Date of Completion

2024

Document Type

Honors College Thesis

Department

UVM College of Education and Social Services

Thesis Type

Honors College

First Advisor

Tricia Brown

Second Advisor

Sean Hurley

Third Advisor

Kathleen Brinegar

Keywords

Middle Level; Special Education; COVID-19; Education; Middle School; Special Education Teachers; IEP Coordinators

Abstract

The COVID-19 Pandemic has greatly impacted the education system for the past two years. COVID-19 has undoubtedly impacted students of all ages–researchers have reported an increase in mental health issues, violence, and misbehavior, as well as loss of instructional time (Kuhfeld et al., 2022). However, research investigating how Special Education Classrooms have been impacted is limited. Thus, this research proposal aims to assess how Special Education teachers and IEP coordinators have been impacted by the pandemic, a phenomenon that has been studied in multiple peer-reviewed journal articles but has not been studied in-depth in Vermont or at the Middle-Level. Special Education and/or IEP Coordinators from three different middle schools will be interviewed about how they have been impacted by the pandemic. The researcher will compare the participants’ answers and note how often certain themes are present during the three interviews. Participants have reported increased stress, an inability to meet students’ needs, struggles and solutions with technology, and the discovery of new forms of communication. They also emphasized the importance of proper funding, administrator support, and general educator cooperation.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.

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