VESC Ep. 20: Special Education Services in a Fully Online K-12 School

The Greenfield Commonwealth Virtual School is a public school in Massachusetts that any K-12 student can choose to attend. In this school's model, a student's at-home learning coach (e.g., parent, grandparent) is an integral partner in the education process. Director of Special Education, Darlene Thorpe, describes the school's approach to online learning for students with diverse learning needs. GCVS initiated three innovative improvements this year; a new K-5 model with focused areas of support, a 9th-grade academy, and expansion of the school's hybrid approach with a new in-person support center for students and staff.

Transcript

Dr. Amy Lyn  0:02  
This brings you exciting and practical tips for improving your virtual teaching and virtual learning experience. Hello everyone. My name is Dr. Amy Lynn and I'm the director of the Virtual Education Support Center at North Central University. Today I'm here with Darlene Thorpe, the director of special education for the Greenfield Commonwealth virtual school. GCVS is a fully accredited and free online K12 School in Massachusetts, students throughout the state of Massachusetts can self select to attend GCVS. Hi, Darlene, thank you so much for being here.

Darlene Thorpe  0:38  
Hi, thank you for having me.

Dr. Amy Lyn  0:41  
Can you tell us a little more about your career?

Darlene Thorpe  0:44  
Sure. In brief, when my own children were younger, I ran an in home daycare preschool. So I've I've enjoyed working with children from the beginning. And that I also homeschooled my own children. While I was doing that, as they got a little older and we got a better feel for for their educational needs as well. I transitioned back to working in a public school setting. And I started in South Deerfield Massachusetts. And then I worked in Holyoke mass. And then I found myself here at GCVS. I started as a middle school special education teacher. And then I kind of progressed to the assistant Student Services Director. And this past year, I became the special ed director.

Dr. Amy Lyn  1:33  
And there were some areas of interest that you wanted to share with us as well, do you want to talk about that?

Darlene Thorpe  1:39  
Sure. I'm always trying to think of better ways to support and inspire students. And since coming to GCVS, I've been rethinking special education in a virtual setting. So if we can't support students here in the virtual setting, we also want to make sure that we're thinking about how to support them transitioning back to in person learning as well. It's not for everybody. And it's it's truly important for us to be able to really sit back and examine where our students are, what they need, and also their learning coaches or if that's their parent, their parents needs in order to help support them as well.

Dr. Amy Lyn  2:21  
Right. And I know that GCVS, as you've mentioned, has us learning coaches do you want to just before we go on, tell us a little bit about the school and what you mean by a learning Coach

Darlene Thorpe  2:31  
GCVS started out as the Massachusetts Virtual Academy as a branch of the Greenfield public schools, and then they broke off to become an independent school and district in and of themselves. So we serve as students across the entire state of Massachusetts, some of those students are actually professional athletes, performers, some have health challenges, and some are just not happy with the support they get in their home districts. For various reasons, they might have high anxiety, they might have been bullied. And just, as I said various reasons why they are not happy with the situation in their home districts. A learning coach is actually someone who agrees to be be a support person in the home with the students. For some students, that may mean they are staying with them almost all day through their their classes and courses, depending on the needs of the student, and what they if they have disabilities, what those disabilities are as well. We tend to think of our learning coaches in certain situations as the one on one support person that someone might receive in brick and mortar. And that's especially true for some of our students who have more need and have more difficulty really assimilating to the inclusion setting. So the learning coaches agree to be a point person at home and also help the student to know where they need to go to find assignments, how they get to classes, all of our learning coaches have their own observer account, when a student needs some help in knowing what their courses are and contacting teachers. So the parent is directly involved, and more part of the team in helping to support the student.

Dr. Amy Lyn  4:29  
Thanks for sharing that. I noticed that on the website as well, it sounds like it's really an essential element to your school's program. So I'm happy to hear a little bit more about it, especially as we talk about special education. It seems like that would be very important to have at home. So can you tell us a little more about how do you do special education fully online like that? 

Darlene Thorpe  4:53  
Yeah, well, it's an ongoing process and we're still figuring it out ourselves. Honestly. Right now we have a special ed staff 22, including special education teachers, special ed paraprofessionals, and admitted to administrative assistance as well. Our teachers work collaboratively with the general education teachers to support students. And we have been working to increase co teaching, with special education in general education across grade levels and content areas. 

So that is an area of focus within GCVS. And we're we're continuing to build on that to really pump up as you might say that the collaboration between all service providers, including a related service providers, which includes speech and language pathologists, occupational therapists, or adjustment counselors, so we really believe in that the full spectrum of support for a student, our special ed teachers also provide small group academic support outside the general education classes. 

