Joshua Alerts in Ohio

 The Politics of Autism discusses the problems of wandering and day-to-day safety.

Kevin Accettulla at WCMH-TV:

Gov. Mike DeWine signed a bill that will create an alert system for missing children with autism.

House Bill 359 was sponsored by Rep. Cecil Thomas (D-Cincinnati) and Rep. Jennifer Gross (R-West Chester). The bill creates the Joshua Alert for cases of missing children who have autism or other developmental disabilities. Watch previous coverage in the player above.

The alert is named after Joshua Al-Lateef, a 6-year-old boy with autism who went missing in 2024 in West Chester, a suburb of Cincinnati. When his mother, Jonisa Cook, called 911, she was told there was no immediate alert that could be sent out to the community.

Hours later, Joshua was found dead in a nearby pond.

...

 Kyle Erdeljac, who testified in favor of the bill on behalf of the Ohio Fraternal Order of Police, said the bill addresses a problem for law enforcement.

“These are not our typical runaway cases,” Erdeljac said. “Many children with autism are non-verbal and unable to communicate. They may not appreciate danger the same way as you or I. Tragically, some are drawn to water, and drownings happen.”

Erdeljac said children with autism need help fast and law enforcement needs a clear way to spread the word.

The bill passed both the Ohio House and Senate unanimously.

 In recent years, five states – including Florida, Maryland, Kansas, Mississippi and Connecticut – have established emergency alerts for all individuals with disabilities. 

Autistic Teen Dies After Abuse by Jail Guards

In The Politics of Autism, I discuss interactions between the justice system and autistic people.

Erin Glynn and Laura A. Bischoff at the Columbus Dispatch:

Inside the Montgomery County Jail, guards taunted, belittled and threatened Isaiah Trammell, a 19-year-old who had autism spectrum disorder.

Deputies on the overnight shift told Trammell he was "ridiculous," "embarrassing" and "acting like an ass," surveillance video shows. Officers strapped Trammell into a restraint chair two separate times and threatened more time in the chair if he didn’t calm down.

Trammell couldn’t calm himself. He banged his head on the cell door, howled and repeatedly screamed “Let me out!”

Head-banging or other self-injury behaviors are more prevalent among people with autism. For Trammell, it was a dangerous coping mechanism that he continued during his brief time in jail.

“You remember how that restraint chair felt? Remember what the sergeant said? You're gonna go in for 10 hours next time you go in there. You want to do that?" one officer told Trammell, hours after he had been released from the chair the first time.

One officer said they couldn't use the restraint chair, prompting another to respond: “Just put the chair in front of his (expletive) cell so he stops. Give him a constant reminder.”

The restraint chair is supposed to be a last resort, only used in extreme circumstances and when the safety of the incarcerated person or others is in danger. Staff are supposed to use other interventions first, such as offering medication.

Trammell begged for his medications, a phone call and a blanket. No one heeded his pleas.

Less than 10 hours after entering jail, Dayton paramedics loaded Trammell into an ambulance.

He died three days later. The coroner ruled it a suicide − a ruling Trammell's mother wants changed.

Montgomery County Sheriff Rob Streck said Trammell shouldn’t have been in jail, given his mental health issues.

Trammell's case isn't an outlier. A USA TODAY Network Ohio investigation found that most of the 16,000 people in Ohio jails each day suffer from mental illness.

Measles and the Unvaccinated

 In The Politics of Autism, I analyze the discredited notion that vaccines cause autism. This bogus idea can hurt people by allowing diseases to spread.    Examples include measles, COVID, flu, and polio.

Miranda Nazzaro at The Hill:

A new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found that more than 90 percent of the children infected in last year’s measles outbreak in Ohio were unvaccinated.

The report published Friday looked at the 85 total confirmed cases, all among children located in central Ohio, and found 94 percent of them did not receive the MMR vaccine, which protects against measles, mumps and rubella. Additionally, 80 out of the 85 cases were in children under the age of 5, according to Columbus Public Health.

