Dozens of Oregon's school districts are violating their students' civil rights. They can and must stop now.
Senator Gelser Blouin, who has championed the rights of students with disabilities for years, says recent reports show daily moral catastrophe in our schools, denying students their right to learn
In the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, the importance of full time in person school to students’ academic, social, physical and mental health and the economic well-being of their families has been a universal topic of discussion.
Yet, over a thousand Oregon students with disabilities continue to be unlawfully denied access to public education. Education and government leaders are failing to act with any urgency to address this crisis and save these children and youth from the lifelong isolation and poverty that will result from denied schooling.
According to preliminary data from the Oregon Department of Human Services (DHS), Oregon students with intellectual and developmental disabilities (ID/DD) were collectively denied the equivalent of nearly 23,000 full school days each month of the 2021-22 school year.
These students weren’t suspended or expelled. Their parents didn’t ask for shortened instructional time for health reasons. Instead, when schools reopened last year hundreds of students and families were simply told they couldn’t return to the schools they attended prior to the pandemic. Elementary school students wept in the back seats of their parents’ cars as they watched siblings bound into the schools they shared prior to the pandemic, but were now inexplicably prohibited from entering.
These children don’t understand why they are locked out of their local schools. They don’t understand why they are denied access to reading groups, field trips, music class, recess, library and friends.
I don’t understand it either. I also didn’t understand it before the pandemic, when this was already such a problem that it led to a class action lawsuit currently working its way through federal court. It has been a problem for so long that I passed legislation to address it in the 2017 session after trying to do so for years.
Despite this, Oregon DHS data suggests the equivalent of 584 full school years have been wrongfully withheld from Oregon children with intellectual and developmental disabilities since March of 2019. This shifted an enormous economic burden to parents who have had to exit the workforce to try to educate their children with minimal support from schools. It’s also currently shifting nearly $4.5 million in costs each month to the Oregon Department of Human Services related to students experiencing ID/DD.
And this is only a fraction of the students with disabilities being put on shortened school day programs for years on end. Many are offered as few as 5 hours of a week of education—often times through a virtual platform. There is no music or PE for these kids. No group projects, library or electives and no opportunity to build friendships and find mentors.
Despite this, school districts are still receiving full state and federal funding for each of these students. They have not been required to address the fiscal burden placed on the shoulders of families or ODHS for these cruel and unlawful practices.
These children have been guaranteed the right to a full-time public education in their local schools for decades. Oregon law specifically protects students from the practice known as “shortened school days,” but districts are consistently and willfully ignoring these statutory protections. ODE says it cannot take action to require these schools to comply with the law. The only remedy for families is to engage in a multi-year process that will never result in a restoration of lost learning for their kids. This process is unlikely to be successful unless the family has the resources to hire an attorney.
Oregon loudly proclaims its commitment to equity. Disability is not even listed as a category of concern within ODE’s Office of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion. There is a shocking lack of public outcry about the violation of these students’ basic civil rights. There is no palpable sense of urgency from education leaders, school districts or the Legislature to immediately return these students to school. When I raise this issue, I am met with explanations ranging from inadequate school funding, political disruptions within local school boards and a workforce crisis.
All of these things are real problems that must be addressed. However, none of them justify unlawfully denying students access to education and the community that comes with it.
This crisis is a civil rights issue. The failure of state and community leaders, superintendents, special education directors and school boards to act with urgency and respect for these children is heartbreaking, outrageous and frankly inexcusable. Civil rights don’t get put on hold during a workforce shortage, a pandemic or school funding shortfall. These are the times such rights matter most.
When a first grader is limited to five hours a week of instruction that lasts for years, she is denied the right to learn to read, to learn math and to learn about her place in history. She is denied access to the community and to friendships. She is denied the opportunity to gain skills necessary to graduate from high school and become as independent as possible as an adult.
School districts have the power and obligation to return all students to in-person school full time this fall in compliance with state and federal law. They have always had this power and obligation.
There is no way to make up for the hundreds of school years lost due to Oregon school districts’ egregious violation of state and federal laws. There is no way to make amends for the violation of these students’ civil rights or the lifelong consequences they will face as a result of the failure of Oregon’s education leaders.
However, school districts can and must prevent further damage by acting immediately to admit these students to school. State, community and education leaders must come together, stop making excuses and demand that the civil rights of these students are honored in every school in this state.
The school doors must be open to all. Now. The law and basic principles of equity demand it.
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