A8
OFF PAGE ONE
East Oregonian
Wednesday, January 23, 2019
Legislative session opens with new faces, birthday wishes
By PARIS ACHEN,
AUBREY WIEBER AND
CLAIRE WITHYCOMBE
Oregon Capital Bureau
As state Rep. Cheri
Helt, a freshman Repub-
lican legislator from Bend,
left the floor of the Oregon
House Tuesday, she intro-
duced herself to two pages
stationed at the exit.
They found an imme-
diate commonality: It was
the first day of their first
legislative session, a time
to figure out who’s who and
how things work.
The first day of the 2019
Legislature wasn’t like a
typical legislative day. There
were no votes in the House.
Ismael Diaz, one of the
newly minted pages, said he
is looking forward to seeing
the voting process.
“I am pretty sure there
are going to be people
against (proposed laws)
and people in favor. I want
to see how they get to a
common conclusion,” Diaz
said. “How do they actually
approve stuff and resolve
their differences?”
Helt was the only legis-
lator leaving that exit who
greeted Diaz and his fellow
page, Isidro Hernandez, the
pages said.
“It’s important to me to
make sure I learn every-
body’s names and every-
body’s jobs that make every-
thing work,” Helt said.
With more than a dozen
new legislators this year, the
Capitol was flush with opti-
mism on the opening day of
the session.
To convene the House,
Speaker Tina Kotek chose
Whitney Houston’s iconic
1991 Super Bowl perfor-
mance of “The Star Span-
gled Banner.”
“It’s one of my favorite
renditions,” Kotek said.
Once legislators settled
back into their seats, Kotek
whipped through the order
of business in 25 minutes.
“Her sense of efficiency is
pretty incredible,” said state
Rep. Shelly Boshart Davis,
R-Tangent, another freshman.
Oregon Capital Bureau/Audrey Wieber
Members of the Oregon House of Representatives swear
in on Tuesday to begin the 2019 Legislative session at the
Oregon Capitol.
As lawmakers old and
new shuffled in minutes
before the 11 a.m. start, they
exchanged pleasantries and
sat down at their desks to
find a blue gift bag stuffed
with items such as a state of
Oregon key chain, courtesy
of the speaker.
“I appreciate the blue
bag,” Rep. Sherrie Sprenger,
R-Scio, said. “Red’s also a
good choice.”
Other
representatives
stood to share tidbits during
the “remonstrative” period.
Then, Kotek explained to
the newcomers how to press
a button on their desks to
signal they are present.
Boshart Davis said she
has been in the Capitol and
testified to committees, so
she knew some of the proce-
dure. She would watch the
livestream of proceedings
from her office at Boshart
Trucking, where she’s the
vice president of interna-
tional sales and marketing.
But
Tuesday
was
different.
She
was
participating.
“There is that absolute
awe that you are sitting on
the House floor, the House
of Representatives for the
state of Oregon in their
Capitol.”
Boshart Davis said
the responsibility voters
bestowed upon her hit while
she was on the floor.
“It was a pretty big
moment for me,” she said.
Then she looked up to the
front of the chamber, where
Kotek continued slamming
her gavel, moving on from
item to item. She found
the speaker’s confidence
admirable.
“I have to think that
it took her some time to
get comfortable,” Boshart
Davis said. “Maybe she was
born to do this.”
Meanwhile, the Senate
launched its first session
with celebratory flair.
State Sen. Lew Fred-
erick, D-Portland, led
the invocation, quoting
writers W.E.B. Du Bois and
Langston Hughes.
“A long time ago, an
enslaved people heading
towards freedom made up
a song,” Frederick said,
quoting Hughes, a poet.
“‘Keep your hand on the
plow, hold on.’ The plow
plowed a new furrow across
the field of history. Into
that furrow the freedom
seed was dropped, and
from that seed a tree grew,
is growing, will ever grow.
That tree is for everybody,
for all America, for all the
world.”
Frederick concluded: “I
think that’s appropriate for
us as we begin this session.
Let’s keep our hand on the
plow, and hold on.”
Families: File suit over students’ shortened days
Continued from Page A1
day, regressed even further
in his communication skills.
Another was asked not
to return to school until a
replacement aide could be
found, and was eventually
removed from the district’s
roster. At one point, one
child was receiving only
half an hour of instruction a
day in a separate classroom.
The
plaintiffs
seek
injunctive relief — the suit
doesn’t ask for money, but
that the state implement
non-discriminatory policies
that ensure students with
disabilities can have enough
district support to attend a
full school day.
