Getting Kids Ready for the New School Year, and Beyond

A school year unlike any other has finally come to an end, and now it's time for a much-deserved summer break, filled with fun, friends and freedom!

But after a tumultuous year of remote learning, new norms, and all kinds of uncertainty, it's critical that we make sure our children are well equipped to return to school for full in-person learning this coming fall. All three of our kids, Ethan (12), Dexter (8), and Harper (5) spent this past school year learning fully remotely while enrolled in separate schools. We could have opted to send them back for blended learning at certain points during the school year, but Harper had been undergoing extensive chemotherapy to address two brain tumors and we couldn't risk COVID exposure while her immune system was suppressed. So, all three kids stayed remote for the entire year. Despite all of us sharing in COVID's impact, we still each had to face unique challenges that were not made any easier by a pandemic! Thankfully, Harper has generally been doing well since finishing up with chemo in the winter, as we continue to monitor her and keep up with her care regimen to make sure she returns to optimal health and happiness.

Speaking of unique challenges, Dexter was born with a condition called Sensorineural Hearing Loss, which means that the nerve endings inside his ear canal, that connect to the brain, never fully developed. Although he registers sound, the disconnect between the ear canal and the brain prevents any meaningful sound, such as language and environmental sounds. So, in other words, everything he hears is basically just undecipherable noise.

Dexter attended the Clarke School for Hearing and Speech on Manhattan's Upper East Side for his two years of preschool. With the help of a special device called a Bone Anchored Hearing Aide (BAHA), which uses electronic currents to stimulate the nerve endings in the ear, as well as the expert and unwavering support of Clarke's staff, Dexter graduated Clarke in 2018 and has since been a thriving and fully-functioning student at our local public school in the Riverdale section of the Bronx.

In fact, it's Clarke's mission to ensure that every child who enrolls there will leave the school with the ability to listen and talk, not to mention become fully-matriculated mainstream students at a regular public, private, or parochial school. Dexter is proof positive that Clarke invariably accomplishes its mission. He is in every way a normal school kid, whether during in-person learning or remote, and he has excelled both academically and socially. Needless to say, none of it would have been possible without Clarke's crucial impact, and for that our entire family is immensely grateful.

By and large, all three of our kids did fine with remote learning. While far from ideal, once they settled in with it, it offered a structure and routine, not to mention a rapport with the teachers, that my wife, Blythe and I felt was superior to the inconsistencies they would have encountered with blended learning. The fact that both Blythe and I were present to assist each of our kids during the day and outside of school was obviously a huge help to their ability to adapt to and master the remote learning environment. However, that just further proves the importance that human interaction has on the development of children, which brings us back to Clarke...

Not a day went by over the school year when we didn't realize how lucky Dexter was to have experienced Clarke prior to the pandemic, where he was a fulltime, in-person student. In a lot of ways, you never realize how impactful the routine experiences in life are that can easily be taken for granted. Each day during his time at Clarke, Dexter would wake up before 6:00am, in order to catch the school bus at 6:55, that would get him and a handful of other students through morning rush hour traffic, from Riverdale to Clarke by 8:15. The early wakeup and long commute were of concern to us as we worried that it would take a toll on a 3-year old boy with a disability, who had never been to school before. But it never seemed to faze Dexter, who woke up eager and excited for each day's journey, which would sometimes total more than three hours round trip if traffic was particularly heavy. He cherished his time with his beloved bus matron, Beatrice, who still calls him a few times per year just to see how he's doing, as well with the friends he made, with whom he was able to relate in ways that most other students could not.

Clarke provided Dexter with a loving environment that truly met his needs, with therapy sessions and lesson plans designed to help deaf and hard of hearing children confidently overcome whichever obstacles they would encounter as a result of their differentiated abilities.

Approximately three in every 1,000 children are born significantly hearing impaired, and we're still striving to understand what the breadth and depth of that means. For example, Dexter's specific kind of hearing loss had only been fully discovered within the last 30 years, so Clarke has had to develop an understanding of how to teach children with Sensorineural Hearing Loss practically in real time. That having been said, it just goes to show how important the proper environment is in assisting those with special needs in overcoming challenges. Were it not for his time at Clarke, Dexter would likely never have fully embraced the full range of capabilities that have seen him become a perfectly adjusted mainstream second grader.

Clarke relies on public funding earmarked for education as well as grants to fund its programming. Still, that leaves a gap of approximately $5,000 per student over the course of a two year cohort at Clarke, that the school must make up for through private donations. Not only does Clarke help young members of the deaf and hard of hearing community unlock the tools that they need for success in life, but a two-year Clarke education during the critical preschool years avoids hundreds of thousands of dollars per child in tax-aided services that would be required for a deaf or hard of hearing student up to the age of 18. In that sense, every time Clarke bridges that $5,000 gap it sets up another well-deserving student for a lifetime of success and it reduces the overall public tax burden.

Blythe and I have made it our mission to support Clarke's mission as we know how vital the school has been to Dexter and our entire family. To date, we have helped Clarke raise more than $200,000 and as we come out of a pandemic and return to life as we prefer it to be, we realize that our work is far from over. Among the many things we have learned while accompanying our kids through remote learning, is that kids need to be in the proper learning environment in order to truly thrive. That is why when we knew that remote learning would be our family's reality, we did all that we could to turn our apartment into a classroom, and made sure that our kids stuck to their schedules and finished their work. However, those children who have needs beyond the ordinary require a true classroom experience, not only so that they can be taught appropriately, but because of the sense of community and support that come with being amongst those with whom they can identify.

Since the COVID 19 pandemic extended into two school years, an entire Clarke cohort has sadly missed out on the opportunity to engross themselves in the Clarke experience as fully as is needed. It makes us think back to how fortunate Dexter was to have graduated from Clarke before the school had to close its doors because of COVID, but our hearts break for a whole group of children, just a couple years younger than Dexter, who were denied so much of the advantage that Clarke's services could provide them with for a lifetime. Not only does that mean these students will have some important ground to make up, but it also caused an entire cohort of Clarke families to be less involved with the school community and its various fund-raising endeavors, many of which were cancelled during the pandemic.

Fortunately, Clarke manages to keep its legacy families such as ours engaged with the community, and we gladly help to advance Clarke's initiatives in whatever ways that we can. Right now, as we look towards summer vacation, travel plans, making up for lost time with friends and family, and thankfully replacing the new normal with the old normal, please take time to consider supporting those for whom a missed opportunity over these last 15 months could have permanent repercussions.

The Clarke School for Hearing and Speech has campuses along the East Coast, as far south as Jacksonville, FL, and as far north as Northampton, MA. It welcomes any contribution you can give, and you can do so through this link. For more information about Clarke, please visit its new website at www.clarkeschools.org. Feel free to reach out to me personally for more perspective about the wonders of Clarke and Dexter's experience there.