Dear Parents,

It is so nice to see everyone back at school in the new building. I can’t wait to show you around when it is complete. Yet, it’s been another crazy start to the year as construction is still happening around the school. The good news is that we were ahead of schedule in completing the special education classrooms. However, we did not get into our classrooms right at the start of school. I got to be creative working with our students once again. Distance learning has taught me that we don’t need a classroom to connect with our students.

COVID turned our world upside down, as well as the educational system. All school-age children were affected, but children with special needs had additional hurdles that required attention. In whichever scenario, school districts are required to provide a Free Appropriate Public Education (FAPE) to all children with disabilities, even during a pandemic. “Recovery services” is a new term, and now a Minnesota law implemented due to the pandemic. This new law requires school districts to collaborate with parents to discuss the impact of the pandemic and the effect it had on the IEP services provided for their child. Despite the best efforts of the school team and parents, individual student's special education teams can look at the impact COVID-related school closures had on the services that were provided and determine if recovery services are necessary.

I will be connecting with each parent to share this information and invite you to reach out to me if you would like to discuss this information further. We can amend the IEP anytime to address these services. Feel free to contact me. If you feel that the services were adequate during the pandemic and during summer sessions, I can generate a form to have parents sign that we discussed services and that recovery services are not warranted at this time. I will attend all my students' conferences during parent-teacher conferences in October and share student progress on goals. We can discuss the need for recovery services at that time also. In the meantime, let’s continue to hope for good health.

Thank you for your patience and understanding through all our unique situations in special education. I wouldn’t have wanted to go through this with anyone else. Please don’t hesitate to contact me at any time with questions or concerns.

Sincerely,