Continuity of Learning During COVID-19 Resource Database

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.

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.

NCSI presented a multi-part webinar series sharing best practices for state special education leaders to make the best use of available resources during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. NCSI and invited experts shared information to help state leadership teams make informed decisions amid current circumstances, ensuring leaders are poised to continue high-quality educational programming for students and families.

To successfully launch the 2020-2021 school year for students with disabilities, state education agencies (SEAs) have an essential leadership role to play in supporting local school systems to plan for multiple scenarios, including services delivered in-person, through distance learning, and via blended approaches.

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.

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.

Brief guidance provided on key questions to consider when planning purposeful adaptations to evidence based practices for new contexts such as online learning or blended learning environments.

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 focuses on how to use inclusive practices in online environments and highlights how the best practices for including special populations are also the best practices for all students. There are also considerations for teachers around planning inclusive online learning.

Communication is necessary whether students are schooling at home or in school. This resource describes what teachers can do to support students who are using Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) even when they are not in the same location as the student.

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.

Families may start to feel “stuck” during distance learning. This resource offers strategies and tools to help families and students get “unstuck” when frustrated with distance learning.

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.