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Date: 8/18/2020
EASTHAMPTON – While school committees are busy choosing what plan they will use to reopen school in the fall, early education has been one of the areas many believe has not been talked about, despite its importance to the community.
Special Education Director Sarah Mochak welcomed incoming Pre-K families to an online forum to share concerns and discuss the beginning of the school year.
Parents expressed their concerns that ranged from their child receiving walk-in services, even if the parent chooses to have their child go remote, their child not receiving the classroom time they need, transportation, and internet access.
“Honestly as a parent I am concerned about the lack of continuity over the span of the week and the fact that he is going to be pulled more than he is in the classroom when he really needs a lot of learning how to be a student and learning to be a community member that the preschool does so brilliantly,” said Caroline Melly, a parent of a student.
Easthampton Public Schools has decided to start the year remotely, starting Sept. 14 but they hope to have preschool students come back for in-person learning on Oct. 13, if parents and guardians choose to do so.
“The Department of Education is encouraging school districts to prioritize for in-person learning for certain populations of students. One being preschool and the others are small highly specialized programs,” said Mochak.
This includes students in the rise program, students that are homeless or in foster care, and English language learners.
Preschool teachers will be working with the instructional planning committee to determine what the days will look like. For those parents whose child attends preschool as part of their IEP, all services will be delivered through both live and recorded lessons or online activities that teachers might direct to parents.
If a child receives speech, occupational therapy, or physical therapy the therapist will consult with the child’s preschool teacher to schedule services. They will also work with the parents to schedule services. Mochak said each child will have an individual learning plan, they are not rewriting IEP’s but will take the IEP and see how it can work remotely.
If a child receives speech services and does not get pulled put of the classroom, the speech pathologist will work with preschool teacher to figure out when they can co-treat or deliver those services to the child.
“What we know now is teachers will have a lot of training prior to the start of the school year on how to do remote learning so things will look very differently. I think remote learning is difficult inherently for little ones so we will be working on that with you. If it was difficult for you or if you child proves to be difficult, we want to look at why it was difficult. What were the barriers and support you in making it run more smoothly,” Mochak said.
In order for a child to eligible for special education services, they have to be evaluated before hand and then again every three years. The committee is still working on how they will conduct those evaluations being remote. Mochak said they are hoping to have them in person and not remotely.
The district is offering hot spots to give internet access and planning to buy iPads for those in need while their child is remote learning. Transportation is still available for those who need it, but if a parent feels safer to transport their own child, the district is reimbursing parents 50 cents a mile. Parents would have to submit an invoice to the school every month. They will be sending out something about transportation to parents soon so they can plan for how many vans they need.
Mochak said in the next couple of weeks they are going to work with the preschool team to figure out what the remote schedule will look like and hope to have answers about being able to offer in-person services.