Yeah. :-(

Reading between the lines of news accounts, it seems as if this family was not very well off financially. Mom didn’t seem to have a lot of options. She was a very involved advocate with the school, but she didn’t have much money and didn’t have flexibility with her work schedule. I would guess she could not afford alternative schools and didn’t have the time to devote to online learning for Zach. He had a couple serious learning disabilities too, which made public school his only real option. Alternative schools usually lack the budget for specialized education, and they are not normally legally required to offer it.

So … just a really bad situation all around. :-(