Oregon Abbreviated Day Revocation Letter Template: How to Use SB 819 to Get Your Child Back to a Full School Day

Oregon Senate Bill 819 gave parents one of the most powerful tools in the state's special education history: the right to revoke consent for a shortened school day at any time, for any reason, and require the district to return your child to a full instructional schedule within five school days — no IEP meeting required.

If your child is currently on an abbreviated schedule and you want them back to a full day, here is how to use that right.

What SB 819 Actually Requires

Before SB 819, Oregon districts routinely placed students with disabilities on shortened school days without meaningful parental consent — framing it as a "transition plan" or a temporary measure that stretched into years. SB 819, passed in 2023, changed the fundamental legal structure:

• A district may not unilaterally place a student on an abbreviated schedule. Any abbreviated day requires informed written consent from the parent.
• If a parent objects to or revokes consent for an abbreviated day, the superintendent must ensure the student is returned to a full instructional schedule — providing meaningful access to the same number of hours as their peers — within five school days.
• The district must have first documented reasonable efforts to provide the student with meaningful access to a full school day before the abbreviated schedule was even proposed.

The five-school-day return deadline is legally binding. It is not "five business days at our discretion" or "as soon as staffing allows." It is five school days.

Who This Applies To

This applies to any student with a disability whose school day has been shortened from the standard school schedule. This includes:

• Students whose IEP specifies an abbreviated schedule as an accommodation or service
• Students who are being sent home early routinely because of behavioral incidents
• Students who are attending partial days because of an informal "agreement" the school proposed and parents signed

If your child is on a shortened schedule and you gave written consent at any point — even if that consent felt coerced or you did not fully understand what you were agreeing to — SB 819 gives you the right to revoke it. Consent given under pressure is still technically consent for purposes of SB 819's procedures; you revoke it in writing and the five-day clock starts.

What the Revocation Letter Must Do

The revocation letter does not need to be legally complex. It needs to:

1. Clearly identify the student and the parent or guardian
2. State that you are revoking consent for the abbreviated school day schedule
3. Reference SB 819 and the five-school-day return requirement
4. Demand written confirmation of the date the student will return to a full schedule

Simple, direct, and specific. The letter creates a legal record and triggers the five-day clock.

Sample Revocation Letter

The following is a template you can adapt. Fill in the bracketed fields with your child's information.

[Date]

[Superintendent's Name] [School District Name] [District Address]

RE: Revocation of Consent for Abbreviated School Day — [Student's Full Name], DOB [Date of Birth], [School Name]

Dear Superintendent [Last Name],

I am the parent/guardian of [Student's Full Name], currently enrolled at [School Name] in [grade or program]. My child is currently on an abbreviated school day schedule.

Under Oregon Senate Bill 819 (2023), I am formally revoking my consent for the abbreviated school day placement, effective as of the date of this letter.

Pursuant to SB 819, I am requesting that [Student's Full Name] be returned to a full instructional schedule — providing meaningful access to the same number of instructional hours as their peers without disabilities — within five (5) school days of receipt of this letter.

Please provide written confirmation of the date by which my child will be returned to a full school day schedule and the specific plan for accomplishing this. If there are any questions about this request, please contact me at [phone number/email].

If the district does not return my child to a full schedule within five school days as required by SB 819, I will file a state complaint with the Oregon Department of Education under OAR 581-015-2030.

Sincerely, [Parent/Guardian Name] [Address] [Phone] [Email]

How to Send the Letter

Send the letter in a way that creates a record:

• Email with read receipt to the superintendent directly, and CC the district's special education director
• Certified mail if you want a physical delivery record
• Both if you want to be thorough

Do not hand-deliver a physical copy without a written acknowledgment. Do not rely on a phone call. The legal clock starts from when the district receives the written notice — so you need documentation of delivery.

What to Do If the District Does Not Comply in Five School Days

If five school days pass and your child has not been returned to a full schedule, the district is in violation of SB 819. At that point:

1. File a state complaint with ODE immediately. The complaint goes to the Oregon Department of Education's Office of Enhancing Student Opportunities under OAR 581-015-2030. Include your revocation letter, documentation of receipt, and documentation that five school days have passed without compliance.

2. Contact Disability Rights Oregon. DRO was instrumental in creating SB 819 and takes non-compliance with the statute seriously. Their intake process is at droregon.org.

3. Document the harm. Note every day your child continues to be on an abbreviated schedule past the five-day deadline. This becomes part of a compensatory education claim.

The five-day deadline is designed to be swift and unambiguous. A district that fails to meet it has no legal justification — staffing problems, scheduling constraints, and behavioral concerns do not extend the deadline. Those are problems the district must solve; they are not reasons to continue denying your child full-day access.

The Oregon IEP & 504 Advocacy Playbook includes a complete, ready-to-use SB 819 revocation letter template along with the state complaint template to use if the district fails to comply — written to cite the specific OAR and statutory provisions that create the binding obligation. If you are in this situation, you have a powerful legal tool. Use it.

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