Was it really just last yr that schools got here back from that colossal “distant learning” experiment? A lot concerning the impact of that era has turn out to be conventional wisdom: the autumn in student academic achievement as measured in scores in reading and math (and the rest we cared to measure); the autumn in public school enrollment; the college funding bonanza and upcoming cliff; the transformative growth in student devices and connectivity; the tragic acceleration of a heart wrenching youth mental health crisis.

Yet in what pertains to that enormous minority of the K-12 student population — the roughly 15% of US students in “Special Ed” — for many of us, it’s been…quiet. How were these kids impacted by the shift to distant? Were mandated services delivered? To what effect?

Across the country, hundreds of thousands of families harbor their very own pained answers. They’re conscious about what became of services to children with communications, learning and other conditions impacting their educational journey. Across hundreds of college districts, special education directors, coordinators, practitioners, educators and paraprofessionals even have those answers; have their anecdotes, their hero stories, their scars.

I’m undecided if anyone has picked up the gauntlet of collecting those stories and running that data — it’s been…quiet. Unfortunately, I haven’t any dramatic data or research to share on the post-closure state of outstanding children either.

What I can share is that just a few short months ago, I joined an organization uniquely positioned and committed to helping address the present crisis in special education. Launched before the pandemic hit with a charter to harness digitization, technology and machine learning to the advantage of special education providers, Amplio Learning was among the many edtech firms called upon to offer districts with immediate support as they pivoted to distant. Like everyone, we tried our greatest; like everyone, we weren’t ready; like everyone, we were dissatisfied to not see higher results.

Yet this story remains to be unfolding. Amplio emerged from the experience of partnering with schools in delivering special education services with one vital asset preserved, and one vital asset gained: we preserved the deeply ingrained determination to make an impact on this space, and we gained invaluable and irreplicable insights into what an excellent SpEd platform would should offer with a purpose to move the needle for the sector.

Since then, publicly, at Amplio, we’ve been…quiet. Because based on that privileged market feedback, a core, uniquely-dedicated team has been quieter and busier than elves in December, constructing out the platform that can address the needs of special education leadership and staff. A platform that sets us on a recent path to meet the vision which forms the collective DNA of this outstanding company.

In the times to return, we are going to release news of our recent platform, which supports delivery and management of specialised services in recent ways. We’ll start where we began: serving Speech Language professionals and the kids they serve. We’ll announce a proposal to forward-leaning leaders of college networks to partner with us, invite them to challenge our claims — at low to no risk. Though we’ve been at this for years, we’ll definitely have room to enhance.

Within the meantime, I even have nothing but awe to precise to my relentless Amplio team. Yes, it’s been…quiet…but not for for much longer. And your dedicated work has been seen. Thanks! I can’t wait for the subsequent chapter to unfold.