Coronavirus Madison Schools Update: Special Education Plans

Special Education Update

On March 30th, general education and special education services will resume. Special education teachers and related service staff have been enthusiastically preparing for our online/distance Learning program to begin. During their preparation, each staff member has developed individualized learning opportunities for each of their students, participated in professional development for implementing our program, and developed lessons for this new learning format. By the end of the week, every family will be contacted and receive additional optional interim learning activities by their special education case managers. A more detailed, comprehensive look at the delivery of special education and related services during our online/distance learning program can be found here:

Special Education Distance Learning Plan
The special education department would like to provide one on one live virtual services for families and students who are interested. To implement special education and related services through virtual live sessions, we are required to obtain permission from each family. Please consider reviewing our consent contract and providing us permission to provide live virtual services. Please review the contract and grant your permission.

Permission Form
To supplement live virtual services and taped sessions, the district has obtained subscriptions to a variety of programs. As many states and cities switched to online learning over the past few weeks, we have been inundated with free subscriptions or deals on programs from companies. In Madison, it is important we provide all our students with high quality tools. All of the online programs the district is providing to our students are either programs we have already used in our schools or are recommended from our colleagues. The current list of tools can be found here:

Distance Learning Programs
Yesterday, Superintendent Scarice’s E-Notify discussed The Goldilock Syndrome for the e-learning experience. As I have been speaking with colleagues, families, and friends, the same impact is being felt with communication as some are overwhelmed from too many messages, some feel we have given just enough, or some feel it is not enough. We have tried to be mindful of staggering communications between the district, schools, and special education department but realize everyone has different needs. As we start our online/distance learning program next week, expect communication for families and students to primarily be from their special education case manager. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me.

The special education department is embracing the challenge of providing services to our students in this unprecedented setting. Over the next few weeks, we will work with our families and students on learning how to engage in this new learning format. Special education services will start small and continue to become more robust as we learn new strategies and methods of delivery. If the closure becomes extended through the remainder of the school year, we will review each student’s plan to determine their specific special education and related service needs during the online/distance learning program period. Families and students will be asked for their input into the plans because your input is vital for success.

Eventually, this method of delivery will end. The special education department realizes there will be challenges with this new learning format, but we are also looking forward to developing our repertoire of skills to become even stronger educators through this process.

Respectfully,

Dr. Elizabeth Battaglia