COVID 19 Special Ed Advisory 2021-1 Compensatory Services

Advisory on compensatory services for special education students. The purpose of this guidance is to frame the considerations schools, districts and IEP Teams should make in determining the individual need of students with disabilities for compensatory education or support related to their disrupted education or inability to access special education services due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This guidance is solely intended to address the issues raised by the emergency shift to remote learning because of school closures caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and should not be relied on or referenced for compensatory claims based on alleged deprivations of FAPE for other reasons. In presenting this guidance, the Department recognizes that current public health and safety needs may change, and that the U.S. Department of Education could release additional guidance that may require the Department to revisit this document.

Includes discussion of:

General Education Recovery Support: may be made available to students with disabilities and students without disabilities who need it to address educational and social-emotional needs and reorient them to learning.

COVID-19 Compensatory Services: for students with IEPs to remedy skill or knowledge loss or lack of effective progress due to delayed, interrupted, suspended, or inaccessible IEP services because of the emergency suspension of in-person education related to the COVID-19 pandemic.

New IEP Services: to address new areas of disability-related need for students with IEPs.