grade level. Similarly, collaboration can be a tool for creating consistent learning experiences. All students, and especially students with disabilities, benefit from consistent implementation of differentiation strategies, accommodations, and modifications to meet learners where they are in the classroom. 

Why Collaboration Meets the Needs of the Post-COVID-19 Classroom

This spring, NCLD and Boston University’s CERES Institute surveyed over 2,400 teachers. We asked about their perceptions and feelings on the school year and how their students handled learning during the pandemic, particularly those with learning and attention challenges. We heard feedback on lessons learned throughout the pandemic, including what teachers want to keep for next year and what they hope would change.

One key finding was that collaboration was identified as a key strategy for meeting the needs of students with learning and attention challenges. Indeed, consistent and structured times to meet to analyze data (e.g., exit tickets, summative assessments, behavior logs) and collaborative problem-solving is important for teachers and for students. It can identify student assets, which can be applied across multiple settings. Collaborative times are also an opportunity to identify student needs and ensure that the right interventions are implemented. 

Skills for Effective Collaboration

Effective collaboration goes beyond having the time and space to meet with colleagues. Think about how you’d set your students up for successful peer collaboration. You’d determine what’s needed ahead of time, explicitly teaching those foundational skills with modeling and reinforcement. As professionals, we might not need that level of intensive support, but there are skills that we need to use to maximize collaborative time. Below are suggestions to improve your meeting facilitation and participation.

Skill	Go-To Moves
Preparedness	Identify a facilitator. This person may be the team leader, or you may opt to rotate facilitation responsibilities. Set an agenda ahead of time and identify meeting goals. Communicate pre-work, ideally no more than 30 minutes’ worth, to maximize collaboration.
Active Listening	Be present. Silence cell phones, close laptops, and focus only on the meeting agenda and goals. Allow others to fully finish their thoughts. Follow up with questions.
Summarizing	As the meeting goes on, summarize what you’re hearing (or think you’re hearing!) from your colleagues. As the meeting concludes, summarize next steps, ownership, and any deadlines for follow-through. Identify any unresolved topics for the next meeting. Don’t forget to revisit these next steps during future meetings to ensure follow-through.
Questioning	Approach colleagues with an inquiry mindset. Ask questions, particularly open-ended and clarifying ones. Check your own understanding of your colleagues’ views by paraphrasing.
Delivering	Deliver ideas and solutions with evidence.
Integrating	Synthesize colleagues’ ideas to arrive at an actionable solution. Use input and feedback to strengthen initial ideas.
Empathizing	Assume positive intent of others. Ensure that everyone’s voice is equally heard and that everyone is contributing.

Keep in mind that these practices also extend to working collaboratively with families and caregivers. Effective collaboration can help you leverage your families’ assets — their background knowledge, interests, and culture. As we saw throughout the pandemic, families play a key role in supporting their children’s education. We must partner with families to help their children and to ensure that all students achieve.

Collaboration and Effective Progress Monitoring

In schools implementing a multi-tiered system of supports, collaboration and progress monitoring go hand-in-hand. As we’ve noted, teachers should not work in isolation. It’s important to distribute problem-solving opportunities among general educators, special educators, learning specialists, administrators, and other stakeholders to improve student outcomes.

As we look toward the new school year, we know students will return with varying needs. They will have had varying degrees of success with learning experiences during the pandemic. You should use the beginning of the school year to build relationships with students and to administer diagnostic assessments, like universal screeners. Having a baseline of student performance is critical for knowing if students are making adequate progress throughout the year — and for quickly identifying the students who have foundational skill gaps.

