We are taking a closer look this morning at the impact the pandemic is having on

special needs students in the US.

The CDC says in-person learning is possible with the right (1) ______safety
precautions and many parents are pushing to get their kids back into the classroom but
families of students with disabilities say they are facing a (2) ____unique uphill
battle____ and their kids are being left behind.
When her St. Louis suburb first closed schools Ashley Young saw it as an opportunity:
 You know, you have these kind of grandiose ideas of this homeschool scenario
that you're going to do.
   But Ashley soon noticed her six-year-old son Miles was sleeping.
 “The kids are (3) ____downstream___________, they see if you don't use it you
lose it. We're like great okay he knows all those colors and then all of a sudden
two months later he like doesn't remember his colors anymore.
She says outside the classroom, Miles doesn't get the repetition he needs. Some lessons
from his (4)____individualized education programme________________ or IEP, he
can't receive at all, even classes that otherwise work well on Zoom don't work well for
Miles. 
 It was just too much to hear multiple people talking at a time or sometimes just the
way that the
volume comes across on a Zoom.
During a recent Zoom class, things start out fine. Then Miles has trouble with the iPad.
When Ashley comes to help, he's not happy. But once Ashley leaves, Miles (5)
____makes a break_______________ for it. And as soon as Ashley turns her back
again, Miles is out. This is six minutes into class. 
 Were there moments that stuck out to you where you thought this just isn't
working?
 A kind of a turning point. For me was I didn't necessarily like the mom that I was
becoming and it was just really overwhelming for both of us.
So Ashley (6) ____resorted to_________  hiring a private specialist to work with Miles
in person part-time.
 I don't feel like he was getting. I don't want to say any education but it's true, I
mean if I’m being honest, I don't feel like he learns anything from zooms online.
It's a sentiment we're hearing from special needs families all across the country like the
Azeltines family of Charlotte, North Carolina. Six-year-old Connor is (7) _partially
deaf____ and too young to read closed captions on zoom.
 He relies pretty much on myself and my husband sitting with him. Both my
husband and I were and no one's coming to us and saying hey we're going to pay
your bills.
Courtney says to learn through a screen, Connor must first learn to read. A catch-22
since he's learning that virtually.
 See the other kids his age reading paragraphs reading sentences or they could at
least (8)____sound out words__ and he can't do any of that, and it's heartbreaking.
She says the hardest part is that Connor is now old enough to realize he's falling behind.
  The teacher put the answers up on the screen for them to all check themselves and
he didn't get a  single one right and he looked at me and put his head on my
shoulder and started to cry. 
Over in Pueblo West Colorado, Kevin Blunt says his son Makai is supposed to receive
regular speech
therapy to help with his (9) ___non verbal autisism_______________. But since it can't
be done via Zoom, Makai hasn't had speech therapy in almost a year.
 We've even asked are we able to (10) __sign a waiver__________ and get
specialists like speech therapy to come to the house. “No no we can't do any of
that at this time.”
The family says the school also refused to loan them the (11) ____sensory items____
normally used to help Makai learn.
 Basically putting Makai in front of a screen, it's useless, it really is. You know
we've heard for year no child left behind, no child left behind but we really feel
like the kids with an iep or special needs are specifically being left behind.
Jennifer Manning, director of special education fortheneighborhood(12)___charter
school____ in New york City says parents are facing an impossible task. 
 We always say that just because you have a student with special needs as your
child does not make you an expert on how to teach a kid with special needs.
At the end of the month, she hopes to welcome her special needs students back to the
classroom where they can attend virtual classes with the added help of (13) __in-person
professionals___________, but she says that's not as easy as it sounds. 
 We have a building in which we are, because of code we can't open our windows
and so all of these precautions that are told to be put in place in order to make a
building more safe are really really complicated. 
(14) ___in the mean time_________________ she says her school is working to make
online learning as fruitful as possible.
 If I'm a (15) ___visual learner_____________ i'm always going to have that visual
piece to go back to you. If i'm an audio learner i'm always going to have
something to click on so something can be read aloud to me. We've sent home (16)
_______waiting___________  and we've sent home special seats and special (17)
_______sensory tools______________ that we would have in the building so that
kids and families access to those tools at home. We know that this is not our ideal
situation but what can we do to make it better.
It's the kind of support the Blunts and the Azeltines say they're not receiving from their
respective
schools but they intend to keep fighting. 
 I'll scream and I'll fight and I'll yell and I'll do whatever I have to do for someone
to listen because this, this is it's critical, it truly is critical.
Now since we did those interviews, Makai Blunt is back in school for now. His school
says they will monitor COVID-19 cases day by day as for virtual learning for special
needs students. The school says quote specialists and therapists continued to meet with
those students and their parents virtually
and provided as close to the same services possible as required on the student iep plans.
Now an administrator for Connor Aseltines’ school tells us: “We have followed
(18)____appropriate procedures _____________ and made solid educational decisions
in the midst of the most (19)__________________I have  experienced as an educator.
We have worked and will continue to work in good faith with the Azeltines to make
appropriate educational decisions for Connor.”
And as for Miles young Ashley says he has been welcomed back in school for a while
now but because he has a heart condition, his doctors have (20) __deemed him to___
high risk so both he and his sister Lucia will have to stay home for the foreseeable
future.