I can tell you that “giving” a student a 504 plan is a lot easier on a school than evaluating to see if a student actually qualifies for an IEP. The school doesn’t need to evaluate the student to see if they qualify.

For context, resourceful would be defined as……. Resourcefulness can be a fine balance as many students choose not to ask for help because they don’t want to look stupid or they demand it which doesn’t always go over well with adults.

The focus for Kindergarten through about 3rd grade is on learning to read, before switching to reading to learn. Students who struggle to read and have reached 3rd grade begin to find ways to avoid reading.

Explain to me we are pushing so hard to get back to the schooling that so many complained about prior to the pandemic? Why are we afraid to admit something new may be working for some students?

What may have begun as just an outlet became a resource, providing a feeling of connectedness for many. These parents will be the first to share that they are not experts on autism, but they willingly offer their experiences and learns.

Educators continue to be placed in an impossible position. As I have stated in previous posts, our education system is in massive need of an overhaul and should not solely lie on the shoulders of the educators. We are asking and requiring educators to meet an insurmountable task and have to acknowledge the stress and pressure that causes. This will and has led to burnout.

We also need to recognize that some of our most vulnerable students have been “lost” during the pandemic. The United States has approximately 50 million students who attend public schools and of those, around 3 million continue to be unaccounted for since the pandemic began.