The lawsuit states that the
practice of shortening days
violates the Individuals with
Disabilities Education Act
(IDEA), which says the state
must ensure that “all eligible
children with disabilities
receive a free and appro-
priate public education.”
The lawsuit also cites
Senate Bill 263, which was
passed in 2017, and restricts
a school district’s ability to
shorten a student’s day. It
states that a district can do
so if the child is medically
unable to attend, if they
present a safety risk, or if
the child’s parents ask for a
reduction. The bill requires
that the child’s Individu-
alized Education Program
(IEP) team meet every few
weeks to discuss the child’s
progress, and that the district
provide any necessary
supports. The bill also states
that districts have to docu-
ment the students in abbre-
viated school day programs
— but does not require they
submit it to the state.
Local Impact
Though they’re not
involved in the lawsuit, the
issue is familiar to parents
in Umatilla County.
Jennifer Schell, mother
of 8-year-old Aidin Schell,
said she pulled her son out
of the Pendleton School
District after a few years.
She said her son began
to show signs of being over-
stimulated and acting out
when he attended kinder-
garten at Pendleton Early
Learning Center. He was
sent home so frequently, she
eventually received a letter
from the Oregon Depart-
ment of Education saying
her son was in violation of
truancy laws.
“That
was
very
Photo contributed by Jennifer Schell
Jennifer Schell, right, mother of Aidin Schell, said her son is
now doing online schooling after years of struggles with the
district shortening his day.
concerning to me when the
school is the one sending
him home and making him
absent,” she said.
Schell said a doctor diag-
nosed her son as being on
the autism spectrum.
As he moved into first
grade at Sherwood Heights
Elementary School he was
able to get on an IEP, but
after a functional behavior
assessment did not receive
an educational diagnosis as
being on the autism spec-
trum, which Schell said was
because he could read and
write on his own.
Through first and second
grade, Schell said her son
was only receiving 2.5 hours
of instruction in school each
day.
“The school district said
they didn’t have enough
support to accommodate
him,” she said.
She said the district
recommended her son
attend a program at Life-
ways, which he completed.
But afterward, she said the
school district and Lifeways
together failed to transfer
him back into public school
completely, for which she
never received a reason.
“Being on the spectrum,
he already feels isolated,
and like he’s not a normal
kid,” Schell said. “He’s
embarrassed to tell people
where he goes to school. It
was very sad for him, and
it’s frustrating as a parent.”
Schell said she got
involved with Disability
Rights Oregon recently
and didn’t find out about it
in time to be a part of the
lawsuit, but is not ruling that
out in the future. She said
many families of special
needs children in the area
have encountered problems,
and don’t feel like they have
resources.
Schell said as of now,
homeschooling is working
well for her son.
“Until I see better prog-
ress in place and more
one-on-one support, I’m not
interested in re-enrolling
him,” she said.
Brandalynn
Gorman,
a parent of a child in the
Hermiston School District,
said she is experiencing
similar difficulties.
“Especially
Eastern
Oregon, we have no repre-
sentation,” Gorman wrote to
the EO.
Gorman’s son is a student
in West Park Elementary
School’s social communi-
cation class for children on
the autism spectrum. In the
past few months, she said,
her son has been suspended
many times for acting out
due to overstimulation or
anxiety, and has had his
day shortened despite her
wishes.
Gorman said when she
cited SB 263 to administra-
tors at her son’s school, she
faced even more resistance.
“My son was put on
suspension pending a risk
evaluation,” Gorman wrote.
“[The principal] was trying
to bypass the law by saying
my son was a danger to the
school.”
She said the district asked
in the risk assessment if her
son was angry at home, if
he hurt animals, or if they
had weapons in the home —
questions Gorman said she
didn’t think fit the way her
son acted.
Administrators
from
both districts said they
couldn’t comment on the
specific incidents.
B.J. Wilson, Hermis-
ton’s director of special
programs, said the reduc-
tion of a student’s day is a
last resort, and always with
parents’ written permission.
“Only after a school has
gone through an extensive
process of documentation
and intervention do we ever
entertain the possibility of
reducing a student’s day,”
Wilson wrote to the EO in
an email. He added that the
decision is always accompa-
nied by a plan to gradually
increase the student back to
a full day of instruction.
“I can say with confi-
dence that no student in our
district is having their day
reduced without full aware-
ness and consent of the
parents,” Wilson wrote.
Pendleton
School
District’s Director of Special
Programs Julie Smith also
said the decision to shorten
a child’s day is the final
option, and made by a team.
She said she didn’t know
exactly how many Pend-
leton students are currently
on abbreviated school days,
but said there weren’t many,
and the school has received
no formal complaints from
families about their chil-
dren’s days being shortened.
