Continuity of Learning During COVID-19 Resource Database

This Voices From the Field piece includes a discussion with Amy Campbell who has been working with students who experience moderate to profound impact from expressive and receptive communication barriers as well as other disabilities or conditions (e.g., Down syndrome, cerebral palsy, autism) as a special education teacher for the past 12 years in the Camas School District in southwest Washington state. In the piece she highlights how she has adapted her instruction to support students during Spring 2020.

Grade level standards-based curriculum can be taught through authentic learning activities at home. This resource shows teachers and parents how to collaborate to support a child’s progress on his or her individualized goals at home.

This resource discusses how schools can plan for transitioning students with significant cognitive disabilities back into their schools after distance learning. The resource focuses on relationships, communication, and data.

How do we provide instruction at school, at home during distance learning and, if needed, pivot between the two environments for students with significant cognitive disabilities? The TIES Center's 5C Process and Learning Matrices focuses on meaningful learning for students in inclusive environments and helps to make transitioning between instruction at school and at home during distance learning straightforward and easier for both schools and families.

This overview is intended to communicate a framework for supporting all students (including those with significant cognitive disabilities) to actively engage with classmates, learn grade-level general education curriculum, and learn other essential skills.

Open Educational Resources (OER) support flexible instructional opportunities through the use of materials that can be reused and remixed to meet the needs and preferences of a wide range of learners. In this webinar, educators who are new to OER will learn how to create accessible OER using Open Author and how to evaluate existing OER in a variety of formats for accessibility.

Social media can provide opportunities to clearly communicate policies and procedures to families during remote learning, and this resource provides tips on how to ensure all communication shared through social media follows accessibility best practices.

The use of video to support instruction is growing with remote and hybrid learning, and this resource focuses on the top tips and techniques for creating accessible video content that also engages learners and promotes understanding for everyone.

Many educational materials are not purchased, but created by educators and staff as they are needed. This resource focuses on five practices for getting started with the creation of accessible documents and slide decks that can be shared with families to support continuity of learning for all students, including those who use assistive technologies to interact with educational materials.

The shift to remote and hybrid learning have highlighted the importance of accessibility as a way to ensure educational equity for all learners. This resource focuses on concrete steps educators and administrators can take to ensure the technology they are purchasing meets accessibility requirements.

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.

The purpose of Inclusion Tiles is to support understanding of the true meaning of diversity and meaningful inclusion. Meaningful inclusion is hard to put into words and action, and these tiles help to start the conversation and support people of all ages along their inclusion journey.

This Voices from the Field video shares the experiences of four teachers in the Exceptional Children department in Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools as they adjusted to delivering instruction during COVID-19 restrictions. They discuss the importance of communicating with families, how they have adapted virtual instruction and used instructional materials, their thoughts for continuing efforts in fall 2020, and their advice for other teachers.

COVID-19 has caused an unexpected rapid transition to online content delivery for many. Thankfully, there are already many great resources on how to effectively teach online. Here we’re sharing some of our favorite resources.

In this webinar, Dr. Anita Archer teaches high leverage instructional practices for in-person and remote learning. Consistent with an explicit instruction approach, Dr. Archer demonstrates each practice, actively engages her audience, and sets educators up to successfully pivot their effective instructional practices into the current content.