We use student-level data on elementary special education identification from Washington state to explore student identification rates in the months immediately after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and over 2 subsequent years. Special education identification rates dropped dramatically in March 2020 through the end of the 2019-20 school year…

We analyze student-level data on elementary special education identification in Washington state to explore how identification rates changed during the COVID-19 pandemic. We find that special education identification rates dropped dramatically in March 2020 through the end of the 2019-20 school year and remained below historical norms throughout…

Transition planning is an essential component of special education for students transitioning from high school to the adult world. The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted the ways in which transition education is implemented and has been a catalyst for change and potential improvement in transition education practices. Research is just beginning to…

Policy documents from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and UNESCO have stressed the need to prepare students for what has been termed a VUCA (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, and Ambiguous) world. The COVID-19 pandemic is an extreme case of a VUCA event that grants the opportunity to examine whether special and…

The regulations of the Individuals with Disabilities Act and the New York State Part 200 Procedural Safeguards mandate that parents of students with disabilities be afforded an opportunity to attend their child's Committee on Special Education (CSE) meeting to discuss needs and services. Historically, CSE meetings have been held in school…

The COVID-19 pandemic affected families' decisions about whether and where to enroll their children in public schools. We have limited evidence to date, however, on how vulnerable sub-groups, such as those with disabilities and those qualifying for special education services, were impacted. In partnership with the Virginia Department of Education…

The COVID-19 pandemic forced an international shutdown of in-person learning. Remote learning became the temporary model of education for students. The intention of this study was to investigate teacher perceptions and experiences of remote learning, in order to understand its impact on students with exceptionalities and their social and emotional…

At the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, schools across the United States transitioned to some form of emergency remote instruction. Preliminary research suggests that special education services may have been disjointed and many caregivers assumed a primary role in service provision during emergency remote instruction. To extend this work with a…

The COVID-19 pandemic impacted the delivery of services for students with disabilities. There is limited knowledge on the relationship between the transition services students received during the pandemic and their post-school outcomes. This study utilized a qualitative phenomenological design to informed by Bronfenbrenner's Ecological Systems…

Changes that have occurred in the education system and the implementation of learning due to the COVID-19 pandemic have become a challenge for teachers, especially in learning for children with intellectual disabilities. The lack of collaboration between teachers and families is an obstacle in home-based learning for children with intellectual…

Down syndrome is the most common form of intellectual disability. However, there is a paucity of educational research focused on this vulnerable segment of learners especially in the present novel situation. This paper aimed to explore how teachers tailor remote special education for children with down syndrome amid the COVID-19 pandemic in the…

The importance of text complexity has gained recognition since the Common Core State Standards (CCSS-ELA) were developed. The "Linking Science and Literacy for All Learners" (LS&L4AL) program uses multimodal STEM text sets to link reading grade-band complex texts with Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) sense-making. We define a…

The study examines issues related to achieving meaningful participation in class activities as an element of social inclusion of learners with cognitive disabilities aged 14-19 years that are enrolled in educational institutions (schools/centres) during COVID-19 in United Arab Emirates. The paper relied on a qualitative approach with 5 sessions of…

This study aimed to investigate the experiences of education professionals in their efforts to provide education and support to children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) amid the COVID-19 pandemic, and to gain insights into the perceived repercussions of pandemic-related restrictions on the educational development and overall…

The emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020 led to unprecedented shifts in American education. Prior to the onset of the pandemic, children across the United States were primarily educated in brick-and-mortar school buildings, with only 0.6% of the over 50 million students in the country attending fully virtual schools (National Center…