JACKSON ⢠The Mississippi Senate on Wednesday unanimously approved a bill sponsored by Sen. Nicole Akins Boyd, a Republican from Oxford, that would ensure students diagnosed with dyslexia receive interventions and support required by federal law.
The intent of Senate Bill 2307, according to Boyd, is to eliminate confusion among school districts regarding what accommodations students with dyslexia are entitled to under state law.
Conversations with the Mississippi Department of Education (MDE) assisted in the crafting of legislation to clarify how children with dyslexia and other related disorders can receive assistance through Individualized Education Programs (IEP), which provide a student with extra instruction and educational interventions, and 504 Plans, which provide general accommodations like extra time on testing or assistance with note-taking.
Capital News Service
The switch to virtual classes, meetings and social activities during the COVID-19 pandemic is difficult for any student, but imagine not understanding the reason for making the change.
That’s what students with autism cope with every day.
“It’s hard for people with autism to spin on a dime, or make a change,” said Kathy Williams, whose daughter is a Clawson Public School student with autism. “It’s more of pulling a rug out from under them. They’re so used to structure and schedules.”
That makes it difficult to explain social distancing, why they can’t go to their aunt’s or grandma’s or why they can’t hug their friends, she said.
Oliver Curran loves to talk. To him, watching news about politics or chatting with his mom is more fun than playing with toy trucks.
As much as he loves talking, Oliver, 12, can’t read, his mother, Nancy Curran, said. Curran brought her concern to Oliver’s special education team at Coonley Elementary School in Chicago’s North Center neighborhood, but instructors told her Oliver just needed more time, she said.
That was more than a year ago, Curran said.
Now, with Oliver attending school virtually due to the pandemic, Curran has noticed other students are already reading in her son’s seventh-grade class of fellow special education students.
We cannot and must not leave Delaware s students with disabilities behind | Opinion Caitlin McAndrews, Alexander Corbin, Stefanie Ramirez and Marissa Band, Special to the USA TODAY Network
Delaware’s students with disabilities are entitled to a free, appropriate public education (FAPE) by state and federal laws, including the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). The current COVID-19 pandemic has not suspended or delayed that crucial right. Whether the public school delivers instruction virtually, in-person, or in a hybrid model, it must meet the educational needs of its students with disabilities.
Unfortunately, some special education services and supports cannot be delivered virtually or even part time with the same effectiveness as when students learn full time, in person. And some students do not learn as effectively in remote and hybrid models.
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