While researching the Wisconsin court ruling that pulls funding of the state’s largest virtual school, I came across a very interesting report from the North American Council of Online Learning called Keeping Pace with K-12 Online Learning. It was not surprising to learn that virtual learning is on the increase across the country, reaching over all geographic boundaries and student demographics, including ethnicity, age, gender and ability (gifted, general ed or special ed).

Special education students (those with IEPs) are being served in these public schools much in the same way that they are served in public schools with one major exception…they are not being sequestered with their same-disability peers. Because the instruction is virtual, there are no self-contained classes of children with autism, no resource rooms for LD, no separate schools for the emotionally disordered.

Because virtual schools are public schools, IDEA applies, so the school must have a system to screen and identify those with possible special needs and provide interventions. IEPs must be developed, and related services must be provided.

Whether virtual schools are doing a better job or not than brick and mortar schools on providing education to special needs children is anyone’s guess, as there isn’t enough data collected yet to prove otherwise.

However, from my perspective, I can see some decided advantages for adopted children who have special needs, especially of the developmental or emotional kind:

1. A low key environment. The most valuable thing that GVA has provided us is a low-key environment. When she was at the brick and mortar school, LuLu’s anxieties were mounting. What I didn’t know was that she’d been clearly convinced (threatened actually) that if she didn’t control her behaviors she was going to the “bad kid” school. And is always the case with LuLu, that worry did just the opposite…causes her behaviors to escalate.
2. The right sensory input. Because the environment of virtual school can be whatever the child needs, those with sensory issues (and there are tons of adopted children with sensory issues) can be addressed. Those who learn better by swinging, bouncing or twirling, can do so. Those who are bothered by loud noises no longer have bells, intercoms and noise lunchrooms to contend with. Those who need to wear their socks wrong side out no longer get odd glances for doing so.
3. The right pace. The advantage of individual learning is that it is…individual. In the program we’re in, a child has to show 85% proficiency before moving on to the next lesson. While exceptions can be made if the child’s disabilities warrant it, there’s no more moving on before the struggling learner understands. The flipside is true too…if a child already understands something, there’s no risk that you’re frustrating him by making him sit through boring material he already knows again.
4. The same materials as everyone else. As sad as it sounds, parents of special ed kids know that our children often don’t use the same textbooks and materials as their general education peers. Many parents report that when the UPS truck pulls up and unloads the boxes of books from virtual school is the first time their child has had a textbook to call his own.
5. Flexibility in schedule. Because you can do school “anytime”, you can accommodate your special child’s needs. This means working the day around doctor’s appointments, days when they aren’t feeling well, or trips to the therapist. And you can take virtual school with you…we just recently took it to Florida AND Illinois.
6. Attachment parenting available 24/7. This may be the single most important reason to consider virtual schooling for your special needs child, especially recently adopted. The more I’m around children from abuse and neglect backgrounds, the more convinced I am that the greatest gift we can give them is the opportunity to attach to a primary caregiver (mom). And this is sometimes a very slow and painful process. Setting all academics aside for a while is a great option. But for those needing (or wanting) to get on with the business of school with their attachment-affected kids, virtual school may be the answer. There are some definitely disadvantages (for the primary caregiver, mostly). But the opportunity for healing traumas and building attachments while virtual schooling are much greater than by sending them off to school for several hours a day.



Virtual School Works for Special Kids

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