How Are Teachers Educating Students with Disabilities During the Pandemic?

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has led to major disruptions in the way that teachers educate students with disabilities (SWD). Throughout the pandemic, disabilities rights advocates, teachers, families, and lawmakers have expressed concern that SWD would be disproportionately affected by school closures and the shift to remote learning.

To explore these concerns, researchers analyzed teachers’ reports of how they are educating SWD during the COVID-19 pandemic using a nationally representative survey of more than 1,579 teachers in the RAND American Teacher Panel, which was fielded from mid-September to mid-October 2020. This Data Note provides insights into teachers’ experiences educating SWD in early fall 2020, exploring how teachers’ experiences varied by instructional arrangements (e.g., remote, hybrid, in-person) and school characteristics.