In Greece, disabled pupils and their parents tend to experience many challenges because of discrimination and inequities. Educational research shows that from early years in kindergartens to secondary school settings disabled pupils struggle with many barriers in their daily educational environments and face: low to minimal opportunities to access and participate in quality educational processes in the mainstream education (1); restrictive beliefs from their teachers about inclusion (2, 3); high risks for low participation in their peer networks due to low social acceptance and a low number of friends (4); and higher victimization and feelings of loneliness and social dissatisfaction in comparison to their peers (5).

Evidence from studies with parents of disabled children examining their partnerships with teachers and educational staff, extend further the above-mentioned findings. A qualitative study conducted by Loukisas and Papoudi (2016) (6) provides illuminating outcomes from the personal blogs of five mothers of children in the autistic spectrum. The participants felt that as mothers together with their children they experience rejection and exclusion by the educational system. Also, educational professionals seem to be unwilling to promote a shift from a medical approach to education provision. As a result, the participating mothers narrated that they struggle to ensure their child’s right to education. This struggle is associated with frustration and feelings of stress, and anxiety from the mothers’ side. In their study Eleftheriadou and Vlachou (2019) (7), investigated the views of parents and teachers of primary school-aged pupils with learning difficulties about their roles as those identified by the theoretical framework of the Communities of Practice. The results are evident of parents’ low involvement in in-school practices, such as the design of their child’s individual goals, a pattern which raises serious concerns about the effectiveness of inclusive practices and parent-teacher collaboration. These concerns together with issues related to the provision of appropriate resources as well as administrative and organizational issues are themes of significant consideration for 83 parents about the inclusion of their children with intellectual disabilities as discussed in a recent study by Mavropalias, Alevriadou, and Rachanioti (2021) (8).

In light of this, the European Equality Strategy for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities 2021-2030 (European Commission, 2021) (9) and the National Plan for the Person with Disabilities (Ministry of State, 2020) (10), which are among the most recent policies that frame the policy commitments of Greece for combating discrimination and promoting the rights of disabled pupils in inclusive and equitable education, appear to be violated. It is also expected that the systemic weaknesses surfaced during the emergency of the COVID-19 pandemic in the Greek educational system has significantly widen inequities. Our hypothesis is based on evidence from other developed and developing countries which also strive to ensure quality inclusive education. Such evidence suggests that the established structures were shaken to the core, the psycho-social and educational needs of disabled students and their parents were unmet, whereas educators received minimum support to address effectively the pandemic related challenges in alignment with the principles of inclusion (11, 12). Against this background, the present study draws on survey data from 125 Greek parents exploring their beliefs about the extent to which teachers and support staff in special and regular schools responded and covered the educational and psychosocial needs of disabled children and, by extension, promoted inclusion and parental empowerment during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Survey development was based on the existing literature. The questionnaire survey was comprised of two parts. The first part included questions focusing on collecting information about the demographic characteristics of parents (age, level of education, and work status including the periods during and after COVID-19 confinements) and their families (type of family, number of children, and home location). More specific questions were constructed to collect data about their disabled children, that is the type of school they attended, level of education (preschool, primary, and secondary education), type of disability and provision of any additional school support (psychosocial, therapeutic, and technical support). As far as the second part is concerned, it focused on eliciting parents’ views about the extent to which teachers and school staff responded to the educational and psychosocial needs of their families and promoted their inclusion in the following aspects: information and school organization about COVID-19, distance education and transition to learning in the school campus. Another aspect assessed was the degree to which parents gained empowerment by the schools during the COVID-19 pandemic. The questionnaire survey contained a combination of questions. Most questions (55 out of 73 questions) were closed questions answered through a 5-point Likert type scale (1=strongly disagree and 5=strongly agree). After obtaining an ethical approval by the Ethics Committee, the survey questionnaire was shared through phone calls and/or emails to 57 advocacy organizations for parents of disabled pupils located in different parts all over Greece. The organizations informed their members personally about the survey and, when it was applicable, they made announcements to social media. The survey was active from September to December 2022. The quantitative data were analyzed by using the SPSS package version 27. Firstly, descriptive analyses were performed (means, frequencies, and percentages) to explore basic trends in responses. Next, the Spearman’s rho and Mann-Whitney criteria were applied to explore relations among respondents’ responses and their demographic characteristics as well as the demographic characteristics of their children. Besides answering closed questions, the participants in this study were also given the opportunity to elaborate on their views in two open-ended questions focusing on the educational and psychosocial needs that remained uncovered during the COVID-19 pandemic, respectively. Their answers were analyzed qualitatively with the aim to create categories deriving from the data.

The survey was completed by 63 and 62 parents having a child with a disability attending a general and special school, respectively. Their responses demonstrated that staff at a minimal-level provided information and organized the school procedures during the pandemic according to their needs. The respondents also felt that only at a low-degree their children were supported to actively engage in the learning processes and their communities either when they experienced a shift to remote learning or when they returned to their schools. Of critical importance is the finding concerning the dimension of parental empowerment which gained the lowest scores. Particularly, 45,6% to 80,8% of the parents indicated that staff did not adopt or adopted at a very low-degree practices that: helped parents manage day-to-day situations with their disabled children at home during the pandemic and promoted connections between the parents as well as between parents and public services and professionals in the periphery or outside the school to find support in their family’s needs. Importantly, this study showed that parents’ beliefs about the support they gained for themselves and their children from schools during the COVID-19 pandemic was influenced by their education, the number of children in their family, the type of school and the level of education their children attended. Highly educated parents and families with more than one child rated law the parental empowerment and inclusion in distance education aspects, respectively. Also, parents of children who attended regular schools scored higher the distance education provision and so did parents of preschool and primary school-aged children together with the dimension of information provision and school organization. Lastly, through parents’ comments the needs that more frequently remained to a great extent unmet were their children’s psychosocial needs (loss of social network, social isolation and feelings of anxiety and stress).

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