Committee hears bill to keep hospitalized students enrolled with home districts to preserve access to coursework

Salem — The House Committee on Education held a public hearing Feb. 24 on House Bill 3063, a measure intended to preserve hospitalized students’ enrollment in their home school districts so they can retain access to curricular materials and technology while receiving hospital‑based instruction.

Committee staff summarized the bill: it requires that a student enrolled in a hospital education program remain enrolled as a resident of the student’s home school district prior to hospitalization for the purpose of maintaining access to curricular materials and related technology.

Speakers from hospital‑based education programs and the Oregon Education Association described the problem the bill seeks to fix: a statutory or administrative practice that led some districts to withdraw students from enrollment after 10 missed school days, which can cause a hospitalized student to lose access to online courses and curriculum resources and create additional stress for students and families.

Louis Tissitter (Oregon Education Association) said the current practice is inconsistent across districts and that some educators and districts can arrange exemptions but many students are withdrawn automatically. “The solution presented in the bill takes the arbitrary nature of the current system out,” Tissitter said.

Christine Otto, senior educational services administrator for Multnomah Education Service District, said MESD provides hospital‑based education at several hospitals statewide and that programs are fully accredited so credits earned in hospital programs can count toward graduation. She explained that students are typically withdrawn after 10 missed days and that loss of access to online curriculum can force students to re‑start work after they return, even when hospitalization lasts only a few weeks.

Hospital teachers shared firsthand examples. Susan Anderson, a Doernbecher hospital teacher who works on a hematology‑oncology unit, described an adolescent with sickle cell disease who feared losing access to online resources while hospitalized. In that case staff and teachers arranged for coursework to be uploaded to keep the student connected, but Anderson said the episode caused unnecessary stress at a time when the student was on powerful pain medication.

Joseph Cirillo, a hospital teacher, described arriving at a patient’s bedside after clinicians relayed the child’s anxiety about being dropped from school prior to an upcoming brain surgery. Cirillo said the family had been worried the student would fall behind academically and he worked with the family and home school to develop a plan to maintain access and connection to the student’s school community.

Debbie Matler, who taught in the Doernbecher hospital program for 20 years, described a family who lived several hours away and whose mother was forced to travel back to the hospital every 9–10 days to prevent the child from being dropped by the home school district. Matler said the family’s need to be physically absent from the child’s bedside to preserve enrollment was traumatic for both child and parent.

Committee members asked about funding and whether hospital programs rely on average daily membership (ADM) calculations. Louis Tissitter said the bill itself would not change ADM funding; it instead clarifies that districts should maintain enrollment and connectivity for hospitalized students and makes it easier to do the modest administrative work (for example, uploading curriculum) required to preserve access. Nicole Peterson, legislative coordinator for the Oregon Department of Education, said ODE has no position on the bill and that ODE would need to update ADM business rules and issue guidance to districts if the measure passes.

Testimony described the bill as a clarifying statutory fix to reduce arbitrary withdrawals and the ensuing educational and emotional harms for students and families.

Ending — No committee vote was recorded Feb. 24. Committee members requested additional follow‑up information about current attendance rules, excused absences and how medical documentation is treated in practice; ODE agreed to provide guidance to legislative staff for follow‑up.