Helen Branswell at STAT: 

[The] reality of measles as a disease that strikes almost uniquely in childhood is changing. The shift is driven in part by the fact that the first wave of children whose parents shunned vaccination in the late 1990s and early 2000s — in response to a fallacious, since-retracted study in the Lancet that linked measles vaccine to autism — are now in young adulthood.

A recent report from the United Kingdom’s Health Security Agency suggested the growing pool of non-immune adults — known as susceptibles in the lexicon of epidemiology — could fuel future measles outbreaks.

There is also a growing body of adults in this country who have no immunity against measles, experts say. In fact, since the year 2000, about 40% of measles cases in the U.S. have been in adults, with about one-quarter in people aged 20 to 29.

Excess Republican Deaths

In The Politics of Autism, I analyze the discredited notion that vaccines cause autism. This bogus idea can hurt people by allowing diseases to spread.   And among those diseases could be measles and COVID-19.

Unfortunately, Republican politicians and conservative media figures are increasingly joining up with the anti-vaxxers.   Even before COVID, they were fighting vaccine mandates and other public health measures. 

Jacob Wallace,; Paul Goldsmith-Pinkham; Jason L. Schwartz, "Excess Death Rates for Republican and Democratic Registered Voters in Florida and Ohio During the COVID-19 Pandemic" JAMA Internal Medicine

Key Points

Question Was political party affiliation a risk factor associated with excess mortality during the COVID-19 pandemic in Florida and Ohio?

Findings In this cohort study evaluating 538 159 deaths in individuals aged 25 years and older in Florida and Ohio between March 2020 and December 2021, excess mortality was significantly higher for Republican voters than Democratic voters after COVID-19 vaccines were available to all adults, but not before. These differences were concentrated in counties with lower vaccination rates, and primarily noted in voters residing in Ohio.

Meaning The differences in excess mortality by political party affiliation after COVID-19 vaccines were available to all adults suggest that differences in vaccination attitudes and reported uptake between Republican and Democratic voters may have been a factor in the severity and trajectory of the pandemic in the US.

Abstract

Importance There is evidence that Republican-leaning counties have had higher COVID-19 death rates than Democratic-leaning counties and similar evidence of an association between political party affiliation and attitudes regarding COVID-19 vaccination; further data on these rates may be useful.

Objective To assess political party affiliation and mortality rates for individuals during the initial 22 months of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Design, Setting, and Participants A cross-sectional comparison of excess mortality between registered Republican and Democratic voters between March 2020 and December 2021 adjusted for age and state of voter registration was conducted. Voter and mortality data from Florida and Ohio in 2017 linked to mortality records for January 1, 2018, to December 31, 2021, were used in data analysis.

Exposures Political party affiliation.

Main Outcomes and Measures Excess weekly deaths during the COVID-19 pandemic adjusted for age, county, party affiliation, and seasonality.

Results Between January 1, 2018, and December 31, 2021, there were 538 159 individuals in Ohio and Florida who died at age 25 years or older in the study sample. The median age at death was 78 years (IQR, 71-89 years). Overall, the excess death rate for Republican voters was 2.8 percentage points, or 15%, higher than the excess death rate for Democratic voters (95% prediction interval [PI], 1.6-3.7 percentage points). After May 1, 2021, when vaccines were available to all adults, the excess death rate gap between Republican and Democratic voters widened from −0.9 percentage point (95% PI, −2.5 to 0.3 percentage points) to 7.7 percentage points (95% PI, 6.0-9.3 percentage points) in the adjusted analysis; the excess death rate among Republican voters was 43% higher than the excess death rate among Democratic voters. The gap in excess death rates between Republican and Democratic voters was larger in counties with lower vaccination rates and was primarily noted in voters residing in Ohio.

Conclusions and Relevance In this cross-sectional study, an association was observed between political party affiliation and excess deaths in Ohio and Florida after COVID-19 vaccines were available to all adults. These findings suggest that differences in vaccination attitudes and reported uptake between Republican and Democratic voters may have been factors in the severity and trajectory of the pandemic in the US.