With this baseline data, you’ll want to monitor students’ progress in their response to your daily instruction and any interventions you implement. You can do this with exit tickets at the end of lessons or through weekly assessments. What’s important is that you’re collecting data and analyzing it to quickly adjust your instruction. For example, at the end of each lesson, give students a short formative assessment aligned to the objective. With just a few items, you can determine which students mastered the objective and which need additional time or even a different instructional approach. Depending on the responses, you might build in additional review at the top of your next lesson for your whole class, or create a small group lesson for a select group of students. This type of analysis is ripe for collaboration. Check in with your grade-level colleague to share ideas on adjusting instruction, or tap into your paraprofessional to support a small group. Collaboration can be quick conversations and still result in effective next steps.

If students are not making progress with this type of responsive instruction and collaboration, you’ll want to use your school’s collaborative structures, like a student support team, to get additional ideas for how to best support their needs. This step is crucial for intervening effectively and ensuring that students who require specially designed instruction get the right services.

Learn More

High-Level Practices in Special Education: Collaboration (Council for Exceptional Children)

Downloadable 15-page chapter from the CEC’s larger publication. Provides research syntheses for special education teachers on:

• Collaborating with other professionals
• Organizing and facilitating effective meetings with professionals and families
• Collaborating with families

Collaborating With Families (IRIS Center)

Learning module designed to help teachers build positive relationships with families of students with learning issues. Multimedia resources and templates cover such topics as:

• Recognizing that all families are different
• Understanding the emotions exhibited by the parents of children with disabilities
• Showing respect to parents
• Treating parents as equal partners
• Providing parents with meaningful information about their child’s and the school’s performance

Distance Learning Toolkit: Key Practices to Support Students Who Learn Differently (Understood)

A toolkit to help educators meet the needs of all students during distance learning. It includes additional ideas for collaborating with colleagues, families, and caregivers.

Acknowledgments

Author: Lindsay DeHartchuck, M.A.
Expert Reviewers: George M. Batsche, Ed.D. and Christina Cipriano, Ph.D.
Teacher Contributor: MaryEllen Noonan, M.A., Ed.S.

Over the last year, the COVID-19 pandemic has led to widespread virtual and hybrid learning, requiring educators to change how they instruct and support students with disabilities. NCLD and Understood commissioned the CERES Institute for Children & Youth at Boston University Wheelock College of Education & Human Development to conduct research through nationwide surveys and focus groups with educators to understand their experience during the pandemic. We identified trends in how they are instructing and supporting students with learning and attention issues, as well as opportunities for continued growth and change in our schools.

Below are some of the key research findings and what educators shared with us:

1. The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted students with learning and attention issues in significant ways, with educators revealing lower rates of student engagement and student progress compared to other years.
   • Almost 50% of teachers indicated that students with learning and attention issues demonstrated lower levels of school engagement than in prior years.
   • More than one-third of teachers reported similar patterns of low school engagement among students impacted by poverty and among English learners.
2. The survey revealed the stress of the pandemic on teachers — but also their resilience and their desire to support all students.
   • 58% of teachers reported feeling burnout from teaching. Those who taught in schools impacted by poverty and those working primarily with students with learning and attention issues were most likely to report feeling burnout.
   • 72% of teachers report that they don’t have enough time to teach everything that they’re expected to teach.
   • 86% of teachers believe all students can learn through effective teaching and hard work.
3. Teachers want and need the help of their school and district leadership, including strategies to engage students and families and meet their social-emotional and academic needs.
   • 70% of teachers would like to continue implementing strategies used during the pandemic, including having smaller cohorts of students so they can give more individualized attention; working collaboratively with colleagues; using education apps and games to enhance student learning; and creating smaller classrooms.
   • Over 50% of teachers reported wanting to continue using synchronous online learning platforms and also to offer pre-recorded lessons and materials asynchronously.

We know that the pandemic exacerbated inequities across the education system. Yet, there are lessons to be learned that can better equip educators in the upcoming school year to support students with learning and attention issues. Go deeper into the practices identified by educators as the most important strategies to support students by clicking on the tabs.

