Special Education Administrators’ Problem-Solving and their Institutional and Organizational Responses to the COVID-19 Crisis

• In Event: Exceptional Leadership: Administrative Considerations for Special Education and Student Sucess

Abstract

This study examines how a special education administrative team navigated problem-solving during the COVID-19 crisis in a California district. Grounded in institutional and organizational theories, the study introduces a framework of three institutional response scenarios—Overwhelming Chaos, Adaptive Response, and Institutional Inertia—to explore how special education leadership can either constrain or enable reform during periods of disruption. Using this framework, the study traces four change projects to investigate how administrators responded to the crisis within the constraints and affordances of bureaucratic special education structures. Findings reveal a recurring pattern of institutional inertia, where problem-solving efforts were truncated, dominated by top-down decision-making, and reinforced bureaucratic routines. Although moments of potential adaptation emerged, the persistent pull of compliance and procedural norms limited meaningful change.

Author

• Corrine Aramburo, University of New Mexico