07/26/2023
Senate Bill 819 passed addresses "shortened school days". Link to bill in comments.
Full school days
Another proposal, Senate Bill 819, would end a practice in some schools of shortening class time for students with disabilities because of a lack of special education teachers and qualified staff. It passed the House on Friday, 38-14, with bipartisan support and passed the Senate on Saturday thanks to Democratic support with a 19-6 vote.
The bill stems from the efforts of Sen. Sara Gelser Blouin, D-Corvallis, who has been pushing for the legislation since 2022 after hearing from many parents that their children had been denied full school days without their consent or a lawful reason.
“I kind of came into this session thinking this would be one of the first things that we passed,” Gelser Blouin said. It was a positive thing that we could do.”
As it turned out, she had a lot of wrangling to do. District leaders and school administrative groups, such as the Oregon School Boards Association, claimed in testimony that sometimes districts lacked the staff and resources to fully support some students with disabilities, especially with persistent staff and teacher shortages since the pandemic.
“It’s possibly one of the hardest things that I have worked on in the Legislature,” she said of the bill.
Students with disabilities are guaranteed equal class time as their peers under federal law. The bill simply reiterates those requirements, Gelser Blouin said. https://oregoncapitalchronicle.com/2023/06/25/legislators-pass-education-bills-on-reading-finance-school-days-and-more/ #:~:text=Here's%20an%20overview%3A,schools%20would%20get%20%2415.3%20billion.
