Page 11 - NAESP Principal - Nov/Dec 2021

Pandemic Widens Divide Between

General and Special Education

While collaboration between general and special in remote settings and socially distanced cohorts.
education teachers creates more inclusive and Both groups have been “largely left on their own,”
productive learning environments, remote learn- the report says. “Confined to their homes or
ing widened the gulf between the two groups in classrooms, general and special educators were
the 2020–2021 school year, according to a report unlikely to encounter each other during the day.”
from the Center on Reinventing Public Education To encourage teachers to identify all students
(CRPE). And now that students are back in class- as “their” students, school leaders “must
rooms, school leaders must work to reestablish make clear that general and special education
collaboration on the accommodations made for teachers are jointly responsible for students with
students with disabilities. disabilities,” the report says. “These expectations
Interviews revealed that most general must be accompanied by opportunities for
educators don’t think they are responsible educators to live out these new standards
for creating adaptations for students with through dedicated time for collaboration.
disabilities or communicating with the students’ “At the same time, general educators must
families. Special educators took responsibility for receive ongoing training and support on how to
instructional support and communication, even design and deliver instruction with modifications
in inclusive settings where students with and and accommodations for diverse learners across
without disabilities are educated together. a range of learning environments.”
General educators also said that they lacked the
training necessary to support special ed students

Few general educators received the training they needed to support students with disabilities in remote settings.

Source: CRPE
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