Continuity of Learning During COVID-19 Resource Database

The Unified Young readers Club is a great inclusive activity for a younger audience and accompanies Special Olympics Young Athletes play with books and study guides that support teachers as they address such topics as inclusion, awareness, friendship, bullying, and acceptance to audiences of both students with and without intellectual disabilities. Each book has a theme that relates to multiple state academic standards, and aligns with the precepts of positive school climate initiatives.

This lesson, featuring Karen McWilliams, a 504 Coordinator and Dyslexia Teacher in Rochelle ISD in Texas, supports educators in using technology to teach foundational reading skills to students in elementary grades using a variety of facilitated activities to support phonemic awareness, phoneme–grapheme correspondence, irregular and high-frequency words, writing, and connected text. The collection, adapted from content developed by the University of Florida Literacy Institute, includes a tip sheet, a video examples, and slides illustrating the lesson.

These videos illustrate how parents and grandparents can implement the NCII reading and mathematics sample lessons to provide additional practice opportunities. In addition to the video examples, a tip sheet is available to help parents implement the lessons.

This video and tip sheets provide an example and strategies for how educators can implement the NCII reading and mathematics sample lessons through virtual learning. The video illustrates a sample lesson using explicit instruction principles being delivered by an educator virtually and the tip sheets provide considerations for educators delivering instruction and how they can collaborate with families to provide additional practice opportunities using the sample lessons.

This resource was developed by a coalition of projects that are funded by the Office of Special Education Programs in response to requests from state and local educational agencies and parents about how to hold and participate in virtual individualized education program (IEP) meetings. While intended to meet a need during the COVID-19 pandemic, the content is designed to have broader applications.

This Voices From the Field piece includes a discussion with Laura Hamby and Ann Jolly from the Exceptional Children department in Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools about how they have addressed teaching and learning challenges related to COVID-19 restrictions. They shared some of the strategies they implemented during Spring 2020 to support special educators in their districts to meet the needs of students with disabilities and their families.

This Voices From the Field piece shares lessons learned from Justyn Poulos, director of MTSS at the Office of the Superintendent of Public Education (OSPI) in Washington state. In the piece he discusses how he and his team shifted their annual MTSS Fest conference from a face-to-face event to a virtual event in less than 3 weeks due to COVID-19 restrictions.

This resource focuses on the accessibility supports already available on the devices many families may already have in their homes to support continuity of learning with accessible educational materials.

This lesson, featuring Karen McWilliams, a 504 Coordinator and Dyslexia Teacher in Rochelle ISD in Texas, supports educators in using technology to teach foundational reading skills to students in elementary grades using a variety of facilitated activities to support phonemic awareness, phoneme–grapheme correspondence, irregular and high-frequency words, writing, and connected text. The collection, adapted from content developed by the University of Florida Literacy Institute, includes a tip sheet, a video examples, and slides illustrating the lesson.

School and District leadership teams can download and use this resource to develop their own plan for welcoming staff back to school in Fall 2020 and providing 2 days of professional development.

School is starting or just around the corner! Here are some tips for families and teachers to prepare for the first week of school, whether it be in-person, online, or hybrid learning.

We have talked with many administrators, advocates and teachers and a pressing concern is “How do you collect data for students with significant cognitive disabilities when you are not in the same room?” This resource offers some suggestions.

This website provides strategies and resources to help students with autism, who can struggle both because of organizational deficits and motor or coordination difficulties, with written expression.

Tip Sheets for Families, Caregivers and Early Learning Educators: Made specifically for families, caregivers and early educators, these US Department of Education-created resources provide research-based tips for talking, reading, and singing with young children every day beginning from birth. All tip sheets are available in English and Spanish and can be downloaded for free.

This website streams videos featuring celebrated actors reading children’s books alongside creatively produced illustrations. Videos can include captions as desired.