Chapter 10: Working Collaboratively With Families of “Special” Students During the Pandemic

The global outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic spread worldwide, affecting almost all countries and territories (Pokhrel & Chhetri, 2021). This outbreak was first identified in December 2019 in Wuhan, China (Wu et al., 2020). Omer et al. (2020) noted that the first United States case identified in Washington State on January 20, 2020. Before long, more than 235,000 cases were identified across the United States in just over 2 months. By March 17, the outbreak had expanded from several isolated clusters in Washington, New York, California, and in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. By April 2, there were more than 5, 000 COVID-19–associated deaths in the United States. With a global total now of more than one million cases, the United States has now become the country with the largest number of reported cases, comprising about one-fifth of all reported infections. Apparently, person-to-person transmission occurred when an individual with the infection emits droplets containing virus particles while coughing, sneezing, and talking. To protect healthy individuals, masks, particularly combined with other measures such as handwashing, were found to be effective in preventing SARS-CoV-1 infection. Social-distancing measures usually within 6 feet helped to reduce the overall number of infections, thus allowing health systems to better manage the surge of persons infected with COVID-19. This chapter focuses on collaborative efforts needed to work with families. The impacts of all of these were felt by families then and still felt today.