So they have their own live classes online. And some also work with the adjustment counselors to teach social skills groups for students, some of our pros, we can support and accommodate students with a wide range of needs, you know, medical needs, social emotional needs, educational needs, and we can offer an alternative to students who might not otherwise, you know, have that offered to them, prior to COVID, but in schools in general. So some of the cons though, that this really isn't for every student, and we need full support of the learning coach, as I just mentioned, you know, whoever that may be, the majority of our learning coaches are parents. 

But we do have some grandparents and even guardians, or others who are the learning coach for students, in order to be truly successful, we truly need the learning coach to be an integral part of the support team. And in if students have higher needs, as I've already said, that that is that much more important for that buy in of the learning coach to really be be there and be supporting the student as well as our teams on this side of the computer screen.

Dr. Amy Lyn  7:13  
Right, it strikes me that we talk about home school, you know, connection between the regular traditional brick and mortar school. And it's always, you know, has different challenges, lots of benefits, but different challenges and different districts to make those relationships really happen. And it just seems, as I'm listening, as I'm listening to, it just seems like identifying this very specific person as a learning coach really validates their role in that collaborative process. You've worked in both environments. Would you say that? That's true? Have you seen a difference in the involvement of parents in the online schools?

Darlene Thorpe  7:55  
Yes, yes, and, and I think the communication with the learning coach is is also of utmost importance. Because we lose some of those sensory inputs that we might otherwise receive, you know, we can't walk down a physical hallway and shake the hand of a parent who's bringing their student in, to get a hearing assessment, or even just to bring them into the school for the day week, we can't see them face to face, we can't read body language, we can't put a reassuring hand on a student's shoulder. 

So we rely on the parent for that information to let us know if a student can't voice that themselves, right in the younger grades K through five, of course, students have a more difficult time with that as they get older. You know, we want to help parents to increase the independence of the students as well, and be able to share that information and input with us. Because it's, it's essential to helping us to understand well, why wasn't you know, Mary, getting on camera or on her mic to answer this, the teacher on this day, but if if the parent just reaches out to us a quick chat, a quick email, you know, she just she didn't sleep last night, and she's not feeling well, you know, even those little communications can make a huge difference here, especially because we do lose some of that contact. And that's what has brought us to some of the the changes and you know, the ongoing evolution of how we interact with families and students.

Dr. Amy Lyn  9:34  
Right, we talked a little bit before the podcast about three exciting changes and ways that GCVS is adapting and improving. So let's talk about that here. The first was the K five changing model. Do you want to share a little bit about what you've learned and why this is changing and how it's going to change? Of course.

Darlene Thorpe  9:53  
Yeah, a K through five has been the most challenging grade level. A lot to really work with, and especially for support services, because the students themselves are just learning to learn. So we're kind of throwing them into this environment where we're even parents are sometimes struggling to be able to be to be able to maneuver online and within our virtual systems. So we need to make sure that we're supporting those younger students, and even those younger student parents, and learning coaches that much more. So we have created a model for our K through five, to have focused areas of support, so that students will be actually getting a double dip for their literacy and reading and math services. 

So they'll be within the general ed curriculum in inclusion, receiving their general content area, knowledge from their teachers, and they'll also be receiving additional support and additional focus on those areas that are the most important at that age. So we're really looking forward to that. And we're really happy to be able to increase our inclusion support as well for those students.

Dr. Amy Lyn  11:19  
So are the students who are just to be clear, receiving that double dip that you talked about special education students specifically? Or are these any students or all students?

Darlene Thorpe  11:31  
Well, we do have the K through five specific model for special education students. That will be the focused literacy, reading and math. There are also our title one programs that are going to be increased and improved upon for the next year as well for all general education students as well.

Dr. Amy Lyn  11:53  
Great, that's exciting. And what about the ninth grade Academy? That was another change that you talked about when we first discussed having this podcast.

Darlene Thorpe  12:03  
Right, and this is something I'm very excited about as well, because in my time with gcps, I've always felt that at at eighth grade, our students have always struggled a bit for the transition to ninth grade. And it's not just our students with IEPs, it is across the board for all students making that transition. You know, there is a similar trend in in what we call our traditional schools, or brick and mortar schools. But it seems to be a little more pointed here in the virtual environment. 

