Wheelchair kept student from classroom

ALBUQUERQUE (KRQE) - An Albuquerque 5th grader forced to study alone because his schoolroom couldn't handle wheelchairs now has plenty of classmates.

Jordan Hager, 11, is temporarily in a wheelchair after surgery on his feet.

"My feet hurt all the time," he told KRQE News 13.

Yet while Jordan's recovery progressed, his education suffered.

When he returned to Oñate Elementary School on Monday the school excluded him from his class because it lacked a ramp to his portable classroom.

"I spent two days in this conference room alone doing my work," Jordan said. "I don't know what I'm doing sometimes, so it's kind of horrible."

Tony Steiniger, Jordan's mother, said she contacted the Albuquerque Public Schools and was told it didn't have to build a ramp because the law doesn't require it. And a nonprofit group that works to protect the rights of the disabled said Jordan's temporary impairment did not "clearly establish a right" to protection under the Americans with Disabilities Act.

"I'm very frustrated," Steiniger said. "He's getting no social interaction, no classroom instruction.

"Long term or not it's still a disability"

But now APS has decided that if Jordan can't join his classmates, they will join him.

His mother complained to KRQE News 13 on Tuesday, and today APS moved Jordan's entire class to join him the main building.

"The school has been very responsive to the needs of (the) student so that he could continue to receive instruction with little or no disruption," APS said in a statement.

The advocates for the disabled said they would have been willing to fight for Jordan in court if the school hadn't fixed the problem because the law also calls for each situation to be handled on a case-by-case basis.

APS said it started working on a solution for Jordan on Monday.