The COVID-related school closures that stretched from 2020 to 2021 have stressed families, caregivers, schools, and children. School disruptions have resulted in instructional loss for the vast majority of children. These disruptions are likely to have a larger impact on some students than others, despite dedicated support from families and caregivers.

Children with disabilities and those who are suspected to have disabilities face unique challenges. For those with previously identified disabilities, it may have been harder to receive specially designed instruction or related services during the pandemic due to the virtual and remote nature of learning. Additionally, reevaluations and updates to students’ IEPs based on their changing and growing needs may have been difficult to manage remotely and with social distancing requirements. For students struggling during the pandemic (in light of instructional loss, stress, and disruptions) and suspected to have a disability, it may be more difficult for educators and caregivers to evaluate whether learning challenges are caused by COVID-related difficulties or a disability.

Families and caregivers have played a critical role in supporting students through blended and virtual instruction. As a result, caregivers have gained valuable information about the strengths, challenges, and needs of their children. Caregivers will be integral in helping schools navigate COVID-related challenges and in providing children with the supports they need to access a challenging, grade-level curriculum.

If your child has already been identified as having a disability and has an IEP, you may be wondering how to make sure the IEP meets current needs. Or you may have questions about the reevaluation process and procedures due to the pandemic. If your child is struggling and you suspect a disability, you may have questions about how the school will evaluate and make their determination. And any caregiver may also be wondering how schools will get students back on track by providing high-quality instruction and evidence-based interventions to make up for lost instruction over the last year.

This guide offers questions that caregivers can ask to work in partnership with schools to implement policy and practices that will support all children, especially those most negatively impacted by COVID.

Given the widespread instructional loss over the last year, it is important for all schools to focus on providing high-quality instruction to every child. Children are more likely to make up for lost time and meet grade-level standards more quickly when exposed to grade-level standards, rather than receiving remediation in the areas they may have missed. (For more information on the research around accelerated learning, see NCLD’s report.) To better understand how your district is making decisions about curriculum and how they will address instructional loss for all children, consider asking the following questions:

Given widespread instructional loss, the vast majority of children will benefit from whole-class interventions to address academic standards that children did not master in the previous school year. Some children will need more intensive interventions, and those supports should be provided as soon as the need is identified to prevent children from falling further behind. Schools should also have a plan in place to provide progress monitoring so they can regularly assess where students are struggling and need additional support. To better understand the additional academic supports and interventions available to children, consider asking the following questions:

COVID-related school disruptions impacted children’s social and emotional well-being as well as their academic performance. As schools fully reopen and communities resume many activities paused by COVID, educators should support children as they readjust to school routines and expectations, encouraging positive behavior and allowing room and support for children to work through trauma. To better understand your district’s approach to supporting children’s behavior, consider asking the following questions:

IDEA requires that all children referred for special education be evaluated in 60 days. This ensures that children, if eligible, receive specially designed instruction quickly to maximize learning. However, school closures and social distancing requirements may have delayed these evaluations for some children or made evaluations more difficult. To better understand how districts are providing timely evaluations, consider asking the following questions:

IDEA requires that all children found eligible for special education be reevaluated at least once every three years (unless caregivers and the school agree it is not necessary) and no more than once per year. However, school closures and social distancing requirements may have delayed these evaluations for some children or made evaluations more difficult. To better understand how districts are providing timely reevaluations, consider asking the following questions:

Evaluations for special education should be comprehensive and tailored to the child’s learning and behavioral needs. IDEA requires that teams of education professionals review multiple data points and look for a preponderance of evidence that a child has a disability rather than use just one datapoint. COVID-19 related school disruptions have made data collection and observations of student performance more difficult, but the widespread learning loss makes such data collection incredibly important. To better understand how districts are adapting evaluation procedures as a result of COVID-19, consider asking the following questions:

For children suspected to have a disability or those with a disability, IDEA guarantees children and their caregivers rights. The U.S. Department of Education did not waive any of those rights during COVID-19. To better understand how the district is adhering to IDEA to provide a free and appropriate public education in the least restrictive environment, consider asking the following questions:

This project has been made possible in part by a grant from the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative DAF, an advised fund of Silicon Valley Community Foundation.

