Wendy Peia Oakes has been an assistant professor at Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College at Arizona State University since 2012. Her research and teaching continue a mission she undertook nearly 30 years and three degrees ago as a middle school classroom teacher in College Park, Maryland: improving educational access and outcomes for young children with emotional and behavioral disorders.

Due to the global pandemic, many families are wondering whether and how schools will reopen this fall. Schools might physically reopen and then be forced to close because of a sudden spike in COVID-19 transmission. There are still many uncertainties about how schools will handle new social distancing protocols and the potential shifts between in-person learning and remote instruction.

Through all of this disruption, schools and communities will need to support families and students by addressing challenges having to do with health, instruction and equity.

Assistant Professor Carrie Sampson is the recipient of the 2020 William J. Davis Award from the University Council for Educational Administration. Presented annually since 1979, the Davis Award is usually given to the author or authors of the most outstanding article published in Educational Administration Quarterly in the preceding year.

This month, we focus on the nation’s most pressing issues. The COVID-19 crisis has altered the lives and realities of most people. Pandemics, says Michael W. Apple of Bejing Normal University, are in some ways equalizers. “Illness and death are faced by people across the economic spectrum,” he says. But that doesn’t mean the loss is equal. Minorities and the impoverished suffer more, in healthcare, homeschooling and more. 

COVID-19 forced all teaching in Arizona to go to an all-online format this past spring, including special education supports and services.

Special education district leaders and teachers quickly made the transition to finish out the semester, but they face serious complications — and unexpected opportunities — to build equitable and inclusive practices in the fall.

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