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These Oregon Students with Disabilities Say They Often Spent Just 20 Minutes at School a Day. Now They’re Suing the State

January 22, 2019

By: Mark Keierleberg

Source: The 74

In a lot of ways, Aidin Schell is a typical 8-year-old. He loves Legos, The Avengers, and Jackson, the family’s Yorkshire terrier.

But sometimes, he has uncontrollable outbursts.

In first grade, Aidin was diagnosed with autism and placed in special education. Often unable to control his behavior due to his disability, school officials in his rural Oregon district placed him on a shortened school day. Some days, he’d stay in school for a few hours. But other times, no sooner would his mother drop Aidin off than school leaders would call her to pick him up and take him home.

Experiences like Aidin’s form the centerpiece of a federal class-action lawsuit filed Tuesday against the State of Oregon and its education department, alleging public schools in the state unnecessarily shorten school days for children with disabilities who experience behavioral challenges. Though no school districts are named as defendants, the suit argues the state violated federal law by failing to ensure students with disabilities receive the education services they’re entitled to under federal law.

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