She said while some
families have said SB 263
prohibits school districts
from shortening a child’s
day
without
parental
consent, it doesn’t explicitly
prevent it.
“That’s why I think the
lawsuit’s coming out,” she
said. “What it says is that for
a student on an IEP, an IEP
team makes a decision on
placement. That’s a team-
based decision.”
She said that parents
can give or revoke consent
from having their child in
a special ed program at any
time. If a parent revokes
consent, a child would
then be returned to general
education classes.
“But then they could be
suspended for behavior, or
for disciplinary issues,” she
said. “They lose the protec-
tions of IDEA.”
Greenberg said that
many states shorten school
days for children with
behavioral issues, but he
said he thinks it’s especially
bad in areas with a stark
rural-urban split.
“Places like Oregon with
a geographical divide —
concentrated urban centers
separated from rural parts
of the states, isolated by
mountains,” he said. “The
experts tend to live in big
cities, and the resources are
concentrated in cities.”
In
Oregon’s
urban
centers, he said, the number
of complaints about short-
ened days has dropped
since SB 263 was passed.
But he said complaints in
small, rural districts have
increased.
He said the decision to
sue the state, instead of the
individual districts where
the plaintiffs live, was
twofold.
“That has turned out
to be a very poor way of
dealing with a large-scale
problem,” he said. “If I sue
individual districts, perhaps
I could fix the problem for
one client, or a few. But it
won’t end the practice, or
affect the next town over
that’s doing the same thing.”
“We also think in small,
rural districts trying to deal
with problems, they simply
don’t have the resources
they need,” he said. “It’s
the state’s responsibility to
bring in a psychologist, or
a behavioral expert, some
other measure.”
He called the lack of
a requirement to submit
data to the state a “horrible
oversight,” because even if
the data exists, no one has
compiled or analyzed it.
“They can’t even esti-
mate the number of students
affected by this,” he said.
Greenberg said the next
step will be whether the
federal court assigned to the
case will certify the class of
plaintiffs. A class-action suit
like this one, he said, typi-
cally takes at least a year to
reach a jury trial.
Greenberg said he feels
the state’s handling of
behavioral problems is less
an issue of carelessness than
a lack of resources.
“ODE has ceded authority
to local districts to a degree
that does not provide proper
insight, and doesn’t make
sure children are getting the
education they’re entitled to
by law,” he said.
He said the state’s struc-
ture for dealing with prob-
lems, doesn’t lend itself to
handling the issue.
“The state system is
constructed in a way that
focuses on compliance with
the law, rules and regula-
tions,” he said. “And very
little on outcome.”
He said the system
assumes that families will
file complaints or go through
the proper channels if some-
thing is amiss.
“But many times, fami-
lies don’t have the resources
to file an effective complaint,
or be good advocates for
their kids,” he said.
CHI St Anthony Hospital
Scholarships
OPEN TO ANYONE IN
UMATILLA OR MORROW COUNTIES
High school senior or
College students
pursuing a degree in healthcare.
Scholarships up to $1000 will be awarded.
Funded by the SAH Volunteers.
Download the application at
sahpendleton.org/scholarship
HART: Bus service adds hours to accommodate workers
Continued from Page A1
While they haven’t
collected any official data on
HART riders, Morgan said
anecdotally, the users are
not necessarily seniors or
disabled, but rather people
who don’t have another
public transit option.
Johnson said based on
drivers’ observations, the
most popular stops are
Walmart, Good Shepherd
Medical Center, and the
Columbia Drive stop, where
the Department of Human
Services and Blue Moun-
tain Community College are
located.
She said ridership varies
from day to day.
“On January 16, we had
a total of 28 passengers,” she
said. “The next day we had 14.
That’s kind of the way it is.”
Morgan said he hopes
people will use the two
services in tandem — while
a person who works nights
may not be able to take the
bus home, they can use the
free service to at least get to
work.
He said if riders can
access Google Maps, it will
tell them the most conve-
nient bus stop for their
location at any given time,
including the updated hours.
The Tribes’ planning
director J.D. Tovey said the
decision to expand hours
was based on some extra
grant money they had. He
said operating costs for
HART come out to around
$200,000.
He said he hopes the
expanded hours will make it
more accessible to people in
the workforce.
Return your application
packet no later than March 1, 2019.
(Postmark does not count.)
Submit application to:
Emily Smith, Volunteer Services 2801
St. Anthony Way, Pendleton, OR 97801
EmilySmith@chiwest.com • Questions? Call 541-278-2627