ASHLAND — Dale Roy School focuses on integrating education and family services to students with developmental disabilities. Along with every other school in the country, Dale Roy has had to adapt its curriculum due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Ashland County Board of Developmental Disabilities has been committed to provide essential services to the eligible families in need.
Dale Roy has made the transition from in-class to online learning. Superintendent Dave Ashley noted that faculty members are working tirelessly to explore ways to engage with their students through an online medium.
“We are not closed down,” Ashley said. “Our faculty has been working hard to ensure that our students’ educational and personal needs are met.”
The conversion to online learning comes with a steep share of challenges. Some families do not have internet access at home and students are frequently distracted and less focused.
Shannon Lange, Director of Education at Dale Roy noted the difficulty of the situation and how Dale Roy developed strategies to immerse itself into an online format.
“There’s no specific requirement for online education,” Lange said. “Because our students do have multiple disabilities and this all happened very quickly, our initial plan of attack was that we provided at-home learning packets and then we were contacting families once a week by phone.”
“We’ve been transitioning to provide more online services as we go. We’ve started doing some group sessions with classes.”
Teachers, therapists and other faculty members from Dale Roy have made a point to reach out to every individual student and family that has been impacted. Online video chatting has become the new classroom in the digital age due to the pandemic.
Dale Roy is developing tactics in the event online learning continues after the summer season.
“We are working towards doing individual one-on-one sessions to work on lessons for our curriculum and individualized instruction,” Lange said. “We can problem-solve what works and what doesn’t work so we have more information just in case we have to continue this in the Fall.”
“The teachers and the therapists have done a fantastic job. It’s amazing; the instructional staff has really stepped up to the plate and done everything they’ve been asked to,” she said.
Unfortunately, the transition to online learning has not been smooth for every family. Some parents are working and can’t assist stiudents during class if they need help understanding something.
Dale Roy has made efforts to loan iPads and other communication devices to the families that require assistance.
“Parents who are working are a bigger challenge,” Lange said. “We’re doing the best we can to work with their schedules.
“There’s no magic wand to fix all of this; we are accommodating and reaching out as much as we can.”
The school is utilizing an online curriculum service called Unique Learning Systems. With this program, students can have their books read to them online. There are different levels on how they can respond to prompts dependent on their ability level.
Dale Roy is also providing meals to families on a weekly basis.
