"We're Not Giving Up" Special Education Teacher's Experiences During the COVID‐19 Pandemic.

This study investigated special education teachers' experiences during the Covid‐19 pandemic. Through qualitative, semi‐structured interviews, 15 educators shared detailed reports of how efforts to reach students strained their mental health. They felt stressed due to frequently changing expectations and pressure to comply with federal special education regulations. The result was burnout and emotional exhaustion. Participants correctly predicted that students would develop behavioral and emotional problems post‐pandemic, and called for intensifying school‐based mental health services. The mental health challenges that they described resulted in teacher attrition and nationwide concerns about worsening student behavior problems. Summary: Special education teachers described experiencing significant mental health challenges, such as stress and burnout, when teaching students with autism and other disabilities during the pandemic. They struggled to engage students virtually and found it difficult to progress monitor and comply with IEP regulations.Special educators suggested that they needed protected time for planning and collaboration in the future. To improve their mental health and mitigate feelings of burn out, they wanted more time for self‐care and emotional support.Special educators predicted an escalation in mental health issues among their students after the pandemic. They called for expanding supports for social anxiety in order to avoid behavioral outbursts.This article discusses how high rates of post‐pandemic teacher attrition may mean that students with disabilities are not able to access the specialized academic supports and behavioral interventions to which they are entitled. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]