RISE: Recovering with Inclusion, Support, and Equity

When Massachusetts schools locked down last year in response to the COVID-19 crisis, MAC stepped in with a “COSA” Response: Connecting families with advocates and each other; Sharing critical information and resources; and Advocating for an effective and equitable educational response. 

As schools begin to reopen more broadly, our focus has shifted to RISE: Recovery with Inclusion, Support, and Equity. RISE summarizes our work for the recovery period: centering inclusion of all students and their needs, support for students and families seeking connection and information, and equity, recognizing the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on Black and Latinx students - as we face a long road of recovery after a traumatic disruption in education brought about by COVID-19.

Inclusion

An inclusive recovery from COVID-19 means all students receive what they need to recover from the harmful educational and social-emotional effects of the pandemic.

Three girls laughing and jumping in the air. On the far left is a Black girl with white jeans and a white t-shirt with rainbow sleeves jumping the highest. In the middle is an Asian girl in a colorful striped dress and long black hair. On the far right is a White girl with long red hair in a white shirt and white overalls.

Black children with autism were already twice as likely to be placed in substantially separate classrooms from their peers prior to the pandemic. With lost skills, pressures to reduce class sizes, and anticipated trauma-related behavior issues, the return to school presents a risk that that disparity will increase. Recently, we added a provision to one of our priority bills to track the rate of sub-separate placements in comparison to pre-COVID rates. We’re also calling for easier access to disaggregated data so we know exactly which students need the most help.

This spring and early summer, we’re convening a group of education experts to develop evidence-based action steps schools, districts, and policy makers can take to prevent and address this anticipated disparity and others.

One group of students was disproportionately excluded from the very beginning of the pandemic: English Language Learners. Due to many factors – including a lack of access to technology, high rates of employment outside the home, and lack of access to information in their primary language – English Language Learners experienced more barriers to remote education than their peers. 

For this group, this summer will be especially critical. Equitable access to summer services is needed to make up for lost time for all students, including those whose education was delayed due to language barriers. Schools must be in communication with all parents in their primary language to inform them of these services. Teachers and paraprofessionals who can communicate with a child in their primary language, and educational materials provided in a child’s primary language, must be made available.

Support

The public health pandemic occurred alongside a related surge in racist violence and extreme economic disruptions. Together, these crises greatly increased trauma in the lives of many young people, especially children and youth of color whose communities were disproportionately impacted by all three. In this context of trauma, connection between students and their schools becomes all the more critical. It should not surprise us if behavioral issues are common when school reopens. 

Despite the heroic efforts of many educators, schools did not sufficiently engage with many families and students during the pandemic. Schools must create careful plans to engage with each student as they return to school. This will take resources, but education resources made available through the American Rescue Plan are designed for exactly such programs. Warm, engaged relationships between families and schools will be especially important during this critical, back-to-school period.

We are also concerned that students will face a spike in punitive discipline as schools use their most familiar tool in response to the behavioral issues that are bound to arise. MAC will be working with our Chapter 222 Coalition to promote alternatives to the discriminatory, punitive discipline status quo. We hope to strengthen our connections to student organizations to amplify their voices and ensure that our proposed solutions are consistent with their perspectives.

MAC is advising the Department of Education (DESE) on trauma-sensitive practices to encourage alternative approaches to punitive discipline, encouraging a policy of inclusion, support, and understanding. We continue to hold monthly MAC Chats and Charlas to provide emotional support and legal information to families free of charge.

Cognizant of what students with disabilities have lost by being out of school for the last year, MAC is advocating for a bill that will allow special education circuit breaker funding to cover the cost of providing compensatory services for students who aged out of special education during school closures. We have heard from many families whose students were left in the dark when services such as job training and independent living support suddenly ended without a plan to transition smoothly to adulthood. This bill, if passed, will provide relief to those families and support students who would otherwise be left behind.

Equity

COVID-19 has greatly exacerbated pre-existing educational inequities and has disproportionately impacted communities of color. According to a survey conducted by the Massachusetts Education Equity Project (MEEP), 32% of students feel they are falling behind academically, including 42% of low-income students. Latinx and low-income students reported higher rates of experiencing sadness in the last day.

MAC pledges to hold schools accountable to providing compensatory services to every qualifying child, to reach English Language Learners, children of color, children with disabilities, and others who often are left out of the conversation, and to move forward from this pandemic with inclusion, support, and equity front and center in all we do.