D.C. school for special needs faces distance learning challenges

The principal of a school for children and young adults with disabilities says she is unsure how or when in-person learning will resume for her vulnerable students, as the region begins to plan for lifting stay-at-home orders.

“I know that they say a lot of children are not necessarily a high number of cases [of the coronavirus] but we have many students with underlying respiratory issues,” said Christie Mandeville, principal of St. Coletta of Greater Washington. “The main concern is they can’t keep a social distance, they are not going to keep six feet apart, they aren’t going to keep a mask on or keep gloves on.”

Located in Southeast, St. Colletta provides education and therapy services to about 270 students from Maryland, the District and Virginia. The students possess varying degrees of functionality, which makes social distancing and distance learning a unique challenge.

Ms. Mandeville said some students require intensive one-on-one instruction, a point of concern about reopening the school with its older, more vulnerable staffers.

“There is no easy solution,” especially if parents return to work before St. Coletta reopens, she said.

School officials have begun discussing reopening strategies. One possibility being considered would have some students attend on Mondays and Wednesdays and the others on Tuesdays and Thursdays, Ms. Mandeville said.

Because St. Coletta is a private and a charter school, it doesn’t have to adhere to D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser’s education plan, which ends the academic year in May, Ms. Mandeville said. Typically, St. Coletta offers an 11-month program that most students participate in because they need the extra class time, the principal said.

Distance learning is “very challenging just because [the students] like structure and routine, and being away from all of that can really invoke some behavior challenges and just distractibility,” Ms. Mandeville said.

While some students can follow lessons online, many lack the fine motor skills to use a computer, or have trouble recognizing numbers and focusing, she added.

St. Coletta devised a distance learning program for students that does not rely on online interactions. Lesson plans that were delivered to parents focus on students’ individualized education goals, with therapy activities and tips for engaging students.

What’s more, teachers have uploaded pre-recorded video lessons and students meet virtually with their speech, occupational and physical therapists.

Carla Ware-Easterling and her husband, Sheridan Easterling, have been working from home full-time and “tag-teaming” to teach their daughter Victoria,17, for about five hours a day.

Mrs. Ware-Easterling said all three of them sit at the dining room table with their laptops open, taking turns when they are not occupied with a Zoom meeting to help their daughter, who has autism.

Mr. Easterling said it was difficult at first for Victoria to move away from the school routine and then try to establish a routine at home, but it didn’t result in any behavioral issues.

Mr. Easterling said he doesn’t think Victoria has a full understanding of what the coronavirus is and the threat it poses. She is resistant to putting on a mask when leaving the house for a walk, but seeing her two siblings, ages 14 and 15, wearing masks makes it a little easier, he said.

The Easterlings said they have been in constant communication with their daughter’s special education teacher, who put together the individualized lesson plan and calls them weekly and responds quickly to any question that comes up.

“That’s only our perspective, and she has to replicate that for 15 to 20 other kids,” Mr. Easterling said of the teacher, adding that he hopes the pandemic starts a conversation for better compensation for educators.

St. Coletta was founded in the basement of St. Charles Borromeo School in Arlington by the parents of a child with Down syndrome in 1959. The school moved to the District in 2006 and launched an adult program in Rockville in 2008.