Patrick Riccards received an email Tuesday from his New Jersey school district about its plan for special-education services during the coronavirus shutdown. But what should have brought him comfort instead caused dismay.

The district wrote that its special-education teachers would modify online lessons and host virtual check-ins with students in the new world of distance learning. But to Riccards, an education advocate, that wasn't enough. He'd already watched his wife struggle for two days to help their 13-year-old son, who has severe dyslexia and is several grade levels behind in reading, access the district's online materials.

The West Windsor-Plainsboro Regional School also announced it was canceling all government-mandated meetings for special-needs students until schools reopen – which might not be until fall.

"I get that this is the first week. But everything we have fought for in my son's (individualized education plan) now gets put on hold," Riccards said.

School unlikely all spring:Will states need to hold kids back, institute summer school?

As districts scramble to establish distance learning plans for long-term school closures, they're struggling to provide services to students with disabilities and those with other exceptional circumstances. It's a challenge with broad implications, tied to financial consequences for districts and developmental consequences for the most vulnerable students in America.

At issue: Federal law calls for people with disabilities to have an equal opportunity to participate in everything schools provide. If districts don't accommodate students, they risk losing federal aid – and facing complaints from parents and disability rights advocates for violating federal civil rights laws.

Some big-city districts, like in New York City and Los Angeles, are designing plans for distance learning with vulnerable students at the forefront of the planning – mostly because students who are low-income, learning English, living in homeless shelters or who have disabilities make up the bulk of their populations.

Other districts haven't figured out what to do – or they're not doing any online learning at all.

'You can't Netflix them all day':Coronavirus closed this school. The kids have special needs

Kentucky's largest district, Jefferson County Public Schools, is specifically not moving to online learning because of equity concerns. The 98,000-student district wouldn't be able to provide enough digital devices or ensure internet access for its most disadvantaged students, said Superintendent Marty Pollio.

Instead, the district plans to make up its missed days eventually so that students have more time in front of a teacher.

The Northshore School District in Washington state was one of the first large districts – with more than 25,000 students – to enact a robust distance learning plan. Officials got 4,000 devices and additional internet access to low-income students. But then they had to pause the plan because, they said, it risked running afoul of state and federal mandates for providing equitable services.

In Michigan, Ann Arbor Public Schools officials said they were distributing learning devices and internet hot spots to students with limited technological access. But a district spokesman said leaders were still working on plans to keep its students with special needs engaged.

As for West Windsor-Plainsboro, Superintendent Dan Aderhold said special-education meetings were canceled so staff could focus on delivering specialized instruction through a virtual platform as efficiently as possible.

Special-ed parents: 'Where should I start?'

The uncertainty has left thousands of special-needs parents in the dark.

"I don't know what my kid is doing in math class right now, so where should I start without any guidance?" said Anna Hauser, the parent of a non-verbal ninth-grader with cerebral palsy in Madison, Wisconsin.

Hauser said the Madison Metropolitan School District has not communicated plans for her child. So far the district has directed all parents to its website for a list of general enrichment activities. A spokesman said the district will develop a distance learning plan if schools remain closed for more than a few weeks.

The need for clarity is imperative as more states are likely to extend their school closures into summer. On Tuesday, Kansas became the first state to announce that all school buildings will be closed for the rest of the year to contain the spread of the novel coronavirus and COVID-19, the contagious respiratory disease it causes.

As of Wednesday, 39 states had closed all their schools, at least for the short term. Most of the nation's 51 million public school students are out of class as the number of infections continues to rise nationwide, according to a tally from Education Week magazine. The U.S. had more than 9,400 cases and 150 deaths from the virus by Wednesday evening.

Schools have complained that they have lacked federal guidance on whether to close and how to do distance learning, although the administration has included schools in requests for federal money. On Thursday, President Donald Trump's administration proposed releasing an additional $100 million to schools to address the cost of cleaning schools, counseling students and providing distance learning.

Federal education officials offer limited guidance

The Department of Education released limited guidance to schools this week that stressed they must make sure students with disabilities can access online materials in this new era of distance learning.

"Online learning is a powerful tool for educational institutions as long as it is accessible for everyone," Kenneth Marcus, assistant secretary for education for civil rights, said in a video message Tuesday. "Services, programs and activities online must be accessible to persons, including people with disabilities, unless equally effective alternate access is provided."

That means making sure people who are deaf, blind or who have physical limitations can access the materials, such as through voice-to-text services or other adaptations.

But how do districts do that when they're still trying to translate lessons to an online format for general-education students? And also while they're training teachers how to teach remotely – something many teachers have never been asked to do?

"One of the things that we know about online learning and virtual instruction is that it can increase some of the gaps that we have in education, especially around equity issues of low socioeconomic status students and more affluent students," said Liz Kolb, a professor of education technologies and teacher education at the University of Michigan.

Kolb said it's going to take time for teachers to understand how to meet all these needs and for support staff like paraprofessionals to figure out how to do that virtually.

“Most virtual schools are able to make these accommodations, but they have had years to put these supports in place," she said. "Traditional face-to-face schools are aware they need to do this, but they may still be working on the ‘how.’ ”

New York City and Los Angeles try different approaches

This week, New York City Public Schools teachers are training on how to transition to remote learning for students. Most are going to their school buildings for the training.

New York City school officials said students with disabilities are central to their planning. Schools will soon be in contact with parents to begin arrangements for their students' individual plans for remote learning. Teachers will conduct individual education plan meetings by phone, and therapists will soon provide teletherapy in conjunction with schools' remote instruction plans, officials said.

In the meantime, New York is preparing to distribute 300,000 individual learning devices to students who need them.

"This is heavy lift for all of New York," said Lynette Guastaferro, CEO of the nonprofit Teaching Matters, which supports teachers in low-income schools. Her staff is turning lessons for elementary and middle school students in New York into activities that can be done virtually.

"We are creating online learning plans and guides with the mindset that the majority of our kids are going to have a lot of challenges," she said. "The minority population elsewhere is the majority population here."

In Los Angeles, the school district has tried to ensure a baseline of services to all students by partnering with three local PBS stations – one of which it owns – to run educational programming daily from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. PBS, which has a library of educational programs, from documentaries to kids' science programs, is tailoring each of the channels to serve either elementary, middle or high school students.

Austin Beutner, the superintendent in Los Angeles, said district curriculum experts have worked with PBS to stitch in prompts to the shows that give students ideas for what to think about as they watch.

L.A. teachers also are connecting with students online via Zoom videoconferencing and other web-based tools. But those methods only work well for students who already have digital devices and internet access. That's not the reality for many students in the district, 80% of whom are low-income.

Los Angeles is trying to provide both high-tech and low-tech solutions to reach all students with meaningful learning opportunities, Beutner said. But it's not a replacement for in-person schooling.

"In these circumstances, our goal is to do the best we can," he said.

Contributing: Olivia Krauth, Louisville Courier-Journal; John Wisely, Detroit Free Press; Max Londberg, Cincinnati Enquirer

Education coverage at USA TODAY is made possible in part by a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The Gates Foundation does not provide editorial input.