Special Support Services, an advocacy group for disabled students and their families, conducted a survey of parents in 2020 about student educational experiences during the pandemic. Faced with a lack of data and information from the DOE, the advocacy group distributed a 42-question survey in English, Spanish, Chinese and Korean and received over 1,100 responses in just a few weeks. The group’s analysis of the survey results revealed the following:
Large class sizes with less staff make Integrated Co-Teaching Service ineffective.
Inefficient structuring for students in self-contained classes (all students in the class have IEPs).
Inconsistent and ineffective remote instruction.
Lack of access to paraprofessional service and SETSS (special education teacher support services).
—Mara Mills