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Educators and administrators do everything possible to prepare for the unexpected. From strengthening communication with families to developing contingency plans for remote learning, they are committed to ensuring continuity of education for students. 

Sometimes, however, Mother Nature creates a disruption so widespread that all they can do is sit back and wait for the storm to pass before jumping back into action.

In fall 2024, Georgia’s , where I served as superintendent, was hit by Hurricane Helene, which for almost four weeks during the first semester. With no electricity, internet access or safe running water, students were not in school mode 鈥� they were in survival mode. Minimizing the impending learning gap, especially for children with learning differences, would be a major challenge.

Through the collective commitment of teachers and families, the drive of dedicated students and a new inclusive instructional model to help those who were struggling, Appling County was able to maximize every minute of learning when its schools reopened. At the end of the year, students in Appling鈥檚 special education program were not only on track with their literacy, but many achieved a significant bump in their reading proficiency. 

In 2024 鈥� just three weeks before the hurricane hit聽鈥� the district launched a pilot program in remedial and special education classes in grades 6 to 9 to foster reading fluency and comprehension for English learners and students with dyslexia, autism and other learning differences. We didn鈥檛 know at the time how crucial, or effective, this system would be in addressing learning loss after the school closures.聽

Emphasizing visual cues, Appling鈥檚 uses glyphs 鈥� diacritical marks 鈥� to simplify pronunciation. Teachers can paste any text or upload PDFs or Word documents into the platform, and it will embed a phonetic guide into every word.

For example, when students read the word 鈥渢echnique鈥� on the screen, the silent letters 鈥� h and ue 鈥� are grayed out for them. A dot marks the division in syllables between 鈥渢ech鈥� and 鈥渘ique,鈥� while an accent above the i alerts students that the letter is pronounced differently from its usual sound. Rather than getting caught up in the , students understand the content more quickly and boost their vocabulary and comprehension. 

Because students in the pilot program were already making strides in their literacy before the storm hit, their transition back to the classroom was an easier one than it might have been. They had already started to build the skills needed to independently decode words, allowing them to focus on reading comprehension. This meant their teachers could dedicate less time to remediation and more to accelerated learning strategies that focused on reading comprehension, vocabulary and sentence structures across all content areas.

In addition, by reviewing the literacy platform’s dashboard, special education administrators and intervention specialists easily identified which students achieved excellent growth in reading and which needed additional help. They were also able to dig into the root causes of students鈥� struggles, such as attendance issues or housing instability, both of which intensified after the hurricane.

Because of Appling County teachers鈥� strong sense of urgency in helping their students regain lost instructional time 鈥� and their willingness to embrace new literacy strategies 鈥� the momentum following the return to in-school learning was more powerful than school leaders had expected. 

Of the students who participated in the new phonetics program, 157 had scores that could be compared from 2024 to 2025. Twenty-eight percent saw their scores increase 20 points or more, and 18% moved up to the next proficiency level. 

Teachers also watched their students become more confident and engaged 鈥� children who rarely spoke up in class started raising their hands to ask questions or volunteering to read aloud. This confidence in reading extended to other subjects and classes, where teachers saw increased participation as well. 

Throughout the implementation of the program, administrators participated in professional learning and classroom observations along with academic coaches to help teachers implement the new initiative. Based on the positive initial results from the pilot, the district is now expanding this phonics-forward approach to all remedial reading classrooms in grades 3 to 10 and all content area classrooms in grades 6 to 10.

Even in the face of overwhelming challenges, when teachers have the support of administrators, innovative tools that enhance engagement and the flexibility to meet students’ diverse needs, they can forge a path through the obstacles that stand in the way of children’s success. By prepping, pivoting and innovating, Appling teachers became a force of nature that even a hurricane couldn鈥檛 withstand.

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