OPINION: Even before the pandemic, students with disabilities and other challenges were being left behind
Here are some ideas about ways to help all learners
Through no effort or talent on her part, she was born into a community with good schools. She has two parents with advanced degrees and stable jobs that enable them to work from home.
In so many ways, she won the lottery. We have the flexibility to send her to school or to home-school her for the coming year. We have Wi-Fi, financial resources, supervision and an environment to make it work. My daughter has no disability, so we have no worries about advocating for her educational rights. Her school sends us materials in her native language.
My wife and I are anxious, but it’s an anxiety based on inconveniences, rather than on a lack of options.
I contrast that with what my own mother might have felt when I was my daughter’s age. A solo working parent, she emigrated from Iran to a new country alone and raised two sons, including one, me, who couldn’t speak English. Had broadband even existed then, chance are we wouldn’t have been able to afford it.
As vulnerable as she must have felt, my mother would have relied on one principle: The richest society in the world would have a moral responsibility for the well-being of kids like me, along with families who faced even more extreme obstacles.
The nonprofit education equity group I have the privilege to co-chair has drafted explicit questions for decision-makers, including educators, school leaders and district, state and national policy leaders. We are urging them to consider the needs of students who confront barriers to reaching their fullest educational potential.
They may have disabilities or not speak English as a first language or come from low-income families or lack access to stable housing. They may live in CONTINUE READING: OPINION: Even before the pandemic, students with disabilities and other challenges were being left behind - The Hechinger Report
