March 31, 2020
Dear Families:
We hope that you are well and able to adjust to the unprecedented circumstances of this COVID-19 pandemic. We wanted to share some information with all of you about the provision of special education and related services during our time away from in-person instruction. Our plan for providing instruction to students with disabilities has two priorities:
- Focus on the health, safety, and welfare of our students and their families.
- Make good faith efforts to provide appropriate, accommodated, and accessible services to students with disabilities in light of the current circumstances.
With these priorities in mind, during the coming days, your child’s teacher/case manager will be reaching out to you to discuss the individualized plan for providing remote learning and specialized instruction for your child during Remote Learning Days. During the conversation with your child’s case manager, we encourage you to discuss the three areas listed below:
- How are things going for you, your child(ren) and others in your household during this pandemic?
Please let your child’s IEP case manager know if your child or family has new needs that have developed in the last few weeks. Examples might include how your child responded to the last week of continued learning opportunities, a family member who is ill, a family member who lost their job, etc. We ask these questions so that we can assist your child with learning while keeping their current needs in mind. - What specialized services and supports are necessary for your child as they learn at home?
This will be the biggest portion of the conversation. Your child’s case manager will discuss the plan of support for your child when they are at school, and a few options for how we could plan to do this while they are at home. Collaboration between parents and our school team is going to be a big part of making an appropriate plan. - What’s coming up for your child that we need to schedule or reschedule or discuss?
For some of you, we have open evaluations. Others have an annual review or other type of meeting yet to be held this year. Now that our schedules have changed (and so have yours), we will touch base with you (if we haven’t already) about what’s happening with evaluations, annual reviews, etc. that have yet to be completed and options for how we can make the meeting happen.
These are uncertain times and we want to work with you to provide the certainty of an appropriate plan for your child to be supported during our time away from in-person instruction. Should you have any questions or concerns in the meantime, please don’t hesitate to reach out. Thank you for your patience, understanding, and cooperation during this unprecedented situation.
If you have questions, comments or concerns, please contact us at jampcares@jampsped.org
Sincerely,
JAMP Staff