Senator Declan O’Scanlon and Assemblywoman Serena DiMaso (both R-Monmouth) today criticized the administration’s failure to highlight the needs of the special education community during an announcement allowing fully virtual instruction for the 2020-2021 school year.

“We learned a very clear and very difficult lesson this spring: all-virtual learning is simply not appropriate for special education,” said Senator Declan O’Scanlon. “It is imperative that we see definitive exemptions and action plans to ensure that special needs students are not forced into fully remote learning for yet another school year. We will be paying very close attention to make sure that their needs are clearly addressed in the guidance and regulations which have yet to be released.”

“It is not acceptable to continually fail our special needs student population,” DiMaso continued. “That we did not hear any mention of how we would address the specific and varying needs of special education while announcing this new virtual learning allowance is highly concerning. We have been highlighting the critical needs of these students for months and the administration cannot continue to overlook this vulnerable population and their parents.”

O’Scanlon and DiMaso have been extremely vocal in calling for in-person instruction for special education and highlighting the needs of the developmentally disabled community and their families.