Measles Outbreak in Ohio

In The Politics of Autism, I analyze the discredited notion that vaccines cause autism. This bogus idea can hurt people by allowing diseases to spread.    Examples include measles, COVID, flu, and polio.

Lena Sun at WP:

A rapidly growing measles outbreak in Columbus, Ohio — largely involving unvaccinated children — is fueling concerns among health officials that more parent resistance to routine childhood immunizations will intensify a resurgence of vaccine-preventable diseases.

Most of the 81 children infected so far are old enough to get the shots, but their parents chose not to do so, officials said, resulting in the country’s largest outbreak of the highly infectious pathogen this year.

“That is what is causing this outbreak to spread like wildfire,” said Mysheika Roberts, director of the Columbus health department.

The Ohio outbreak, which began in November, comes at a time of heightened worry about the public health consequences of anti-vaccine sentiment, a long-standing problem that has led to drops in child immunization rates in pockets across the United States. The pandemic has magnified those concerns because of controversies and politicization around coronavirus vaccines and school vaccine mandates.
...

Some of the cases occurred in Columbus’s large Somali community, the second-largest Somali population in the United States after the Minneapolis area, Roberts said. Parents have said they “intentionally delayed” giving their children the measles vaccine because of their fear of autism, she said, despite considerable research disproving any relationship between vaccines and autism. Those fears echoed similar concerns of parents in Minnesota’s Somali community during a 2017 measles outbreak that infected 75 children, mostly unvaccinated preschool kids.

Measles in Ohio

In The Politics of Autism, I analyze the discredited notion that vaccines cause autism. This bogus idea can hurt people by allowing diseases to spread.    Examples include measles, COVID, flu, and polio.

Gretchen Cuda Kroen at Cleveland.com:

The number of children who have fallen ill with measles in and around Columbus has grown slowly but steadily since the first four cases were reported by the Columbus health department at the beginning of November.

While there are still no reported cases in the Cleveland area, the recent Ohio measles outbreak - which so far has been limited entirely to unvaccinated or partially vaccinated children - has some doctors raising concerns that go beyond measles.

They say a combination of a complacency about diseases most people in the U.S. have rarely seen up close, and the heated debate around COVID-19 vaccinations, has sown seeds of confusion and misinformation about the safety, effectiveness and necessity of vaccines for other childhood diseases.

These small outbreaks, say doctors, should serve as a reminder of the importance of timely vaccinations in young children, because even a single exposure could be devastating in settings like daycares with rooms full of babies too young to be vaccinated. Measles is a highly contagious virus, with 90% of unvaccinated people exposed getting sick.

“Measles and polio and meningitis ... these are very serious diseases that we do not want to see come back,” said Dr. Camille Sabella, a specialist in pediatric infectious diseases at the Cleveland Clinic. “Vaccines have basically eliminated those childhood diseases.”

Seventy-seven cases of measles were reported Central Ohio from Nov. 9 through Friday.

Antivaxxer Might Lose Medical License

  In The Politics of Autism, I write:

Many articles and blog posts arguing for the vaccine-autism link have the trappings of genuine academic research: tables, graphs, citations, and scientific jargon. Some of the authors have credentials such as M.D. or Ph.D. degrees. None of these things is a guarantee of scientific value, as the history of science is full of crackpot theories (e.g., AIDS denialism) that are the heavily-footnoted products of people with letters after their names. But most people will not be able to spot the scientific weaknesses of such work. Outside of academia, few understand concepts such as peer review. Jordynn Jack describes one dubious article that appeared in a non-peer-reviewed publication: “Regardless of the scientific validity of the article, though, the writers perform the writing style quite effectively. It would be difficult for the layperson to distinguish this article from any other scientific research paper, especially if one did not investigate the nature of the journal … or of the scientific response to the article.”

Dr. Sherri Tenpenny is one of the Disinformation Dozen,  In an example of the overlap of multiple conspiracy theories, her name appeared on a whiteboard at a Flynn-Lindell event.

Jake Zuckerman at Cleveland.com:

A Cleveland area physician who told an Ohio House committee in the summer of 2021 that coronavirus vaccines could “interface” with cell towers and magnetize recipients now is in danger of losing her license to practice medicine in Ohio.