The Challenge

The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) requires districts to complete special education evaluations within 60 days of the date of the request (unless states choose a shorter timeline). The law also sets out various components that should be included in a comprehensive evaluation. After a child is referred for special education, a comprehensive evaluation collects multiple points of data — including standardized assessment, response to intervention data, teacher and caregiver feedback, and academic performance — about a child to determine if they have a disability and if they would benefit from specially designed instruction.

COVID-related school closures significantly complicated the usual process and timeline that districts use to evaluate whether or not a child requires special education. Districts have struggled to keep pace with evaluations for special education during the COVID-19 pandemic. Because there was inconclusive guidance on how to administer assessments and conduct observations in blended or virtual settings, many districts were unable to complete the evaluations they had begun before the pandemic and struggled to begin new evaluations requested after the onset of the pandemic. In addition, many students have experienced instructional loss and new stress, trauma, and behavioral challenges over the course of the pandemic. As a result, it is likely that requests for new referrals will increase in the coming year as schools try to meet the needs of students.

In addition to the backlog of evaluations and a potential rise in referrals, instructional loss and COVID-related stressors make it more difficult to determine which children require special education. Specifically, for a student to qualify for special education due to a specific learning disability, the team (including school professionals and the caregiver) must determine that the disability is the primary cause of the student’s academic challenges, rather than poor instruction or lack of English proficiency. States and districts may struggle to rule out poor instruction as a causal factor in student difficulties, or find meaningful academic proficiency baselines with which to compare students. As a result, they may find it difficult to accurately assess student performance. 

Practice and Policy Considerations

The following school-level practice and policy considerations can help states and districts effectively manage special education evaluation in light of the complexities from COVID-19. 

As teams of education professionals and district leaders strive to effectively evaluate students for special education, they must focus on four key areas: (1) data collection; (2) accurate determination of special education eligibility; (3) family and caregiver empowerment and collaboration; and (4) managing the backlog of evaluations. 

Collecting data for an evaluation to determine eligibility for special education:

Determining eligibility for special education:

Empowering families and caregivers:

Managing a backlog of evaluations:

States and school districts play important and differentiated roles in helping teams of education professionals implement school-level practices to respond to COVID-related challenges.

We recommend that states and school districts take the following actions to encourage education professionals to effectively manage evaluations for special education. 

This project has been made possible in part by a grant from the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative DAF, an advised fund of Silicon Valley Community Foundation.

The Challenge

School disruptions have had a pronounced impact on children’s learning. Most — but, importantly, not all — children fell behind. In addition, the COVID-19 pandemic caused most children to experience school disruptions, stress, and isolation that will have an impact on overall well-being and academic performance. Generally, marginalized populations were most negatively affected. Research estimates that average, cumulative instructional loss was five to nine months by the end of the 2020–2021 school year. For students of color, that figure could be as high as 12 months.

Greater instructional loss for historically marginalized student populations occurred, in part, because of situational factors that limited their access to needed instruction and interventions. Many children with disabilities currently in special education were unable to receive the same interventions described in their IEPs when attending school virtually. And virtual learning created additional challenges for some children who struggle with executive function, a key weakness for many children with learning and attention issues. Other populations had compounding issues. For instance, more Black and Latinx children were learning remotely in the fall and winter 2020 when compared to White children. In addition, children of color had less access to broadband, were less likely to have devices to access remote instruction, and had less support available at home than did White students.

