NEWS
Wallowa.com
Wednesday, January 23, 2019
A17
Families file suit over students’ shortened days
By Jayati Ramakrishnan
EO Media Group
Disability Rights Ore-
gon filed a lawsuit Tues-
day accusing school districts
in rural Oregon of cutting
school days short for children
with disabilities, blaming the
state for failing to provide the
resources to offer a full day
of education.
The four plaintiffs in the
suit claim that practice vio-
lates state and federal laws,
and are suing the state of Ore-
gon, Governor Kate Brown
and Oregon Department of
Education Director Colt Gill.
The plaintiffs are all stu-
dents in Oregon public
schools with behavior-re-
lated disabilities. The lawsuit
gives detailed accounts of the
experiences of four boys. It
does not identify the boys or
the districts by name, instead
using initials.
Disability Rights Ore-
gon attorney Joel Green-
berg said the four children
represented in the case were
selected because they repre-
sent the breadth of the issue.
The children range from ages
6 to 14, live in communities
around the state, and have
behavioral problems of dif-
fering severity.
“One of the points of the
lawsuit is that the issue of
shortening a child’s school
day instead of helping them
learn to be successful is hap-
pening to a lot of students,”
said Greenberg.
The suit describes each
boy’s experience with spe-
cial education programs
in their district, and how
each district systematically
responded to each child’s dis-
ruptive behavior by shorten-
ing their day instead of con-
ducting functional behavior
assessments or modifying
their behavior plans.
It talks about the nega-
tive impact of the shortened
day on the students, both
academically and socially. It
describes a 7-year-old boy
who was mostly non-ver-
bal, but due to his short-
Contributed by Jennifer Schell/East Oregonian
Contributed by Jennifer Schell/East Oregonian
Aidin Schell is a third-grader from Pendleton.
Though not involved in the lawsuit, his
mother said he has had many problems with
the district shortening his school day due to
behavioral disabilities.
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.
ened day, regressed even fur-
ther 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 injunc-
tive relief — the suit doesn’t
ask for money, but that the
state implement non-discrim-
inatory 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 eligi-
ble children with disabilities
receive a free and appropriate
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 medi-
cally 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 sup-
ports. The bill also states that
districts have to document
the students in abbreviated
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 kindergar-
ten at Pendleton Early Learn-
ing Center. He was sent home
so frequently, she eventu-
ally received a letter from the
Oregon Department of Edu-
cation saying her son was in
violation of truancy laws.
“That was very concern-
ing 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 sup-
port to accommodate him,”
she said.
She said the district rec-
ommended her son attend a
program at Lifeways, which
he completed. But afterward,
Ed Staub & Sons
Energy Community Service.
she said the school district
and Lifeways together failed
to transfer him back into pub-
lic 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 embar-
rassed to tell people where
he goes to school. It was very
sad for him, and it’s frustrat-
ing 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 fami-
lies 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 inter-
ested in re-enrolling him,”
she said.
Brandalynn Gorman, a
parent of a child in the Herm-
iston School District, said
she is experiencing similar
difficulties.
“Especially Eastern Ore-
gon, we have no representa-
tion,” Gorman wrote to the
EO.
Gorman’s son is a student
in West Park Elementary
School’s social communica-
tion 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 short-
ened 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 sus-
pension pending a risk eval-
uation,” 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, Hermiston’s
director of special programs,
said the reduction of a stu-
dent’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 confidence
that no student in our district
is having their day reduced
without full awareness and
consent of the parents,” Wil-
son wrote.
Pendleton School Dis-
trict’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 Pendle-
ton students are currently on
abbreviated school days, but
said there weren’t many, and
the school has received no
formal complaints from fam-
ilies about their children’s
days being shortened.
She said while some fam-
ilies have said SB 263 pro-
hibits 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.”
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