A state board that licenses doctors notified Dr. Sherri Tenpenny, a Cleveland area osteopathic physician, that it’s considering punishment that could go as far as revoking her license to practice medicine in Ohio after she ignored investigators and flouted a subpoena. Tenpenny made national headlines in June 2021 when she appeared before the Ohio House Health Committee to spread false claims about COVID-19 vaccines.

A Sept. 14 letter from the State Medical Board doesn’t specify what prompted the regulators to launch their investigation. However, it alleges that Tenpenny for months ignored investigators’ requests for information and defied a subpoena seeking her deposition.

Ohio law allows the board to limit, revoke or suspend a medical license for an array of offenses including failure to cooperate with an investigation. Tenpenny, per the letter, told the board it had no “lawful basis” issuing her a subpoena.

Tenpenny’s conspiratorial June 8, 2021, testimony to the Ohio House Health Committee included a series of false claims about purported dangers of vaccines. She baselessly claimed vaccines run a risk of causing ALS, cancer, and other potentially lethal diseases. Her claims about vaccines’ magnetizing effects drew Ohio into lampooning national media coverage and cemented enough political opposition to kill a broad anti-vaccination bill Tenpenny testified to support.

Vaccine Polarization

 In The Politics of Autism, I analyze the discredited notion that vaccines cause autism. This bogus idea can hurt people by allowing diseases to spread.   And among those diseases could be COVID-19.

Unfortunately, Republican politicians and conservative media figures are increasingly joining up with the anti-vaxxers.   Even before COVID, they were fighting vaccine mandates and other public health measures.

A decade ago, there was significant vaccine resistance in liberal enclaves. California's wealthy Marin County was once an example of left-wing antivax sentiment.At NYT, Soumya Karlamangla reports that things have changed.

In the pandemic age, getting a Covid-19 shot has become the defining “vax” or “anti-vax” litmus test, and on that account, Marin County has embraced vaccines at rates that surpass the vast majority of communities in the nation. It comes after public health efforts to change parents’ opinions, as well as a strict state mandate that students get vaccinated for childhood diseases.

And as the nation has grown more polarized, Marin residents are less comfortable wearing the “anti-vax” label increasingly associated with conservatives. Americans who identify as Democrats are more than twice as likely to be vaccinated and boosted against Covid — and Marin County is one of the bluest enclaves in America.

...

Dr. [Matt] Willis left the C.D.C. and in 2013 took over as Marin County’s health officer, and he was intent on figuring out why relatively few parents were vaccinating their children.

He surveyed the parents of thousands of kindergartners to understand what their vaccine concerns were. On the list were autism, ingredients in vaccines and the speed at which babies are administered dozens of shots. A 1998 study that purported to connect the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine with autism was debunked and retracted — but only after propelling the anti-vaccine movement, particularly among parents skeptical of traditional medicine and pharmaceutical companies.

Dr. Willis began public health campaigns to specifically address those fears and primed local pediatricians to have those conversations too. His efforts got a boost when, in late 2014, a measles outbreak erupted at Disneyland, drawing greater attention to unvaccinated children. When cases spread to Marin County, its low vaccination rates became a glaring example in California.

...

The anti-vaccine movement used to be a place where the left met the right, but increased polarization during the pandemic has made such a combination difficult to sustain, said Jennifer Reich, sociology professor at the University of Colorado Denver and the author of “Calling the Shots: Why Parents Reject Vaccines.”

“When we start to see such vastly different sources of information about what the risks of infection of Covid are, you start to see people making wildly different decisions in their life,” Ms. Reich said. “The vaccine and scientific expertise has become politicized.”

