THE ABCs OF IEPs

COMPENSATORY SERVICES

By Sheila Wolfe - IEP Services

As families are finally feeling some relief from the threat of COVID, many of our students with special needs have not recovered from the lack of educational and therapeutic services received during the last year and a half of school. Remote learning is typically not as effective for students as in-person learning. This is even more true for students with special needs. In many cases, schools also did not deliver all the services required by their students’ IEPs. This could entitle students with IEPs to compensatory services from their school system.

Last month we covered Extended School Year (ESY) services. Compensatory services differ from ESY. Compensatory services are therapies and other special education services that a school failed to deliver as required by the IEP during the “regular” school year. When this occurs, parents can arrange for the services to be “made up” during the summer (in most cases) or after school (if available).

As an example, let’s imagine Sally, a student on the autism spectrum, has an IEP which provides speech services from the SLP (speech-language pathologist) in a small group setting for 30 minutes each week to receive instruction and practice on social skills. Delivering these services in a remote setting would be very difficult, if not impossible, to do. Sally’s parents could ask for compensatory services to recover the missed services designed to learn and practice social skills with her peers.

In another example, Kenny, a student with multiple disabilities who is confined to a wheelchair, has an IEP which includes 30 minutes per week of direct services from a physical therapist (PT) to improve his core strength. Kenny’s parents can ask that any services not delivered during the school year be scheduled for the summer. If there isn’t enough time to complete the lost services during the summer, they could be made up, in part, during the following school year.

As in all matters concerning special education, every student’s situation is unique. The point of this article is to inform parents that the unusual circumstances faced by schools during Covid are very unfortunate for all students, but the requirement for each school to deliver the services included in each student’s IEP was not erased because of the pandemic. However, I believe most schools did the best they could in an impossible situation.

Kim Dodson, Executive Director of the ARC of Indiana, reported during an interview with WFYI that there was a huge increase in calls from families requesting guidance in understanding what schools are required to do during quarantine periods when schools transitioned to remote learning. Many families also expressed concern over a lack of appropriate/necessary technology to participate fully in remote learning. Another major concern was student regression, not only educationally, but behaviorally, without the structure and supports provided when the students are in the school building.

Students requiring direct support (1:1) to learn do not do well with remote learning. Trying to navigate technology, pay attention, and absorb lessons can be almost impossible for students with the highest needs. The support available from families varies greatly across households. Providing support for a child with special needs on a day-to-day basis can be exhausting for many parents. Adding the challenge of trying to help these children adjust to the demands of remote learning can be completely overwhelming.

Moving forward, most schools would benefit from providing more training to families on how to manage behaviors and increase student compliance at home. By using an appropriate behavior intervention plan which provides positive behavior supports, maladaptive student behaviors can be greatly reduced and often eliminated. Ideally, behavior plans should be consistent between school and home.

Special education law requires schools to provide training for families. I highly recommend requesting this as part of the IEP to decrease/eliminate any differences between how student behavior is addressed at school and at home. This could help alleviate difficulties when trying to educate students at home during quarantine situations.

In addition, direct training of parents by school therapists can improve student learning during quarantine periods. Parents could then help their child practice skills typically practiced during speech, PT, and/or OT therapy. Schools and parents partnering in this way should increase the student’s ability to generalize and master skills across environments.

The world is changing, and I seriously doubt this will be the last time we face a serious pandemic. Parents and schools must communicate and plan for the times students cannot be in school. Parents need to ask for and expect training from the school, especially if students are expected to learn at home.

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