As Connecticut public schools returned to in-person learning last year, early childhood education Commissioner Beth Bye was 鈥渂lown away鈥� by the gaps in the earliest grades. Of the 15,000 students who didn鈥檛 show up for class, 8,000 were preschoolers and kindergartners鈥攁nd students who did show up showed significant delays in school readiness.
鈥淏ut that was really the tip of the iceberg. Parents often don鈥檛 know what鈥檚 typical or atypical [child] development. So for those two years when parents were holding their young children out, they weren鈥檛 just missing out on peer experiences and preschool experiences, they were missing out on that early-childhood specialist who is just there to coach parents,鈥� Bye said. 鈥淪o we knew that because fewer children were in preschool, fewer children were with teachers who were trained to recognize issues and we were going to have a big problem in Connecticut.鈥�
The Nutmeg State, which last year launched a statewide, app-based screening tool to help parents identify potential red flags in their children鈥檚 development and behavior, is far from alone. Schools are struggling to separate students with true learning disabilities from those with delays caused by pandemic-related stress, disruptions, and social isolation. Moreover, limited access to early special education services in recent years means students who do have disabilities are often coming in with higher needs.
The number of young children who received special education services dropped 40 percent nationwide during the pandemic, with 320,000 fewer children ages 3-5 served under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act in 2021 than in 2018. As those toddlers come of age to enter elementary school, schools are playing catch-up to identify and serve students with disabilities while also coping with broad school-readiness delays that complicate identification.
While there are no national data so far this school year, Gracie Branch, the associate executive director of the National Association of Elementary School Principals, said principals report more students with delays in language and fine-motor skills entering preschool and kindergarten this fall.
鈥淢ost of the schools I know of have hired extra interventionists or social workers to work with families to accommodate the growth in students who seem to have been impacted by trauma,鈥� Branch said. 鈥淭hey are seeing some fairly significant [numbers of] students with special needs coming from the lower grades.鈥�
Technology support for special education screening
Connecticut鈥檚 Sparkler app connects parents to special education referrals as well as therapeutic activities they can begin with their children at home.
Moreover, the program sends data to local school districts and special education providers to help educators prepare for incoming students鈥� needs. As of this spring, Connecticut schools saw more than 1,200 students referred through the app, with nearly 700 deemed eligible for special education services鈥攁 130 percent jump from before the pandemic, Bye said. More than half of students referred for special education services this year were identified as having school-readiness skills 2 standard deviations lower than typical for their age, with communications and gross-motor delays the most common problems.
Cheshire, one of the first districts in Connecticut to pilot the new screening tool, has been 鈥渂ursting鈥� with new special education referrals, said Jennifer Buffington, a special education teacher and the director of early intervention for Cheshire. Across three towns, 鈥渨e really are working more hours in evaluations, ... but we are trying to be very creative, too.鈥�
Young children may not understand what a pandemic is, but they know that they weren鈥檛 allowed to go outside and play with people, and it wasn鈥檛 safe to touch anyone because there was a superbug. The messages that they received are that the world is not a safe place and others aren鈥檛 safe to be with.
鈥淲e get a steady flow of communication delays, but what we鈥檙e seeing that鈥檚 changed is around the social-emotional piece and behaviors that parents struggle with,鈥� Buffington said. 鈥淲hen [students] can鈥檛 communicate as well, you can become frustrated, and we definitely see the levels of frustration becoming more intense; we鈥檝e had quite a few [students] coming through with head-banging and other self-soothing behaviors. So self-regulation is a big piece.鈥�
Specialists see a direct connection to what children experienced during the pandemic.
鈥淵oung children may not understand what a pandemic is, but they know that they weren鈥檛 allowed to go outside and play with people, and it wasn鈥檛 safe to touch anyone because there was a superbug. The messages that they received are that the world is not a safe place and others aren鈥檛 safe to be with,鈥� said Maggie Parker, an assistant professor of counseling and human development at George Washington University, who has studied the pandemic鈥檚 effects on young children. 鈥淎nd so then you throw them into a school setting where you鈥檙e sitting at a desk and expected to engage with others and sit in a circle and trust other people and work with other people, and it goes against everything that they鈥檝e been taught or experienced in the world thus far.鈥�
Donna Volpe, the director of special services for the Ramsey, N.J., school district, said she also has seen more special education referrals in kindergarten for self-regulation problems. 鈥淲e鈥檙e seeing academic behaviors missing in a lot of our students, [such as] the ability to sit in a classroom, the ability to have impulse control, the ability to socialize and follow directions鈥攏ot to mention skills like reading,鈥� she said.
But because so many students may be delayed due to missed schooling rather than particular learning disabilities such as autism, 鈥渨e鈥檙e trying to be more creative and give students the support they need without necessarily classifying them. If the students don鈥檛 make gains with those supports, then we have to take a minute ... and determine whether or not it鈥檚 a disability versus just because they weren鈥檛 exposed to things like those soft preschooling skills,鈥� Volpe said.
The Ramsey district is training teachers to do more 鈥渟oft starts鈥� in kindergarten. 鈥淪o, instead of starting the day with academics right away, the kids get like 15 minutes to just come to school and do what they prefer to do: maybe lay on a bean bag, maybe play with some toys just to decompress,鈥� Volpe said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 been built into our schedule for the students to be able to just take a minute, and we鈥檝e seen an impact in students鈥� readiness to be educated.鈥�
NAESP鈥檚 Branch cautioned that educators and administrators should take care not to overemphasize academic interventions for their youngest students with learning delays.
鈥淭he numbers of students that have been impacted by this traumatic situation with COVID just grew the numbers of students who need some special interventions. Not all of them need to go into special education classes, but we鈥檙e really looking deeply at interventions, whether that鈥檚 to help them with emotional outbursts or their academic skills that they might need extra supports with,鈥� Branch said.
鈥淲ith this higher sense of urgency that principals have鈥攂ecause students certainly have some deficits in their academic learning鈥攚e don鈥檛 want [educators] to overreact and forget how children in the early grades learn best,鈥� Branch said. 鈥淲e want them to let [students] play and to focus on content but do it through increasing more playful learning opportunities for pre-K through 3rd grade.鈥�
