Special Education Legal Updates After 18 Months of COVID-19: Avoiding Claims and Enabling Learning
1 hour 30 minutesPublic education in the US experienced a collective trauma over the last 18 months, enduring COVID-19’s impact on instruction. The crisis forced changes to instructional methods, impacted IEP implementation, raised questions about student mental health, and caused educators to re-think public education. While some students thrived during virtual and hybrid instruction, others — particularly students in special education with more significant needs — did not receive significant educational benefit or experience anticipated progress.
Schools now face another year filled with uncertainty, but the lessons learned while managing special education during the past 18 months can help you effectively plan for the 2021-2022 school year, avoid or limit legal claims, and most importantly, enable learning progress for our most disabled students.
Join nationally recognized Education Law litigator and professor John Comegno, Esq. as he provides practical suggestions for navigating these and other cutting-edge special education legal questions:
- What is the most important legal issue to consider while re-opening school this year?
- Do you need to provide more services to “make up” for hybrid/virtual learning?
- Why does Child Find mean more now than ever?
- What is “COVID-19-LD” eligibility and how can you avoid improper eligibility determinations through best practices?
- Does a diagnosis of “Long Covid” automatically require an IEP or a Section 504 plan?
- What worked well last year? Should we embrace some change related to special education?
- How can you defend “comp ed” claims most effectively?
- Is social emotional learning different now, and what does that mean for the future of instruction?
DISCLAIMER: Frontline Education does not provide legal advice. Always consult your district’s legal counsel.
Access this on-demand webinar.
Watch the Special Education Legal Updates After 18 Months of COVID-19: Avoiding Claims and Enabling Learning webinar now by completing the form .
The tools you need to manage your district virtually.
Frontline’s solutions offer a wide array of functionality to help you tackle day to day operations remotely. Each of the following options will link you to a brief corresponding webinar or other relevant information.
Electronically (and proactively) engage with job seekers and candidates. Watch Now
- Create a campaign to proactively reach job seekers (by position, within a certain radius, graduates from a specific school) to notify them of your virtual hiring process and invite them to apply for your open positions.
- Host a virtual job fair and invite applicants to a join using the online interview/appointment scheduler (requires use of an external system such as Zoom or WebEx.)
- Send personalized messages to job seekers who meet your criteria, or send an announcement to multiple job seekers.
- Attract and hire remote employees: Label your job as Location: Remote/Work from Home to attract remote applicants.
Onboard new hires remotely. Watch Now
- Create and distribute electronic onboarding packets to all new hires and allow employees to complete and return all forms electronically.
- Monitor progress along the way to ensure that all required paperwork is completed on time.
- Automatically route completed onboarding forms to the employee’s personnel file where they can be easily located and viewed.
Initiate and manage employee contract renewals electronically. Watch Now
- Build contract forms using drag and drop functionality.
- Ensure the right forms get to the right people with custom workflows.
- Securely apply saved administrative signatures to contracts prior to electronically distributing.
- Monitor progress along the way to ensure that contracts are completed on time.
Manage paper-based forms electronically. Watch Now
- Convert a paper form to digital so it can be accessed online.
- Configure forms to be initiated by employees, so they don’t need to come to HR.
Electronic HR source of truth. Watch Now
- Automatically transfer applicant data to employee record (demographics, certs, education history.)
- Automatically ensure all assignment details are inherited from the position.
- Electronic sticky notes.
- Electronic checklists.
Manage staffing changes with a data feed to other systems. Watch Now
- Authorize new hires, transfers, pay and funding changes, and separations.
- Track the number and percentage of employees absent from school for a specific day or date range to identify absence reason trends.
- Allow employees to clock-in from remote locations.
- Record paid time for employees not clocking in & out.
- Access and track completions of Canvas courses in Frontline alongside all other professional development your district offers – in-person, online, out-of-district, conferences, and more.
- Create Online Learning Programs to group resources, track completion and award credit.
- Upload your district’s own content – files, links and videos – to use in learning activities.
- Use Frontline’s content – micro-credentials, SCORM-compliant courses and best practice videos – to create comprehensive learning opportunities.
- Promote collaboration and coaching with online groups where teachers can share resources, invite feedback, and more.
- Use the virtual observation rubric modified from the USC Center for Excellence in Teaching to provide feedback to help your teachers optimize their remote instruction
- Document and report on COVID-19 symptoms and diagnoses to understand who may have been exposed.
- Handle remote and/or onsite student encounters to support mental health needs.
- Safely house student data in one secure, digital place so it’s accessible to you and essential colleagues no matter where you are.
- Claim much-needed Medicaid funds and make up for lost revenue with robust revenue enhancement tools.
Watch Now
*Available in select states
- Support online school registration, including uploads of proof of residency, forms, and transfer requests.
- Engage with individual students, groups of students, and/or parents via email through the gradebook.
- Approve/deny grade change requests with automated workflows that are handled in the software.
- Post class information, homework, and documents for students via the Student/Parent Portal and/or email.
- Integrate with Google Classroom to sync assignments back into the GradeBook.
- Create and share online assignments and content with students via the VirtualClassroom accessible through the student portal.
- Perform all duties remotely (based on district authorized access, of course!)
Watch Now
- Perform all duties remotely (based on district authorized access, of course!)
Watch Now
Disclaimer: Frontline Education does not provide legal advice. Always consult your district’s counsel about the issues discussed in this webinar.