RAB Source Entry 2-Taniesha

Part 1 Citation: 

Preston, Caroline. “’I hate COVID-19′: Kids with disabilities struggle to adjust as schools close.” NBC News, 31 March 2020, https://www.nbcnews.com/news/education/i-hate-covid-19-kids-disabilities-struggle-adjust-schools-close-n1172906. Accessed 1 November 2023.

Part 2 Summary:

In the article, “’I hate COVID-19′: Kids with disabilities struggle to adjust as schools close.”, by Caroline Preston, she uses an anecdote of a mother struggling to assist her daughter who has an intellectual disability during Covid-19 and what the mother did to make learning for daughter enjoyable to prove her point about schools should provide distance instruction for students with intellectual disabilities. Preston mentions that advocates, educators, and parents say that kids with intellectual disabilities are vulnerable because of schools closing down and how schools are opting out of teaching kids with intellectual disabilities. The writer adds on that advocates are still worried that kids with intellectual disabilities will be undermined due to federal coronavirus aid legislation and won’t get the aid they need. 

Part 3: Reflection

In the article by Preston, she writes that schools should provide distance instructions for students with intellectual disabilities. This article tells me about my research question is that children are being discriminated against due to their intellectual disabilities in schools because schools don’t want to provide distance instructions to them. Some questions that I have for the writer, Preston, is what is her own opinion about how schools treat students with intellectual disabilities and how would she fix this problem? Another question I have for the writer is that what was her reason for inputting the story about the mother, JoAnna Van Brusselen and her daughter Iolani Azul in her article? And why does she think that this story was important to her article? Some other information that I need to look up to better understand this topic is, why did schools opt out of not giving distance instructions to students with intellectual disabilities during Covid-19? 

Part 4: Rhetorical Analysis:

The author’s attitude towards her article is that she wants schools to provide more distance instruction to students with intellectual disabilities. The author, Preston uses pathos throughout her article by telling an experience a mother had with her daughter who had intellectual disabilities and the struggles she went through during Covid-19. Preston also uses logos by providing data saying that there are 14% of public school students who receive federally mandated special education services before Covid-19. The author’s intended audience is to other schools and educators who don’t provide special services to students with intellectual disabilities and the message she wants the audience to take away is to have schools provide special education to students with intellectual disabilities. The genre of this article is a newspaper article piece and this genre is effective because it is a newspaper article which means more people will be reading it. The occasion for this newspaper piece is the pandemic during 2020 when schools were closed and every student had to move onto remote learning.This author, Preston is credible because she is an author of three novels and she is a deputy managing editor who helps oversee higher education. Her writing has been featured in many publications like NBC News, The New York Times, and the Washington Post. NBC News is credible because it is an American news source in which 25% of people found it to be credible and 35% of people found it somewhat credible. 

Part 5 Notable Quotes:

“Iolani is one of roughly 7 million children — 14 percent of all public school students — who receive federally mandated special education services because of their disabilities.” (Preston 1)

“Advocates, educators and parents say that kids with disabilities are particularly vulnerable as schools shut down to slow the spread of the coronavirus and turn to remote learning. In fact, when school districts first closed, some opted not to provide distance learning to any students, in part out of concerns that they wouldn’t be able to effectively serve kids in special education and would face lawsuits as a result.” (Preston 1)

“ But civil rights advocates remain concerned that a provision in the coronavirus package passed by Congress last week will let some districts off the hook for not serving kids with disabilities.” (Preston 2)

“We realize we’re facing unprecedented challenges,” Marshall said. She hopes to see schools and parents “really work together to innovate and individualize and make sure the families have the resources they need and there’s flexibility in the modes of delivery.” (Preston)

“Van Brusselen said she is cautiously optimistic about how online education might unfold for Iolani. But she worried she might have to take a leave of absence from her job to fill the place of Iolani’s instructional aides, who sit beside her in class and tailor her general education assignments to her needs.” (Preston)