When the neediest students get the fewest school hours (Column)

By the end of the third grade, Lana McMichael's son was receiving just five hours a week of in-home tutoring as his public education.

Zack has autism and is quite bright. But he needs extra support in the classroom, and he needs consistency. He's still learning to calm himself down.

When an abrupt change in his routine became too much for Zack, he apparently became too much for David Douglas School District.

First, they reduced his school days; then they provided only tutoring at his Southeast Portland home. As a working single mom, McMichael couldn't care for him full time. She also believed isolation from school made his behavior worse.

Today, Zack lives in a group home an hour away from his mom – a move McMichael believes could have been prevented if he'd been allowed to attend school.

State Sen. Sara Gelser said in-home tutoring was meant as an option for a student, say, battling leukemia and physically unable to come to school.

"This is not meant for kids with autism, kids with mental illness, kids that have really significant needs," she said. "It's also not meant to be a long-term solution."

A new Oregon law, sponsored by Gelser, aims to make clear to school districts that limiting class hours or solely providing tutoring isn't enough.

"That child was basically deprived of his right to a free and appropriate education, and that is happening over and over again," she said. "A lot of time it's kids with disabilities and mental illness. These are kids who, more than anybody, need more supportive environments, not further isolation."

Joel Greenberg, attorney with the advocacy group Disability Right Oregon, estimated at least 15 percent of the calls he deals with are about students placed on reduced school hours.

"It often happens that a district will tell a parent, 'His behavior is really aggressive right now, let's reduce his school day for a short time, and then gradually return him to a full day,'" Greenberg said. "We'll then often find that that short time got longer and longer, at times up to two years."

The state doesn't track how frequently this happens, but over a four-month period last year, 68 families called an Oregon disability help hotline because of a child's shortened day due to behavior.

Of those callers, 27 percent had a child age 7 or younger.

"What's the prognosis for a child who needs a lot of support and probably more education and he's getting 1-2 hours (in class) a day at age 6?" Greenberg asked.

A free and appropriate education is a right, not a privilege. It's not contingent on a student's behavior, and certainly not behavior related to a disability. A school district should not determine which kids have earned a full school day and which have not.

"Imagine if a family decided they only wanted to send their kid to school two days a week," Gelser said. "We would fine them. You can't have it both ways."

Senate Bill 263, signed into law this summer, specifies that a district cannot place a student on an abbreviated day without a parent's consent. Districts must consider at least one option that includes supports to allow the student to attend a full school day.

McMichael said full school days would have allowed her to keep her son at home. In 2015, Zack began third grade at Cherry Park Elementary smoothly; it helped that he had the same well-liked teacher from the prior year.

But after school started, his growing special needs classroom was split into two and he was placed with a new teacher. This is when he started having trouble.

"He would run from the classroom and he gets aggressive," McMichael said. "He's never been aggressive toward another child but he was aggressive toward the other adults."

She said her request to place Zack with his old teacher was denied. His school hours were shortened. At one point, he ran outside of the school building and threw a rock that broke a window.

After that, he was limited to in-home tutoring.

"Being pulled out of school, he was completely out of his routine, and routine is huge for him," McMichael said. "Without the social interaction and having him engaged in something, it was very hard. He kind of spiraled."

David Douglas School District declined to comment on McMichael's experience, but Barbara Kienle, director of student services, said a student given reduced school hours "could be a student who is struggling behaviorally and we're trying to find ... a part of the day where he or she can experience success and then build up and step up to a full day."

McMichael works as an ambulance emergency medical technician in Clackamas County. She took unpaid leave to care for Zack at home.

It took months to get approval for state funds to help with Zack's in-home care, and when it finally happened, McMichael was unable to find qualified workers.

"I could no longer afford to continue being at home without any income and his issues had gotten worse without being in school," McMichael said. "After about a year of that, I had to make a very difficult decision to place him in a group home for autistic boys."

All this, she believes, was preventable.

If given proper supports in school, he could have attended full-time.

If attending full-time, he wouldn't have spiraled.

If he hadn't spiraled, McMichael could continue to find care for him in the afternoons when she was at work.

Most heartbreakingly, he could have stayed at home.

Zack is now entering fifth grade and living in Salem. It's the closest state-funded home available as McMichael waits for a placement closer to her. He's attending school two hours a day.Zack tells his mom he wants to come home and go to school full time.She tells him they'll get there. She knows their rights.

"I want so much for him," McMichael said. "I want him to be a fully functioning adult, like every other parent wants their child to be. I don't know why he couldn't be. He's verbal, he's very intelligent, he has people around him and support and resources."

McMichael says she's not an assertive person, and she appears somewhat uncomfortable in her role as parent advocate. But although her voice quivered, she did testify before a State Senate committee on Senate Bill 263. She did share her story.

"He's my baby," she said. "I will give up everything for him and I will continue to fight for him every step of the way."

-- Samantha Swindler