Association for Behavior Analysis International

Meeting the needs of students with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) is a daunting task under the best of circumstances. In the current COVID-19 pandemic, typical in-person service delivery can carry a significant risk of severe harm to clients, family and caregivers, staff, and an overburdened healthcare system. As such, our small, private, not-for-profit New Jersey school for children with ASD developed a comprehensive set of procedures designed to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 while returning to in-person instruction following state-mandated school closure. We will discuss technology-based changes implemented during state-mandated school lockdown and physical plant modifications, as well as changes required of administrative, supervisory, and teaching staff. Foundational to our plan is a rotating schedule designed to maximize in-person instructional time, while allowing an interceding duration that exceeds estimated COVID-19 incubation times. In-person, in-building instruction alternates between two student-instructor cohorts; virtual instruction occurs during opposing weeks. Further policies designed to reduce the opportunity for COVID-19 transmission govern our in-person instructional activities. We further discuss our hypothesis regarding the contribution of our ongoing professionalism training model to adherence to these procedures, and contextualize the financial and time costs of developing and implementing them with respect to student outcomes.

The target audience is behavior analysts providing in-person school- or center-based instruction during the COVID-19 pandemic and those designing and implementing policies for such sites. This could include individuals in administrative or supervisory roles. The target audience also includes those who develop, implement, and monitor the effectiveness of professionalism training procedures, digital data analysis tools for a variety of levels within and organization, and behavioral systems.

Like many educational institutions, our organization faced an extremely short runway for transitioning to remote from in-person services due to state-mandated school lockdown orders in early 2020. This presentation describes the policies and procedures put in place to ensure professionalism, transition from paper-based to digital data summary and analysis, appropriate supervision, curriculum modification, and program-level performance analysis during remote instruction. Additional technology supported a smooth return to in-person instruction. Among other tools, this includes COVID-19 daily symptom screening via a smartphone application; rapid saliva test kit shipping, supervision, and results communication; ongoing region-based risk tracking; and service delivery hour monitoring to ensure satisfaction of minimum state-mandated hour requirements and provide a basis for celebrating the provision of additional service hours. We will discuss how policies regarding virtual meetings between staff members contribute to adherence to described expectations, and how the organization approached delivering professional feedback in a virtual setting.

This presentation will detail the measures taken to reduce the risk of COVID-19 transmission during in-person instruction in the school building. To best safeguard our consumers and staff, we found it was necessary to not only meet, but exceed federal, state, and local guidelines and requirements. Procedures include exclusion based on the results of smartphone-application-based symptom screening and saliva tests; conservative policies about exclusion on the basis of symptoms appearing during the school day while present in the building; mask policies, hand hygiene policies, and physical distancing policies; physically-distanced pickup and dropoff; policies surrounding mask-free activities (e.g., consuming lunch). Special emphasis will be placed on environmental changes implemented to support successful adherence to these policies and expectations, e.g, provision of touch-free timers in restrooms to ensure a sufficient duration of hand-washing, signage detailing physical distancing and mask policies, physical distancing floor markers. The time and financial cost of designing, procuring, and implementing these measures will be discussed in the context of response effort and maximizing instructional hours while in school.