The instructional, emotional, and behavioral impact of COVID-19 complicates the context around referrals for evaluations and determining eligibility for special education. As a part of all special education evaluations, a team of education professionals must rule out other situational factors, including lack of appropriate instruction in literacy and math, as the primary cause of a learning challenge. It is more difficult for a team of education professionals to evaluate the extent of a learning challenge without reliable benchmarks for proficiency and achievement. Due to sweeping instructional loss, using a comparison to grade-level expectations as a means to refer students for an evaluation may result in unnecessary referrals or, worse, overidentification. 

Additionally, as part of evaluations for specific learning disabilities, teams must also consider whether a student’s learning problems are due to environmental, economic, or cultural factors. Research shows that “even though no race or ethnicity is more likely to have a learning disability, certain subgroups of students, specifically African American and Hispanic students, are overrepresented among students receiving special education services within the SLD category.” Thus, these same students who have experienced greater negative impacts from the pandemic might be at higher risk for misidentification of disability upon their return to in-person learning.

Therefore, evidence-based practices to support social, emotional, behavioral, and academic development are essential and will benefit all children as they return to a new school environment. Only once this inclusive environment is established can schools provide effective interventions and identify students who may be struggling — key pieces of an effective special education evaluation process. 

Practice and Policy Considerations

The following school level practice and policy considerations can help states and districts provide appropriate interventions and instruction to struggling learners to mitigate instructional loss from the past year and a half. 

As districts work to move forward from the pandemic and fully reopen schools, there is a need to implement universal practices that will facilitate inclusive instructional environments for all children. This step is essential to reestablishing core instruction and supports as decisions are made about special education eligibility. In addition, for those students who have already been determined eligible for special education or who are suspected to have a disability, there are key practices that are critical to supporting their success and meeting their needs.

Instruction and academic interventions:

Behavioral and social-emotional supports:

States and school districts play important roles in setting the stage for school teams to effectively serve students, including students with disabilities. Now, states and districts must take action to ensure that schools provide appropriate interventions and instruction to struggling children.

This project has been made possible in part by a grant from the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative DAF, an advised fund of Silicon Valley Community Foundation.

Practice and Policy Considerations to Mitigate COVID-Related Challenges

In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, schools are grappling with the impact of the widespread instructional loss that most students have experienced. Some students have also experienced stress, disruptions at home, and trauma, and historically marginalized populations are likely to be most impacted academically. Even where educators, school administrators, and caregivers worked to deliver high-quality instruction to all children, many children with learning and attention issues received fewer supports, accommodations and services that they rely on to access general education curriculum in virtual or remote instruction.

As a result of these compounding effects, school and district administrators are preparing for an increase in referrals for initial evaluations for special education and new requests to add additional services to children’s existing Individualized Education Programs (IEPs).  In addition to a backlog created by out-of-school time and remote education, the dislocation, trauma and loss caused by the pandemic add complicating factors to an already challenging eligibility process. It will be more complex for schools to determine eligibility for special education as they must seek to determine if a disability is the primary cause of a student’s academic, social, emotional, or behavioral challenges. If not done carefully, districts face a risk of misidentifying students as needing special education when, in fact, they are in need of instruction and support that can mitigate the impact of the pandemic.

School and district administrators are exploring how to manage this compounding and unprecedented challenge. They must keep in mind the core components of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) when referring a child for special education and making decisions about placement and services for each child. It will also be important to make significant investments in providing high-quality instruction, evidence-based intervention, behavioral supports, and meaningful family engagement to help students reintegrate into their learning environments and to make appropriate decisions about the special education evaluation process.

To help districts navigate these complex challenges, NCLD has developed briefs to inform state and district policies and practices: 

This project has been made possible in part by a grant from the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative DAF, an advised fund of Silicon Valley Community Foundation.

Learning Differently, Succeeding Academically, Leading Confidently, Living Boldly, and Thriving Physically: The GALS Denver Middle School

Girls Athletic Leadership Schools (GALS) is a network of three tuition-free, public, all-girls college preparatory schools in Denver, Las Vegas, and Los Angeles. The flagship school in the growing network, GALS Denver, envisions a world where all young women are given access to a personalized and holistic education that provides them the opportunity to access the skills, knowledge, and self-determination to succeed at school, in their postsecondary pathways, and in their careers, and to develop as leaders.

