-So we have another character.
This is Andy. -You listening?
-In their home in Oxon Hill, Maryland,
9-year-old McKenzie West and her mother, Nicole,
settle in for what has become their daily routine.
-Our school starts at 8:00, so at 8:00,
we have to have her dressed,
and she has to be sitting in front of Zoom.
-McKenzie has cerebral palsy,
autism, and other developmental delays.
-She also has vision issues, as well,
so she's not gonna look at the screen
for a long period of time.
She'll look, and then she'll turn off.
So basically I'm sitting there coaching her,
encouraging her, singing to her.
-Mommy. -Yes, Mommy sings to you.
-Mommy. -Mommy.
-Mommy. -And I am the educator.
One, two, and three.
-Before the pandemic, McKenzie was able to attend school
on an individual education plan that was suited to her needs.
-And she would get a lot of exercise.
She was walking, brain activity.
She would be around her friends in school, her classmates.
And she would come home, you know, excited,
and that was the day-to-day process.
And then the pandemic hit, and there's no school.
Gonna give me iPad?
Bye-bye iPad. Thank you.
-While this can be challenging to most students,
for kids with special needs and their families,
the stakes are much higher.
-For students who aren't able to access their curriculum,
whether because they have very severe disabilities
or maybe even physical impairments,
they're just simply not getting an education.
We need to find a way to work together
to find a solution for these kids,
because what's happening right now
is many of them are starting to regress.
-[crying] -It's a similar situation
for 6-year-old Charlotte, who lives in Bethesda, Maryland.
-Charlotte actually has a litany of diagnoses,
so she's been diagnosed with NAA10,
which is the gene name, so rare, it doesn't have another name.
She's also been diagnosed with autism,
and her very first diagnosis when she was 11 months old
was a global developmental delay,
which is what kicked all of this off was the knowledge
that she wasn't developing the way a typical child should.
-Previously, Charlotte was in school five hours a day.
-So she was getting on a bus in the morning,
really excited, right, Sophie,
to get on the bus in the morning and go to school.
You know, she had not only special education there,
but she had a class of --
at the time it was four or five kids,
and they would receive physical therapy,
speech therapy, occupational therapy.
-Her sister Sophie, in third grade,
does her own virtual class in her room.
Her parents work in other parts of their home.
And at their kitchen table,
Charlotte participates in her class as her nanny,
physical therapist, and teachers try to keep her engaged.
As her frustration mounts,
she bangs her head intentionally.
-And the reason she's not wearing a helmet now
is they're supposed to be sending us another one,
'cause she grew out of her old one,
and they're fitted medical helmets.
She needs these people to be with her in person.
She can't, you know, sit in a chair
for more than literally five seconds unrestrained.
It's impossible.
This whole situation is impossible.
-Both families are supplementing what the county is providing
virtually with physical and speech therapy
and other services,
paying out of pocket what insurance doesn't cover.
-I've given up on ever retiring.
I mean, that's probably never gonna happen, but we can't --
you know, there's not gonna be anything left to pull from soon.
-School officials in Montgomery County have said
that their return-to-school plans
prioritize children in special education,
which means students could be back in school by January 12th.
Prince George's County public schools
said that all students will continue remote learning
until further notice but are seeking additional ways
to support students with special needs.
As coronavirus cases continue to surge, much remains uncertain.
-It's impossible for me to work a job to do this.
I have a husband, and he travels a lot.
He works.
I am the one that has to do all of this.
It's not working for us. You want to hug again?
You keep hugging, you're not gonna be able
to do any classwork.
-These severe special-needs kids,
they need in-person intervention.
And we know we can do it safely with minimal risk.
You know, we would never want to put our teachers in danger
or in a compromised position.
You know, those for whom it's possible to come in person,
let them come in person and let them do their jobs.
I remember when I first started talking about this publicly,
I got a couple people reach out to me on Twitter, for example,
and say, "Oh, my God, you want to kill your child."
And I just said, you know, I can't speak for every kid,
'cause every situation is different,
but I do know that for my kid, she needs to go back to school.