Jacob Wallace, Paul Goldsmith-Pinkham & Jason L. Schwartz, "Excess Death Rates for Republicans and Democrats During the COVID-19 Pandemic," NBER Working Paper 30512 ttp://www.nber.org/papers/w30512

Political affiliation has emerged as a potential risk factor for COVID-19, amid evidence that Republican-leaning counties have had higher COVID-19 death rates than Democrat- leaning counties and evidence of a link between political party affiliation and vaccination views. This study constructs an individual-level dataset with political affiliation and excess death rates during the COVID-19 pandemic via a linkage of 2017 voter registration in Ohio and Florida to mortality data from 2018 to 2021. We estimate substantially higher excess death rates for registered Republicans when compared to registered Democrats, with almost all of the difference concentrated in the period after vaccines were widely available in our study states. Overall, the excess death rate for Republicans was 5.4 percentage points (pp), or 76%, higher than the excess death rate for Democrats. Post- vaccines, the excess death rate gap between Republicans and Democrats widened from 1.6 pp (22% of the Democrat excess death rate) to 10.4 pp (153% of the Democrat excess death rate). The gap in excess death rates between Republicans and Democrats is concentrated in counties with low vaccination rates and only materializes after vaccines became widely available.

Polio

 In The Politics of Autism, I analyze the discredited notion that vaccines cause autism. This bogus idea can hurt people by allowing diseases to spread.    Examples include measles, COVID, flu ... and polio.

 Dustin Jones at NPR:

Health officials in New York have discovered a case of polio in an adult — the first case in the country since 2013.

The good news is most people have nothing to worry about. "Unless you're unvaccinated," according to retired family physician and polio survivor Marny Eulberg.

The New York State Department of Health said the unvaccinated individual from Rockland County likely contracted the virus from someone outside of the country who had taken an oral polio vaccine, which hasn't been authorized for use in the U.S. since 2000.

Back in October, Aaron Blake reported at WP:

The new YouGov poll shows that fewer than half of Republicans — 46 percent — now say parents should be required to vaccinate their children against infectious diseases.

That’s both far shy of where Democrats are at — 85 percent — and also far shy of where Republicans used to be. Used to be, as in last year.

YouGov has polled this question repeatedly over the years, and up until recently Republicans were in a pretty similar place to Democrats. Back in 2015, both 81 percent of Democrats and 67 percent of Republicans believed such vaccines should be mandated for children.

And that split held pretty constant, through 2020 — until the coronavirus vaccines.

Jane Zuckerman at Ohio Capital Journal:

State politicians advanced an effort Tuesday to place anti-vaccination language onto a general election ballot, which would leave the fate of vaccine mandates in Ohio in voters’ hands.

If passed, Ohio would become the only state in the nation with an explicit ban of vaccine mandates in its constitution. It would mark a major step backward for public health, dampen an already sluggish COVID-19 vaccination effort in Ohio, and nix a practice of mandating vaccination that traces back through early American history.

The Ohio Ballot Board — a bipartisan panel controlled by Republicans — allowed organizers of the “Medical Right to Refuse” amendment to begin gathering the 443,000 voters’ signatures required to place the referendum on a ballot. Organizers said they’re hoping to put the issue to voters in May 2023.

• The proposal covers all vaccines, not just COVID-19. It contains two basic elements:“An individual’s right to refuse any medical procedure, treatment, injection, vaccine, prophylactic, pharmaceutical, or medical device shall be absolute.”
• “No law, rule, regulation, person, employer, entity, or healthcare provider shall require, mandate or coerce any person to receive or use a medical procedure, treatment, injection, vaccine, prophylactic, pharmaceutical, or medical device nor shall the aforementioned discriminate against the individual who exercises this right.”

 

The Rock Sends a Message

In The Politics of Autism, I discuss depictions of ASD in popular culture.   

The PACTS Program at Parma Senior High School in Ohio hosts an annual spring luau dance for nearly 400 special needs students in the surrounding area. The Parma High students posted a video invitation to social media to invite Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson to their luau. When Johnson got wind of their request, he made sure that the students had a couple special surprises in store for them as they celebrated their big night…

 

Antivax Doctor Wins Office

In The Politics of Autism, I analyze the discredited notion that vaccines cause autism. This bogus idea can hurt people by allowing diseases to spread.   And among those diseases could be COVID-19.

Antivaxxers are sometimes violent, often abusive, and always wrong.

