COVID-19: An Opportunity for Education Policy to Neglect Disability
“Sorry, Joel, I couldn’t catch that. I seem to be having some connection issues. Could you write it in the chat for me?”
It’s harder to worry about how society affects us nowadays. Ever since the pandemic began, it seems to take more energy and thought to just deal with the things in one’s own life. Bingeing through Zoom lectures and virtual assignments, it’s easy to forget about the problems other people in our community face. For some families, online education is already a struggle; but for others, access to education is completely beyond their grasp. It’s not just in the sense that the environment at home makes it hard to focus, but that certain programs and supports which would usually allow these students to take part in a classroom are simply inapplicable. This is the case for many in the disability community, and it’s a problem that shouldn’t be happening. If we let ourselves become apathetic to those more disadvantaged than ourselves, we begin to overlook the mistakes which make this pandemic exponentially worse.
Under current U.S law, discrimination of disability is prohibited under any program receiving federal funding, including local education. Section 504 of the 1973 Rehabilitation Act states that “No qualified individual with a disability…shall, solely by reason of his or her disability, be excluded from the participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance or under any program or activity conducted by any Executive agency or by the United States Postal Service (US Department of Labor).” Section 504 provides students with disabilities with appropriate services and supports without any cost to the family or school. Combined with the Individual with Disabilities Education Act, an Individualized Education Plan (IEP) is also laid out for these students to help educators, parents, and students achieve a desired goal (APA). Before the pandemic, this legislation was rather successful in recognizing the personalized needs of families within the disability community, providing technology, counseling, and guidance in the classroom and beyond. However, as COVID-19 took students out of the classroom, the learning landscape for students with disabilities changed completely.
Online learning not only presented a whole new set of challenges for the disability community, but it worsened old ones. In New York City, thousands of K-12 students had not received services guaranteed to them by Section 504 or IEPs. The Department of Education’s current dysfunctional hearing system is too complicated to navigate and often fails to respond to these student concerns. In the 2019 to 2020 school year, an average case took an average of 259 days to resolve (Gonen). This lack of personalized technology support and teacher coordination could lead to the delay of an entire school year for many students. This not only has a negative impact on student development and mental health, but it violates their right to a public education. A similar problem is occurring in universities. In a national survey to higher education communities, the Association on Higher Education and Disability identified that around half of college students with disabilities had difficulty communicating their needs to professors and receiving appropriate technology. In addition, disability resource professionals also reported struggling to coordinate with unresponsive administration. This failure of the education system is a detrimental roadblock to students with disabilities and it should be unacceptable in a nation where education could be universally available.
Prejudice towards the disability community can be passed off as ignorance at times, but this is not one of them. Back in March, the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES) was signed into law by President Trump. Within the act, funds were available through the Governor Emergency Education Relief Fund (GEER) for purposes including addressing the unique needs of students with disabilities. Yet, in a policy review by the Hunt Institute, fewer than ten states actually made explicit plans for the aid of students with disabilities. Governors such as Phil Murphy, who spent all 68 million dollars of his funding on supporting higher education, ignore the issue completely. This is a major problem since the concerns of disability communities cannot simply be solved in the sweeping benefits that the CARES Act provides. Technology specific to a student with dyslexia is not the same for those with a different disability. Similar cases can be made for counselling and therapy for autistic students. The stimulus checks provided by the CARES Act may help parents, but they are nowhere near enough to help students. These people are being adversely harmed by the pandemic, yet they are receiving less attention as an active choice of those in power.
Image description: A graph of state spending priorities through the GEER Fund.
States like Texas, which have enacted programs to directly support disability communities, are successfully helping prevent students from losing their education to the pandemic. Yet, a worrying response from the education community reveals an outlook on disability that needs to be addressed. In an article by Corey Mitchell published in popular education magazine Education Week, he raises the concern of funding disability programs and whether it is too early to push for them. In a sentiment shared by many others in the article, Mitchell strays dangerously into rhetoric which considers funding for disability at the sacrifice of other general programs. In a certain morbid utilitarianism, this reasoning frames disability support programs as an unnecessary hindrance which should be abandoned for the “greater good” of the majority. Promoting this way of thinking shifts responsibility from governors and policymakers to students with disabilities for not adjusting to what little they are given. The truth is, disability communities are not getting by with the minimal support they are receiving. We shouldn’t be focusing on maximizing saving, we should be upholding the value of equal access to education.
COVID-19 is disproportionately affecting students with disabilities. All over the nation, families are not receiving the individualized support which allows them to participate equally in our national education system. In a time of crisis, these Americans shouldn’t be so casually forsaken. It should not be the fault of disability communities for not being able to benefit from vague policy. Policymakers and communities need to recognize the unique needs of students with disabilities so they can have a chance at the educational opportunities we do. Although we are all struggling to deal with the pandemic, this shouldn’t serve as an excuse to ignore the groups of people who need more help.
Sources Cited
“Geer Fund Utilization” Hunt Institute. Accessed December 7, 2020, https://hunt-institute.org/covid-19-resources/geer-fund-utilization/
Gonen, Yoav. “Special Ed Students Denied Crucial Services During COVID Remote Learning.” The City, Nov 23, 2020, https://www.thecity.nyc/education/2020/11/23/21612194/special-ed-students-denied-crucial-services-during-covid.
Mitchell, Corey. “How Will Schools Pay for Compensatory Services for Special Ed. Students?” Education Week, November 10, 2020. https://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2020/11/10/how-will-schools-pay-for-compensatory-services.html.
W. Jordan, Phyllis and Javaid Saddiqi. “Image of How Governors are Using CARES ACT Discretionary Funds.” FutureEd, September 10, 2020. https://www.future-ed.org/how-governors-are-using-their-cares-act-education-dollars/
Scott, Sally and Katherine Aquino. “COVID-19 Transitions: Higher Education Professionals’ Perspectives on Access Barriers, Services, and Solutions for Students with Disabilities.” Association on Higher Education and Disability, Survey results: Access Barriers, Services, and Solutions, Accessed November 24, 2020, https://www.ahead.org/professional-resources/coronavirus-resources.
US Department of Labor. Section 504, Rehabilitation Act of 1973. Accessed Nov 24, 2020, https://www.dol.gov/agencies/oasam/centers-offices/civil-rights-center/statutes/section-504-rehabilitation-act-of-1973.