This brief tells the story of how GALS Denver Middle School works to provide an equitable education for students with disabilities and all other students — a story grounded in the science of learning and development, rooted in inclusion, and brought to life with physical movement.

Founded in 2009, GALS Denver is a single-gender school where anyone who identifies as female or was assigned the female gender at birth is welcome. The school has created an environment where girls and young women engage in opportunities to know themselves well, discover their agency, and develop their voice. Further, as this brief discusses below, the GALS curriculum and culture provide for deeply personalized experiences and environments for students to develop deep content knowledge and practice skills that will serve them in becoming their most authentic selves in the world. 

Converging research from the science of learning and development tells us there are essential characteristics of equitable and excellent educational settings for all students, including those with disabilities. The best educational settings:  

• foster positive developmental relationships that build emotional connections and enable children to master knowledge and skills, grow in competence and confidence, and take on new challenges;
• provide environments filled with safety and belonging through shared values, routines, and high expectations, demonstrating cultural sensitivity and affirming identities; 
• provide rich learning experiences for each student that deepen understanding and help transfer skills and knowledge to new contexts and problems;
• help develop knowledge, skills, mindsets, and habits by simultaneously developing academic mindsets, knowledge, and skills along with cognitive, emotional, and social skills; and
• provide integrated systems of support including health, mental health, and social service supports to bolster the assets and address the unique needs of each child.

GALS Denver’s approach to delivering a transformative student experience that is personalized, empowering, and culturally affirming has deep roots in the science of learning and development.

Even the timing of the school day is based on adolescent brain development. Every morning begins with movement and electives. Core content classes (math, science, language arts, social studies, and GALS Series) don’t start until 9:00 a.m. and rotate every day, because students absorb knowledge differently at different periods of the day.

The GALS Series. “We say at GALS that all students are well known and well seen,” said Director of Instructional Coaching and Curriculum Sara Dishell. “The relationships between staff members, families, and students are paramount to what we are doing every day. We know that humans need to feel safe and feel known in order to be their best and most authentic selves in the world, and we believe that the opportunity to practice that authenticity must start in the school building.” The GALS Series curriculum provides GALS students with the tools needed to become more aware of their individual and community identity, the skills to navigate through challenges and decisions successfully, and empowerment to drive them. The GALS Series curriculum encompasses five themes: mindfulness, wellness, voice, relationships, and goal setting. Classes also focus on the continued development of reading, writing, speaking, and listening skills, with grade-level, Common Core standards.

Although not technically an academic course, the GALS Series is a centerpiece of the GALS experience and is assigned the same amount of time and priority in the curriculum as science, math, social studies, and language arts. Why? Because GALS believes that social and emotional development are as important as core academics. The GALS Series class includes specific units about relationships, employing role playing, among other techniques, to build skills for developing a healthy relationship with oneself and with others.

Considered a full inclusion model, GALS Denver is classified as “cross categorical” and serves students with a variety of disabilities, including developmental, physical, intellectual, and emotional. Unlike many schools, GALS Denver’s infrastructure is intentionally designed to welcome students with mild or moderate disabilities, as well as students with more intensive physical and developmental needs. “GALS is a very attractive option for families of special education students,” said Dishell. “Because of our full inclusion model, focus on movement, and full-time social-emotional curriculum, students with a diversity of learning differences are able to thrive and feel welcome at GALS.”

Middle-schoolers face so many changes, from academic expectations to puberty, that any given school day can become overwhelming. GALS deeply understands that when students are upset or frustrated, they can’t concentrate or focus on the tasks at hand. To mitigate those bumps in the road, every student has access to schoolwide systems for social-emotional care.

