Pandemic Remote Learning—Was It All Bad?

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In-person education was lost for most kids in the Spring of 2020. Abruptly thrown into remote learning that no one had prepared for, it seemed that everyone struggled.

While this is mostly true, it doesn’t tell the whole story. Some kids let out huge sighs of relief and settled into learning from home with ease, often having better outcomes academically from their kitchen tables than from their classroom.

Sydney

Sydney,* a 14-year-old girl with autism spectrum disorder, along with anxiety and ADHD, found herself a corner in her room and settled into a work routine (once the school figured it out). She would leave her room for snacks and lunch and found herself smiling more and less anxious than she had been since I had met her two years previously.

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Sydney told me that she was relieved to be out of the high-decibel surroundings and fluorescent lighting that distracted her and amped up her anxiety every day. She loved being able to contact the teacher by email instead of having to go for in-person extra help. She loved being able to decompress in her own space between classes. She felt safe without having to walk a gauntlet of mean kids who would say hurtful things to her in the hallways or the lunchroom.

Sydney thrived throughout the pandemic. Returning to in-person learning, especially when it was unpredictable over the winter, with starts and stops and scheduling changes, has been harder. She managed but worries about the Fall and being back full-time to start at her high school.

Most schools, public and private, fundamentally depend on children being in the building to learn. And for most children, being in the building is the best way to learn for all the reasons we have talked about over and over in the debates about reopening schools. But being in the building can be profoundly difficult for some children for a range of reasons, and for some kids, it can be damaging.

Could learning out of the building be the best plan sometimes?

We spend a lot of time creating Individualized Educational Plans or 504 plans (special education and school access plans) to help kids with disabilities, including psychiatric ones, be able to participate and succeed in school. These accommodations, modifications, and supports are critical for helping kids not to be left behind because of disabilities. But what if that goal of being in the building is not right for every kid, at least not all of the time?

What about Sydney? She was perfectly capable of learning the material in a general education program. However, no accommodations in the world could make the building quiet or provide the kind of self-paced day, one in which she could modulate the stimulus levels, that helped her anxiety come down to almost zero. Once we saw the emotional healing that came with remote learning, putting her back in a setting that causes her that much distress feels like it is not humane, let alone medically sound.

Sydney didn’t need “out-of-district placement” (a private school or program paid for by the home district) because she wasn’t struggling at that level. Her parents didn’t have the resources to pay privately for a specialized school. “Home instruction” (sending a tutor to the home for a couple of hours a day for children who are ill) isn’t an appropriate option for the long term, as it is usually for time-limited conditions. When school starts in the Fall, we will return to the fundamental expectation that all kids will be in the building and that we will build special education plans based on that expectation.

James

James* is an 11-year-old who has an extreme anxiety disorder with associated phobic/panic responses around going to school. We have spent two years working with the school to help them understand that he isn’t truant—he is terrified. He becomes distraught about missing school and feels so guilty about not being able to get there that he spends the day doing almost nothing. Then, when it's 3 p.m., he is back to himself. He is sure he will be able to go the next morning but come bedtime, he is overwhelmed with fear, and in the morning, he explodes in despair and rage at the idea of school. He simply can’t go.

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He is taking medications, and he is in cognitive behavioral therapy, but this is a long process. With the pandemic and remote learning, no one was making him go to school. He was more able to participate in remote learning. He still struggles at times to log on and participate, but he is much more engaged than he was when the entire struggle was going to school. Once that was removed, he was able to make some progress.

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Mental health accommodations may sometimes include learning from home.

Not every kid can get to school or learn well in school throughout their school career. Some kids’ emotional health is harmed by being physically in school and/or by trying to force them to go. Some kids just won’t be able to go, and some shouldn’t go—for varying lengths of time and for varying reasons.

Psychiatric conditions can take a long time to figure out and heal. Children’s brains are developing at the same time that they are navigating mental health challenges. There is a lot at stake for these kids.

I have seen so many kids and families gutted by months and years of daily battles—screaming matches, threats of consequences, begging, pleading, bribing, parents crying, kids crying—all to get a child to school when they simply can’t do it. Mental health and neurodevelopmental challenges present with behaviors and emotions that don’t look typical—but these are symptoms, not planful actions. Schools often feel that the only explanation is that it is a behavior problem and that letting kids stay home is a “slippery slope.” The kids get blamed for being disrespectful and disobedient, and the parents get blamed for not “making” their kids go to school. It’s heartbreaking.

Maybe the switch to remote learning in the pandemic can open up our eyes—we can see how well some kids do with learning from home, at least some of the time. We can see how much better they feel and function. We can begin to challenge the assumption that every kid is better off with in-person learning all the time. Can we become more inclusive of kids with mental health and neurodevelopmental differences and needs?

Let’s think outside of the building. Could classes still be available on Zoom some days? Could Sydney and James, for example, be given a schedule that allows for a couple of days a week learning from home? If not available live, could classes be recorded so kids could review them? How could thinking about this broadly offer more inclusive learning for a range of kids? What about kids with ADHD who miss things in class and whose note-taking skills are still evolving? Maybe kids who stayed home because they were sick could benefit from having some classes recorded to help them catch up.

These kinds of innovations would challenge schools and systems—just when they are getting back into the groove of in-person learning. But maybe we don't have to leave the tremendous potential of remote learning behind in our zeal to get back to an ableist, outdated model.

*Names and details were changed to protect patient privacy.

© Candida Fink, M.D.