Jake Zuckerman at Ohio Capital Journal reports on Dr. Elizabeth Laffay, an osteopath:

She told state lawmakers that vaccines kill; she touted dubious COVID-19 treatments like ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine on talk radio; she stormed a Big Lots with a small and barefaced crowd to protest its mask requirement; and she pushed her local school board to rescind its mask requirement.

However, in November, with a $1000 financial boost from U.S. Senate Candidate Jane Timken’s “Jobs For a New Economy” (JANE) PAC, Laffay won a seat on the Huron City School District Board of Education.

Laffay’s election epitomizes a confluence of trends as the new coronavirus approaches its third year on earth: the explosion of anti-science and anti-vaccination fervor; conservatives’ new emphasis on school board races as masks and “critical race theory” animate their political base; and doctors using their credentials to spread health misinformation in the face of medical licensing boards that have refused to intercede.

...

In an interview with Tom Roten, a conservative talk radio host, she said she has been prescribing ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine — both of which have been championed by conservatives as cures and preventatives for COVID-19 over objections from the medical community and the drug’s manufacturers who have pleaded against the practice — throughout the pandemic. She also recommended using mouthwash to “decrease any viral loads” that might be accumulating.
...

Speaking to Roten, Laffay identified herself as a member of “America’s Frontline Doctors,” a network of health care providers who claim vaccines are unsafe and ineffective who have made millions selling consultations and alternative medications like ivermectin, which many pharmacies have refused to dispense. The network was founded by Dr. Simone Gold, who awaits trial on charges related to her allegedly joining an insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

Laffay runs a clinic called “Elite Wellness Group.” Its website lists services including “facial LED light therapy” ($95 per 30-minute session); “emotional freedom technique” ($115 per one-hour session); and “infrared sauna” ($48 per 30-minute session).

Antivax Wackiness in Ohio

The Politics of Autism, I analyze the discredited notion that vaccines cause autism. This bogus idea can hurt people by allowing diseases to spread.   And among those diseases could be COVID-19.

Antivaxxers are sometimes violent, often abusive, and always wrong. 

Testimony going off the rails now.

Tenpenny is claiming there is metal in the vaccine that causes forks to stick to your forehead. She saw videos of it on the internet, you see

Also promoting the 5G cell phone network vaccine theory. This is the anti-vaccine "expert witness" pic.twitter.com/sPpuAqmHba

— Tyler Buchanan (@Tylerjoelb) June 8, 2021

From PolitiFact:

Dr. Sherri Tenpenny is a licensed osteopathic physician and anti-vaccine advocate based in suburban Cleveland. Tenpenny is the author of “Saying No To Vaccines: A Resource Guide for All Ages” and has previously said vaccines cause autism, a claim public health officials have debunked.

Wow. An anti-vaccine nurse in Ohio tried to prove the Vaccines Cause Magnetism theory in an state legislative committee. The demonstration did not go to plan pic.twitter.com/0ubELst4E8

— Tyler Buchanan (@Tylerjoelb) June 9, 2021

Another Antivax Republican

 In The Politics of Autism, I analyze the discredited notion that vaccines cause autism. This bogus idea can hurt people by allowing diseases to spread.   And among those diseases could be COVID-19.

Unfortunately, Republican politicians are increasingly joining up with the anti-vaxxers.  Recent examples include a member of the House COVID subcommittee and a crackpot who won the US Senate nomination in Oregon.

 Travis Gettys at Raw Story:

Josh Mandel, who's running in the GOP primary for the seat that will open up with the retirement of Sen. Rob Portman (R-OH), issued a pair of tweets Friday raising baseless concerns about the vaccine against COVID-19 and suggesting armed conflict against the government if inoculations become mandatory.

"Dear @GovMikeDewine, WE THE PEOPLE are putting you on notice that if you try to institute a 'vaccine passport,'" Mandel tweeted. "WE WILL REVOLT. WE WILL RISE UP. WE WILL DEFEND OUR FREEDOM."

The former Ohio treasurer and state representative then shared a story about a Utah woman who died two days after receiving her second dose of the vaccine, although the medical examiner said her death was not likely linked to the shot.

