ELIZABETHTOWN — Chris Clark and his wife Tina see it everyday with their son Cody. So does Marie Smith with her son Adam, and Tocarra Osborne with her children Angelina and Christopher.
In North Carolina, they say, there has always been a crack in the system when it comes to exceptional children. With the coronavirus, and Bladen County Schools choosing remote learning only to begin the school year today, it’s a chasm.
Often times these students in the public school system are separated from their peers for any of a number of reasons. Sometimes it is logistics, of getting students in and out of building. Sometimes these students have concerns that make others uncomfortable. They might make noise, flap their arms, or even chew on a necklace.
“We do training with the parents,” Osborne said. She’s the parent outreach coordinator working through Innovative Approaches, an initiative supported through the N.C. Division of Public Health, Children and Youth.
One of those trainings is the Me Curriculum, which got underway this month. This training is designed to help parents become advocates for their own children, as well as teach them skills to help at home and school.
Marie Smith, who’s son is 9 years old and nonverbal, said that her son is struggling hard with virtual school. He’s in the fourth grade, and she said that this situation has been a devastating blow for him.
“When schools shut down, he shut down,” she said. “He would cry, and what little bit of words he does know, he would call for his teachers, because he does know their names. He was calling for them, calling out for the school bus.”
She said that being out of class has hurt him tremendously, and that he has ended up regressing because of it.
“Last year, my husband and I were planning on holding him back, but they told us they wouldn’t let us,” Marie said. “That’s my biggest struggle with him, with him regressing and not being able to hold him back. I just wish that there was a way that it would be a bit better for the EC students.
“But as a parent, I just don’t know what to do, because you don’t want your child shutting down or they won’t learn from anybody.”
Her position will get no easier as middle school years approach.
“I cannot, in good conscience, send him to middle school when he is where he is right now,” she said. “He’s not even scribbling a letter. Before he was at least attempting to write his name.”
Marie says he really misses the bus, and he can’t understand why he can’t get on it when it comes to the house to drop off his meal for the day.
“He’s a runner, and for the longest time he would try to run out the door to go to the bus,” she said.
In addition to all of this, she can’t exactly go to work full-time, because there is not a daycare in the area equipped to deal with her son or his issues.
Chris and Tina Clark, parents of Cody, are struggling with balancing everything as well. Chris is a member of the Bladen County Board of Education; both work full-time and work with their youngest son.
“It’s hard for us,” she said. “A sitter can’t, or might not know, how to do something virtual. And he definitely doesn’t know how to do it.”
There’s so many steps, from start to finish, to get them where they need to go.
“All children are different,” Chris said. “I wouldn’t want to be in a position of trying to figure all that out.”
And figuring all that out for each child is going to be difficult, and require much collaboration on plans.
“The most important thing that parents and caregivers need to remember is that an EC student is first a general education student,” said Cheryl White-Smith, the director of exceptional children. “Schools will continue to offer services for their EC students based on the student’s individualized education plan.
“BCS serves approximately 550 EC students, with each one being unique and individual. There are no templates but rather customized plans for each EC student.”
White-Smith said that there are options for parent training as well.
“Training, such as how to access Google Classroom, log in to Google Hangout virtual meeting, or any other type of training that the IEP team has identified can be provided for parents to help support their child’s learning at home,” she said.
White-Smith said that the best advice is to continue to communicate in this process.
“Communicate with your child’s teacher and let them know if you need additional assistance,” White-Smith said. “Your child’s IEP team will be monitoring your child’s progress throughout the process and during this transition to remote learning. The EC teachers are empathetic and understanding of the challenges the EC student will face with structures in place that are different from the norm.”
Osborne said events that give parents of special needs children a chance to bond, such as fundraisers for the Autism Society, are not happening because of the virus. Parents can still meet with the Parental Advisory Council, a group that focuses on autism but is open to anyone wanting to become a member.
“But it’s like I said, there were cracks before this,” said Osborne. “And there’s going to be even more cracks after all of this is done.”
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