So we have our pilot program this year for the ninth grade Academy to help support all students transition, transitioning from middle school to high school. Now that will look even more in depth for the students on IEP s because we will have two focused special education teachers just for the ninth grade Academy, providing those additional supports outside of their general education classrooms. And all of the teachers within the ninth grade Academy are focused on just the ninth grade population, where previously they may have shared some Klotz classes that they taught with 10th grade or, or something to that effect.

Dr. Amy Lyn  13:12  
Right. So they're really forming that close cohesive cohort. It sounds like, yes. Sounds great. And probably what I think is even as an outsider, the most exciting change and something I'm really interesting, interested in because it speaks to this idea of having a hybrid program. Is your new in person Support Center. You're expanding that center this year. Can you talk some about that?

Darlene Thorpe  13:39  
Yes, we had actually piloted our in person Support Center two years ago, the the year before this previous year of COVID. And it was successful, but we found that our location was a little out of reach for some of our families that we really wanted to be touching and be able to support. So we are relocating and have really located to Hadley, Massachusetts, and it's a more central location, it's closer to some major routes and 91 route nine, so we will be able to make contact with more families and we're hoping to, to use the Support Center not just to have students come in but also to have it as a hub for our staff as well because our staff are are primarily virtual, as well, but it will be a place that they can meet do projects with students do live lessons and classes from the Support Center possibly. 

We will have a support center coordinator helping us to do outreach in other communities. And the hope is that over time, we will be able to build on it and have other other locations not necessarily in the future. Normal Support Center, but other locations throughout the state, possibly a community center, a library, where we can have our staff members who are also located throughout the state visit and have a day or two working with students in that way, as well.

Dr. Amy Lyn  15:18  
That is really innovative and exciting. I will definitely be interested in following up with you to see how that goes this year. It's really great. You know, you mentioned that one thing that students in K 12, particularly younger students who choose to go online full time need is that at home support, and that learning coach, as we're talking, is there anything else that comes to mind, Darlene that really students who are successful in that environment tend to have or do or be?

Darlene Thorpe  15:52  
Yeah, I would say that, that students and, and learning coaches because it is a team effort on  their part. But students especially being self motivated, you know, we have had some huge successes with students who may have felt, you know, marginalized at their, their in their home district, or felt that their voice was not heard, or did not feel that they could, could speak up in their home district because maybe they they felt that they were going to be looked at in a certain way or something. 

But they come here and they have that freedom, because it's not required that they be on camera, though we do it, you know, it's stress that we recommend that they are on camera, but we allow them that freedom to choose when they are ready to do something. We We also enabled parents, I think to be more involved in their students learning and choice of how they can demonstrate their knowledge in different areas as well. Some of our students, instead of writing a five page paragraph, have had the option to do a video just talking about the topic that their rights are supposed to write a paper on. 

But instead of writing the paper, they do a video presentation, or do a collage that includes all of the the aspects that are necessary for an assignment. So we do have a number of different avenues for our students and our our learning coaches to really demonstrate their successes and their progress and to have more of a voice in what they want to do and how they want to do it.

Dr. Amy Lyn  17:46  
Right, that sounds exciting, I think. And when I think of myself as a K 12 student, I think I probably would have chosen this option I hear you know, I hear you saying and I respect that it's not for everyone. But it's so wonderful that students today in Massachusetts can choose where they want to go to school and, and have this option available to them. So I'm so grateful for your staff and for you and for all of the work that you're doing to support students in Massachusetts. Before we close our interview, I always ask our guests to complete this phrase, I used to think virtual teaching and learning was now I think virtual teaching and learning is.

Darlene Thorpe  18:32  
Well, before I came to GCVS, I was definitely curious about online learning, but I wasn't sure what to think about it. And after I came here, and having one of my own children attend a school virtually, I believe, and I do know that Virtual Learning and Teaching is not for everyone. But for many, it can be an amazing alternative. 

And I think if a student and this is kind of going back to what what your last question was, though, if a student is motivated, this can be one of the most freeing environments for them to be to become who they truly are as a student, and as a person overall. And we have seen it time and time again here. And it's those successes that keep driving us forward to try to push ourselves to the next step and to what we can do better and how we can really make things better overall for everybody involved in a student's education.

Dr. Amy Lyn  19:36  
Thank you so much for sharing with us about the Greenfield Commonwealth virtual school. Really appreciate your time and look forward to many more continued conversations. Darlene, thank you.

Darlene Thorpe  19:48  
So do I am thank you for having

Dr. Amy Lyn  19:52  
thanks for joining us on best. This is Dr. Amy Lin. Remember, learning is right at your fingertips.