Caregiver Experiences and Desires Related to Distance Learning for Their Children With Extensive Support Needs

• In Event: Toward Inclusive and Equitable Education: Disrupting Deficit-Based Positioning of Families and Students Labeled With Dis/abilities

Abstract

Purpose

The unprecedented shift to distance learning (DL) during the COVID-19 pandemic has intensified educational inequities for students with disabilities, a historically marginalized population in terms of access to quality instruction. Parents assumed an integral role in student access to education during DL, making it critical for school administrators, teachers, and teacher educators to understand caregiver experiences and priorities. The purpose of this study was to explore the experiences, needs, and desires of caregivers of students with extensive support needs (ESN; i.e., intellectual disability, autism, or multiple disabilities) related to DL in order to support educators in program design during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond.

Theoretical Framework

By centering the voices of families of students with disabilities in the design of their children’s educational program, we can understand DL as they experience it. As such, we honor the contributions of families and students with disabilities to the teaching and learning process and the ways DL maintained and/or transformed access to education for students with ESN. Our approach draws upon both an epistemological framework in recognizing the various ways in which families construct meaning (Greene, 1994) and Disability Studies in Education (Slee, Corcoran, & Best, 2019) to examine how a disability-centered lens provides new perspectives on education.

Methods and Data Sources

We combine qualitative (interview) and quantitative (survey) data analyses to jointly explore caregiver experiences, effectively maximizing the strengths and minimizing weaknesses of a single research method. A total of 92 caregivers completed the survey and 11 were interviewed. Survey results provided frequencies of factors that have impacted families during the COVID-19 pandemic (e.g., access to educational technology, types of educational supports received, and frequencies of social, emotional, and physical family experiences (e.g., increased anxiety, increased physical strain), as well as differences in experiences across subgroups of caregivers (e.g., single and multiple caregiver homes, different ethnicities), challenges, and silver linings. Interviews allowed us to contextualize and more deeply explore patterns that emerged from the survey data.

Results and Significance

Caregivers struggled to meet their own needs and those of their children during DL. Most reported that their children need consistent support throughout the day to access their education and maintain health and safety. Despite struggling to meet their own needs, caregivers frequently engaged in advocacy and demonstrated agency in the development of educational programs and in interactions with school teams, often pushing to leverage the strengths and assets of their children. Caregivers appreciated increased collaboration with teachers and knowledge of their child’s skills, and ways to work on skills at home.

Caregivers held high expectations for learning, ranking communication and literacy skills as most important areas. Live instruction, 1:1 coaching from teachers, and maintaining social interactions were the most desired supports. Social interaction was important to families but was less likely to be facilitated by schools compared to other supports. We present explicit examples of ways teachers can take action to maintain a high level of collaboration with families to plan embedded skill practice in inclusive and home settings post-pandemic to maximize student outcomes.

Author

• Samantha Gross Toews