East Rock fifth-grader Amadi Towe: Computer not doing it.
While Qualina Cooper’s 11-year-old Dakarai dived into remote classes this fall, her 12-year-old Jayvyn struggled to understand why he needed to sit behind a computer screen.
Jayvyn has autism. He and other special needs students were among those who lost out the most when the Covid-19 pandemic began and schools buildings closed — and their parents worry they’re losing out again as remote learning resumes.
“My children matter,” Cooper said. “I feel [in-person instruction] is vital, and we’re being ignored. We’re playing the waiting game.”
The complete mismatch of remote learning for Jayvyn’s needs has Cooper ready to leave New Haven schools altogether, as New Haven Public Schools launched this academic year with at least ten weeks of all-remote learning.
Other special education families report varying results with New Haven’s remote classes based on factors like diagnosis and childcare availability.
New Haven Public Schools has acknowledged to the state that special education students, particularly nonverbal students with autism, can be nearly impossible to teach remotely.
District administrators are presenting more information on their special education plans at Monday’s Board of Education meeting. They declined comment until after that presentation.
A Frustrating Spring
Nijija-Ife Waters and Amadi.
Nijija-Ife Waters, president of City Wide Parent Team, has been pushing for more details on how New Haven schools will educate students with special needs in both virtual and in-person settings for months.
Her fifth-grade son, Amadi, attends East Rock Community Magnet School. He has an Individualized Education Program (IEP) for a reading disability.
Waters said that the amount of work Amadi was assigned after remote classes began in the spring was too much for him to handle. The workload meant that she was spending too much time helping him and too little time on her own remote job.
“I sent a couple of emails requesting tailored work. I said that he really needs to be independent. I can assist but not be fully hands on. It is beginning to affect my work,” Waters said.
The district responded by sending Amadi printed packets of work, some of which he had already done, Waters said. Waters said that she wanted simpler work for Amadi, like multiple choice questions. Both she and her son became frustrated at the lack of tailoring.
“I think we stopped in May. The only thing we were doing was reading. We would do the special education piece of it,” Waters said, plus science class assignments that involved videos, current events and multiple choice.
Nicole Beverley and her two daughters, Marlou and Natima.
For Nicole Beverley, her daughter’s special education needs were less acute this spring than the housing troubles the family faced.
Beverley has for years been a social worker. She found herself in need of that expertise last year. She said that she has become chronically ill, and despite administering a variety of tests, doctors have been unable to diagnose what is giving her headaches, fits of coughing and difficulty breathing.
The illness made it hard for Beverley to work, and her unstable income made affordable housing hard to come by. The family stayed with friends for a while, then moved into one of the individual rooms for families at the Beth-El Shelter in Milford.
Beverley said that her family’s time in the shelter should have been short-lived. But with the Covid-19 pandemic raging, it took her seven months to get a rental assistance voucher and move the family into a home.
The shelter checked a lot of the boxes Beverley knew to look for from case managing. It was family-oriented and supportive in helping residents find work and housing.
It was not an ideal remote school environment, though. Beverley said that the unstable internet connection kept getting in the way of her daughter’s work.
“My daughter would be almost done and then the connection would drop. It would take so long to do the assignment and then the program didn’t save it,” Beverley said.
“He Didn’t Last Ten Minutes”
Qualina Cooper and her two sons, Jayvyn and Dakarai.
Beverley’s family has just moved into a new place and rushed to sign up for a Comcast internet package as school starts.
She’s not sure yet what her seventh grader, Natima, is getting from her IEP in a remote setting. She said she wants more communication from Edgewood School about what her daughter needs and what interventions they are implementing to get her up to speed in math, reading and writing.
Beverley said that she knows of a senior in high school who was unable to read or write.
“I don’t want her to be passed along on the idea that she is in special education,” Beverley said.
She said that her daughter’s learning differences make her feel sad or stupid.
“I want to know as a parent how to help train her brain. I don’t know how to fully help her the correct way,” Beverley said.
On the other hand, Cooper is fully trained in what Jayvyn needs. She still does not see it happening through video.
Cooper was planning to become a lawyer until Jayvyn was diagnosed with autism. He was 2, and she was 25. She decided to switch careers and now provides Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) therapy, one of the key interventions for autism, at ACES’ Village School in North Haven.
Cooper said that Jayvyn tried live classes over the summer. The instruction by video did not work for him.
“He did not adhere to it at all. He had a very difficult time understanding why he had to sit in front of a computer,” Cooper said.
Similarly, Cooper was able to stay home while sick last week and saw Jayvyn continue to struggle with his fall classes at Brennan-Rogers Magnet School.
“Jayvyn did not last 10 minutes,” Cooper said. “There were too many distractions on the screen for him to focus. He kept saying, ’School tomorrow?’ He cried and became frustrated with the whole process.”
Cooper is now switching from remote work back to in-person instruction at ACES. She is worried that Jayvyn will distract his younger brother when she is not there.
Cooper said that she loves Jayvyn’s teacher and knows that everyone at NHPS is doing their best with a difficult situation.
A Learning Hub For Special Needs Students
Cooper: We need one center to call home.
Cooper has the qualifications to dream of an alternative to remote learning for her son — a learning center just for students with autism and other special needs.
Jayvyn loves reading, typing and hugs. He sings and dances to pop songs by Katy Perry and Bruno Mars. He is verbal and has also learned sign language.
“He’s academically there. I believe he’s academically successful,” Cooper said.
What Jayvyn needs is routine and one instructor focused entirely on him — and not through a computer screen, said Cooper.
“You can’t do math with a student who has a disability. They need materials in front of them to count. They need objects so they can sort colors or sort numbers. I had all of those. I know a lot of parents did not,” Cooper said.
Cooper started an organization, Jayvyn’s Journey, in 2018 to help other families looking for academic support and therapy for their child with autism. The learning center is the next part of her dream.
Cooper already has experience taking extra precautions, from personal protective equipment to constant cleaning of surfaces, to prevent the spread of Covid-19 between students and staff at ACES. She also already has 10 to 12 families interested in the idea. Her biggest hurdle is finding a space and getting grants and donations, she said.
“It’s becoming common in Black and Hispanic communities. A lot more children are being diagnosed with autism. We have to outsource to get the resources we need, instead of being able to call one center our home,” Cooper said.
Those interested in Cooper’s idea can email her at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).
The idea is not a cure-all for all families. Waters has already decided to keep Amadi home even when New Haven Public Schools reopens for in-person classes.
Amadi has a hard time keeping a face mask on for more than 15 minutes and has life-threatening allergies that could make eating in the classroom with his peers a risk, she said. She wants him to have remote classes that he can chug through on his own at home while she works.
“I can find another job,” Waters said. “I can’t make another Amadi.”
School systems need to prioritize special needs, learning disabled and younger students K-6 for in person lessons and smaller classrooms. The remote learning model doesn't work for some students and if the schools developed the hybrid in person lessons for some days and remote lessons for other days for students in grades 7-12 who can successfully learn remotely, then this should help the schools focus on the children who need the extra help with 6 feet apart desks and smaller student to teacher ratios.