When K-12 public schools shifted to online learning models during COVID-19, special education directors scrambled to meet 学生’ needs while adhering to strict legal 需求. 北科罗拉多大学教育学.D. 候选人凡妮莎·吉丁斯说 deep into special education directors’ lived experiences in her dissertation, “Meeting Free Appropriate Public 教育 (FAPE) and Least Restrictive 环境 (LRE) Requirements for Students with Disabilities During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Implications for Special 教育主管.” 

For over two decades, Giddings has worked as a teacher, principal and central office 科罗拉多州杜兰戈市的行政官员. She’s the executive director of student support services for Durango School District, encompassing 12 rural schools serving 5,200 学生. 在注册之前 教育领导 program, she completed two other graduate programs at UNC, earning a master’s in Reading and an educational specialist degree in 教育领导 and Policy Studies. 

Giddings concentrated on special education to hone her leadership skills and knowledge. Her doctoral program began with classes in Lowry every other weekend, then moved online. While online learning is commonplace at most universities, for many K-12 schools, 这是前所未有的.

“There were lessons learned during the pandemic for how we can better meet the needs of 学生 with disabilities that we want to carry forward,” Giddings said, noting that online, hybrid and in-person education was delivered over the three academic years of her study, 2019-20, 2020-21 and 2021-22.

To gather data, she conducted two separate hour-long video interviews with six special education directors throughout Colorado, representing three rural, two suburban and 一个市区学区. Between interviews, she asked directors to creatively illuminate their experiences using words or images, a process that prompted deeper reflection.

“We talked about how they met 需求 for 学生 during COVID, how moving to online learning changed their work, and the impact of increasing technology use with 学生和家长，”吉丁斯说. 

Her research filled a gap by including professionals whose voices are underrepresented.

琳达·沃格尔教授, chair of the 领导, Policy and Development department and coordinator of the 教育领导 and Policy Studies program, advised Giddings on her dissertation.

“I have known Vanessa for a while, and she is an amazing student, person, educator 和领袖. She did an outstanding job with her coursework while doing a high-level 行政工作和抚养孩子. And she completed her coursework and groundbreaking dissertation in a speedy manner,” Vogel said.

Giddings’ committee nominated her for the Dean’s Outstanding Dissertation Award, and Vogel has encouraged her to publish in academic and practitioner journals. 她还 may present her research at a conference for school executives this summer.

“It poses a lot of challenges to meet the needs of special ed 学生 in online environments. How special ed directors fulfilled these 需求 is necessary information in 这个领域. Practitioners can use her research as a basis for their decisions related to special education online,” said Vogel.

Giddings’ project makes the case that revisiting the pandemic with the lens of improving the future is a worthwhile undertaking applicable to many fields. 

She’s completing her doctoral education in May 2023 and plans to continue studying 帮助讲西班牙语的家庭.

“Families have the right and it is our privilege to serve them in the language they 了解和爱. We need people to meet them where they are and speak the language,” Giddings said, describing her plans for studying Spanish next.

——布伦达·吉伦著