As one example, GALS Denver teachers have mindfulness corners in their classrooms, where the goal is to teach students healthy coping mechanisms. The school also has a “reset room.” There, a counselor is always ready with techniques and activities to help students take the time to get back on track and back to class. At the end of each day, GALS Denver staff evaluates when and why students felt the need to leave the class. If the pattern is emerging in a particular class, GALS Denver works with teachers, students, and families to overcome the obstacles.

Over 90% of teachers at GALS Denver write their own curriculum grounded in Colorado’s Academic Standards. To do this, they define a standards-based end goal applicable for all students and then build the scaffolding needed to provide support for students with special needs. Specific ways GALS Denver personalizes and helps UDL come to life for students with disabilities include tailoring expectations for physical movement, customizing assignments, expanding the ways classroom lessons are used in the real world, and personalizing sex education classes to those with developmental disabilities. Class unit plan end goals are UDL designed and then general education teachers work with special education teachers to make accommodations and modifications, while ensuring that all students are aiming for the same end goal. For example, the GALS Series classes culminate in a project-based event called “Voice Night.” All students learn the academic, executive functioning, and public speaking standards and skills that are required of the project, but all the projects are tailored to each individual student’s needs and learning goals.

Students with disabilities at GALS Denver are fully integrated with their general education classmates, aside from an academic accelerator period where students with disabilities have dedicated time with a special educator. “We thought it was abundantly important that this time was real world relevant and reinforced the skills on the students’ IEP goals — math, literacy, and social,” said Dishell. So students with disabilities at GALS Denver participate in a business lab where they run their own in-house coffee shop. Here, students practice integrated social, emotional, and academic skills by developing and managing their own enterprise. Within this project-based, student-led learning setting, students develop a plan for how the coffee shop is to be run, including things like greeting their “customers” (school staff) and taking beverage orders; using listening skills to communicate specific coffee orders; and using their math skills to accept the money, make change, and calculate the coffee shop’s revenues and budget. Additionally, students learn how to market their products and set up a delivery system. This class is specifically designed to incorporate math, literacy, and communication practice.

Alongside recognitions for academic excellence, effort, and improvement, students at GALS Denver are regularly recognized for embodying the school’s “Habits of Heart and Mind.” These habits include: power, flexibility, focus, and balance. When a student falls short of these aspirations, the school’s discipline systems are based on restorative justice, not punitive measures. In addition to the GALS Denver emphasis on movement to help students regulate, seasoned counselors are on staff for one-on-one social-emotional care.

At GALS Denver, programs are designed to wrap around students and their needs — and the hiring and staffing model reflects that. “Because of our full inclusion model, we try to make sure in hiring and in ongoing professional development that every core academic teacher sees themselves as a special education teacher,” said Dishell. The team invests in a staffing structure that provides additional support for students, including: 

• an additional teacher in every grade-level team, who focuses exclusively on the GALS Series;
• a robust counseling team with three full-time counselors and three or four interns who gain hands-on experience in the classroom; and
• a special education team that includes a director, seven paraprofessionals, and four full-time providers.

This investment in staff comes through when surveying students about their experience at GALS Denver. Highlights from a 2020 survey showed that:

• 92% of students with disabilities said they have the mental health support that they need to focus on learning (compared to 80% of students without disabilities).
• 83% of students with disabilities said they see the counselors at GALS to be people who can help them when needed (compared with 68% of students without disabilities).

In the most recent round of district and statewide data (pre-pandemic), GALS special education students ranked second for highest growth in math and seventh for highest growth in English language arts. GALS Middle School was the only school in the Denver Public Schools that was in the top 10 of both lists.

By building on insights from the science of learning and development, GALS Denver strives to live up to its mission to empower students to succeed academically, lead confidently, live boldly, and thrive physically. As one parent said, “A generation of young women knowing these things can change the discourse of the community, the world. We’re the beneficiaries as a family. We have much stronger, more empowered girls.”