COVID-19 Response in Teaching & Learning

At the start of the pandemic, our Teaching & Learning Division recognized the need to transition programs and services online. The Remote Learning webpage was created to provide a home for valuable professional learning opportunities and share vetted educational resources. They transitioned professional learning classes to a virtual format wherever possible and have provided tools for teaching and learning remotely. Since being published, there have been 1,589 visitors to the page.

Early Care and Education

Child Care was one of the only services that continued to operate in person throughout the pandemic. Unprecedented measures were taken to acquire PPE and implement safety and sanitation protocols in centers. Since March 2020, the Early Care and Education (ECE) department provided direct services to more than 2,500 children ages birth to 12 through child care, Early Head Start, ECEAP, and 123 Grow & Learn. The ECE team consolidated centers and modified services to meet the needs of families through in-person learning as well as virtual learning services.

Specialized Student Services

Since March 2020, ESD 112 specialized programs, including our Student Transition Educational Program Services (STEPS), Quest Academy and the Spero Center, have provided special education services to more than 1,450 students with educational disabilities.

Quest Academy was the first facility in Southwest Washington to provide safe, in-person support for special education students, beginning in the summer of 2020. By the fall, more than 20% of the 1,450 special education students in the ESA were in some sort of hybrid instructional model (part in-person and part remote).

Since then, the ESA and specialized programs have led the way for the region in providing more opportunities for in-person/hybrid instruction and are currently serving more than 90% of the ESA students in this model.

The Early Intervention Birth to 3 services, also pivoted from in-person to remote services and continue to support 357 children with developmental disabilities in the ESD 112 region. The Early Intervention staff were awarded a grant and have provided 60 technological devices to early intervention families in order to create technological equity and opportunities for remote services.

The Nursing Corps and Audiology staff have provided in-person supports and services to all our ESD 112 region partners and their families. In addition, this team has supported the counties within the ESD 112 region with COVID-19 information, resources, consultation and even direct immunization support, as needed.

Student and School Success

ESD 112’s Student and School Success (SaSS) department continued to offer professional development to thousands of educators. ESD 112 team members have played a pivotal role in the success of the Association of ESD (AESD) Network’s new program LMS Solutions, which provides professional learning and technical support to educators and district leaders focused on five LMS platforms: Canvas, Google Classroom, Microsoft Teams, Schoology, and Seesaw.

Since March 2020, the SaSS Department has:

  • Enrolled 1,554 paraeducators in the required Fundamental Course of Study (FCS) courses
  • Awarded 3,615 FCS clock hours
  • Trained 9,465 educators in Learning Management Systems (LMS)
  • Trained and provided support to 159 new building administrators and interns
  • Offered 7,187 STEM clock hours across 66 classes
  • Implemented 6 Flipped Internships in 4 career pathways, reaching 150 students
  • Hosted virtual career exploration events for 16 districts reflecting 650 hours of volunteer time from local business, industry and community partners
  • Launched nPower Gorge Girls, a virtual STEM mentoring program for middle school students in Klickitat and Skamania counties.
  • Worked with the Communications department to develop free home learning kits for nearly 1,000 kindergarteners in rural areas.
  • Provided support to 257 students and families to re-engage in school through the Truancy Project.
  • Student Assistance Professionals remotely taught 1,458 students about healthy coping skills and effective prevention strategies in 6th or 9th grade classrooms.
  • Delivered all SummerWorks services virtually, including a 40-hour Work Readiness class to 66 young adults. The SummerWorks program also supported 60 youth to complete a virtual job shadow and informational interview, and 50 young adults to complete a 100-hour virtual or remote paid internship.
  • Continued to provide individualized instruction and academic support to over 300 youth in the Open Doors Program through virtual appointments and open office hours.

Teaching & Learning 2020-2021 Success Stories