Marissa Sladek knew her son Christopher had fallen far behind when she bought him a copy of Jack London鈥檚 鈥淭he Call of the Wild.鈥� The movie had opened just before the pandemic, and survival-themed fiction was his favorite.

Lockdown cut him off from literacy support he鈥檇 been receiving as a special education student. During remote learning, his autism and learning disabilities left him unable to navigate email or Google Meets. By the following year, when he entered the seventh grade, Christopher was reading near a third grade level.  

鈥淗e could read the words,鈥� his mother said, 鈥渂ut he couldn鈥檛 comprehend them.鈥� 

Sladek asked the Hillsborough Township Public Schools in central New Jersey about compensatory education 鈥� the term for a 诲颈蝉迟谤颈肠迟鈥檚 duty to make up services when it fails to provide them to students with disabilities. By Sladek鈥檚 calculation, her son had lost about 8,000 minutes of instruction. The district initially offered a fraction of that amount 鈥� 300 minutes 鈥� and according to her complaint, an official said they weren鈥檛 going to 鈥渄well on the past.鈥� An attorney for the district emailed to say officials don鈥檛 鈥渂elieve that Christopher is entitled to any compensatory education.鈥�

Parents around the country are facing similar pushback as they try to recoup services lost to the pandemic. It is the latest battle in one of the most litigated arenas in education. In , just 20% of parents of students with disabilities said their children were receiving required services and a said the pandemic was exacerbating learning gaps for those students.

But district officials say they can鈥檛 be blamed for a public health disaster that was out of their control. They insist teachers did the best they could under extraordinary circumstances. 

鈥淭here is no humanly way possible to make up for 12 months, 13 months, 14 months of services if a school was shut down. It would take years,鈥� said Phyllis Wolfram, executive director of the Council of Administrators of Special Education. 鈥淲e have to think reasonably and logically.鈥�

Federal officials see things differently and launched civil rights investigations in three districts and one state. Last month, the U.S. Department of Education reached with the Fairfax County Public Schools in Virginia, requiring them to identify which students they failed to serve and begin to make up for it.

鈥淚 started shaking as I read the report, overwhelmed by happiness, sadness and anger,鈥� said Callie Oettinger, a parent advocate who runs focusing primarily on special education in Fairfax. 鈥淲e could have avoided the destruction done to kids and to the relationships between educators and parents.鈥�

But Wolfram said such requirements place undue burdens on school districts that are already spread thin. The debate is starting to play out in court. In , a federal judge ruled in March that the Beebe School District doesn鈥檛 have to pay a year of private school tuition for a student with dyslexia because teachers sent home packets of assignments and offered remote instruction.

A went in the opposite direction. A judge ruled in March that the district owes a child compensatory services because federal law 鈥渃ontains no exception that would allow suspending special education services because a global pandemic forced schools online.鈥�

Across the country, many parents didn鈥檛 hear from their children鈥檚 therapists or teachers for months after schools shut down. 

鈥淚 have seen so much neglect and carelessness and the absolute marginalization of these kids during and after the pandemic,鈥� said Georgianna Junco-Kelman, a special education attorney who represents families in Los Angeles. 鈥淭hese kids are not going to regain those skills. You don鈥檛 get that time back.鈥�

Multiple investigations 

The failure to maintain services for students caught the attention of former Education Secretary Betsy DeVos in the of the Trump administration, sparking an investigation by the department鈥檚 Office for Civil Rights. 

The probe found that staff members counted simple emails and phone calls to families as actual services to students, and didn鈥檛 consider kids鈥� individual needs.

Under an Superintendent Alberto Carvalho signed in April 鈥� similar to the one in Fairfax 鈥� the district must determine how many of its 66,000 students with disabilities are now eligible for services. 

Similar probes targeted the and the after federal officials received multiple complaints from parents in the state.

Some districts did scramble to find solutions. Just weeks after schools shut down in New Jersey鈥檚 Tinton Falls School District, about an hour southeast of Hillsborough, special education director Kerri Walsifer began reviewing the individualized education programs that guide the instruction of special education students to see what the district could realistically provide.

And when educators couldn鈥檛 come through, she tried to make it right.

Prior to the pandemic, Tinton Falls paid for Lina Esposito鈥檚 daughter Ella, who has ADHD and autism, to attend school in the nearby Long Branch district, which was better equipped to meet her needs. But when students returned from remote learning last fall, teachers complained about Ella鈥檚 behavior. They said she refused to go outside for a fire drill, was a 鈥渟afety risk鈥� and that Long Branch was no longer a good fit.

But Walsifer didn鈥檛 have a spot for her in Tinton Falls either. That left Ella home with no services until this past February, when the district found her a new school.

The special education director arranged for Ella to receive speech therapy and behavioral support to make up for some of the services she missed.

鈥楾hey tear you up鈥� 

But other families found districts unwilling to negotiate. For Los Angeles parents Lori and Stephen Saux, the request for compensatory education turned into a drawn-out struggle that ended with them pulling their son Liam out of the district. 

鈥淭hey tear you up, and they make you feel helpless,鈥� Lori said.

During remote learning, Liam, who has Down Syndrome, didn鈥檛 receive most of the services spelled out in his IEP, such as a modified physical education program and a 鈥渞esource鈥� teacher to help him practice challenging words before answering questions aloud in class. 

To fill that void, his mother or father sat with him during Zoom sessions. The teachers would 鈥渏oke and say, 鈥榊ou should get your teaching credential because you鈥檙e so good,鈥� 鈥� Lori said. She didn鈥檛 find it funny. 

Last fall, when COVID cases among students, Liam鈥檚 doctor put him at a higher risk of infection and strongly advised against him returning to school in person until he was fully vaccinated. But school was the only place Liam could get the education he needed. 

The Catch-22鈥檚 didn鈥檛 end there. The 诲颈蝉迟谤颈肠迟鈥檚 home hospital program turned Liam down because he wasn鈥檛 sick, and his IEP said placing him in the remote, independent study program would be inappropriate.

Home for four months with no education, he eventually enrolled in a charter school.

A spokesperson for the district said 鈥渟tudent matters are confidential鈥� and wouldn鈥檛 discuss the case. 

Now at Citizens of the World, Liam remains uncomfortable in social situations after nearly two years without classmates and behavioral support, Lori said. It took him a while to sit with others at lunch and join in games. And he still struggles to construct a paragraph and 鈥済et out what he鈥檚 trying to say.鈥�

His parents started to help others advocate for their children and go into negotiations with districts knowing what to.expect.

鈥淚 don鈥檛 think their goal is to correct things,鈥� she said. 鈥淚 think their goal is to create a system that looks like they鈥檙e doing what they鈥檙e supposed to do.鈥