Civil Rights and Education During COVID-19

In The Politics of Autism, I discuss the day-to-day challenges facing autistic people and their families. Those challenges get far more intense during disasters.  And coronavirus is proving to be the biggest disaster of all. Providing education is proving to be very difficult.

The NAACP Legal Defense Fund has posted a joint statement from civil rights organizations, including the National Center for Learning Disabilities and the National Disability Rights Network:

Federal law, including the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), requires students with disabilities to receive a free appropriate public education and related services, such as speech or occupational therapies. Additionally, Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 prohibits federally funded programs from discriminating against individuals with disabilities, including students. These legal requirements and educational imperatives continue, even in the face of the current public health crisis. While school closures may present many challenges for students, families, and educators who are used to working together in-person, there are many examples of schools and districts working creatively to ensure that the needs of students with disabilities are met and they are not denied an education. Special attention is needed to ensure the rights of children with disabilities who are also English learners, low-income, or students of color are met.

• Florida UCP Charter Schools will be providing a customized Distance Learning program for its PreK – 12th grade students. This will include daily live lessons and virtual field trips/performances using Google Meet by teachers, “specials” and guests (i.e. legislators, local celebrities), classroom and individualized lessons using Google Classroom, and remote occupational, physical, and speech therapies. Clinical Counselors will provide virtual therapy and behavior technicians will host virtual social skills groups and individualized virtual meetings with parents/students. Family Service Case Managers will conduct a weekly “check in” with families to provide any needed support/resources and school nurses will check in with students with health care needs.
• The Ohio Department of Education is working to ensure students with disabilities receive educational services consistent with their Individualized Education Programs. Recognizing the challenges this may present, the Department has advised school districts to consider three questions in the delivery of special education services: “1. Is the activity essential? 2. Can the activity be done virtually? 3. If there is no other choice, then can the activity be done safely?” Consulting local health departments is advisable and encouraged.
• The Manchester, NH School District set up a link to access information regarding home instruction. There is a letter to parents (available in audio in multiple languages), and information about food delivery, lessons, and materials for elementary school. It appears Manchester is rolling out lesson plans by grade level, starting with elementary school. The letter to parents indicates that the district intends to provide services in students’ IEPs and 504 plans, including possibly bringing small cohorts of students into the schools. Teachers will call parents. Meals and hard-copy materials are being delivered daily.
• According to a parent of the Argyle Independent School District in Texas: “We are receiving online instruction through Google Classroom. The teachers are making videos or using WebEx to connect with students and have had great communication and availability. They are currently sending out information for “parent-focused speech therapy.” Special Education teachers have modified assignments and hand delivered them to each student’s home and are available remotely to help and answer questions.
• LEAs, schools, parents, and advocates may also consider emerging best practices for complying with federal disability law during COVID-19 school closures by visiting the National Center for Learning Disabilities website here and here. Practitioners and families can also find curated, searchable resources, access to experts, and examples from the field, provided by national organizations, here.

Recommendations to Effectively Serve Students with Disabilities

• LEAs and schools should develop a process for reaching out to families to assess each student’s circumstance or new challenges that may need to be addressed in the home learning environment. Schools should develop a plan for regular, ongoing communication with families, in a language they understand, to monitor student progress.
• LEAs and schools should develop a process for involving families in all Individualized Education Program team meetings and decisions about the student’s education needs, goals, and services that will be provided.
• LEAs and schools should ensure that specialized instruction and related services continue for students with disabilities to the greatest extent possible in whatever manner is most appropriate for the child, while maintaining health and safety standards.
• LEAs and schools should provide educators the tools and professional development to scaffold their teaching and ensure that their lessons are designed in accordance with the principles of Universal Design for Learning (UDL), offering multiple ways for students to engage. School districts should also provide opportunities to increase collaboration and communication among educators and service providers to evaluate students’ needs and work together to make appropriate adjustments for students with disabilities.
• LEAs and schools should determine which needed services cannot be adequately or appropriately provided at this time and begin to plan for the provision of compensatory services as soon as possible.