Community Conversation: Educational Advocacy and Challenges During a Pandemic

More than a year after the pandemic shuttered DC's schools, learning has continued to be difficult or even impossible for the majority of DC's students. We see the impacts of that learning loss through the eyes of children we work with every day – children in foster care, students with learning disabilities or behavioral health challenges, children experiencing homelessness.

I sat down with two of Children's Law Center's fiercest advocates – Jani Tillery, who represents children with special education needs, and Danielle Robinette, who works on systemic education solutions – to discuss how we ensured students kept learning during the pandemic and what we're doing now to give students the supports they need to regain lost time.

Jani shared how we pivoted to best support children and families during the crisis and how we continued to advocate for students, especially students with special needs. "A lot of our families have been impacted by COVID: illnesses, families getting sick, food insecurity, job losses, just stress of the household, housing conditions," she explained. "We’ve had cases where we’re assisting, before we even talk about education, with custodial power of attorneys because parents are hospitalized because of COVID or other illnesses."

Many participants asked – what can we do to help? One of the biggest priorities we have is making sure all students have access to the behavioral health supports they need.

As Danielle explained, "Behavioral health is really foundational. [We need to make] sure that amidst…testing and data and reading and math, that we're not forgetting to address the trauma that so many kids have been facing consistently over the last year."

Danielle and Jani also agreed that having more tutors and teachers who can provide compensatory education is critical, which is why Children's Law Center is keeping a close eye on incoming federal funds and ensuring they are used effectively in the Mayor's upcoming budget.

If you haven't already, I invite you to join our conversations on Twitter and help us advocate for an equitable DC budget in the coming months – especially one that supports all DC students.

If you couldn't join for this latest Community Conversation, watch the full recording here and reply to this email to let me know what other topics are of interest to you as we organize more conversations in the months ahead.

With gratitude,

Judith Sandalow

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