LOS ANGELES -- Before the pandemic, Karen Mozian had a concrete vision of her son's K-12 education: He would go to public school, just as she had.
But then schools shut down in March 2020 and Mozian saw 9-year-old Elijah glued to Zoom at the kitchen table, struggling to get his words out. Elijah stutters, and distance learning made it worse. He was barely engaging, daydreaming through his classes.
Elijah was diagnosed with ADHD in the summer of 2021, just before his sixth-grade year. He was back on campus and his school granted him accommodations, such as additional testing times and help with incomplete assignments, but Mozian noticed that Elijah was expected to advocate for himself — and he didn't want to be singled out. His grades dropped abruptly.
