Oliver Lauredo, with his at home teacher Janet Marti, is a 15-year old autistic student that has been out of school for the past year as his parent's battle with school districts officials for his right to an appropriate education. DONNA E. NATALE PLANAS/MIAMI HERALD STAFF Chapter 2 gallery

Oliver Lauredo goes to class at a wooden desk in the corner of his bedroom, far from the packed classrooms and crowded high school corridors that doctors said made him ill.

Below the desk, his pet skink, Jep, sleeps curled up in a terrarium, next to a posterboard plastered with pictures of iguanas, turtles, snakes and the other animals that fascinate Oliver.

Oliver has Asperger's syndrome, a mild form of autism usually marked by intense social anxiety. Any slight noise rattles his cluttered nerves, so his parents keep his bedroom -- for now his classroom -- quiet.

Elsewhere, though, a loud fight over Oliver's education has been brewing for months, and Susan Lauredo's chest tightens every time her son asks: "When can I go back to school?"

His parents, who have a lawsuit in federal court, say Miami-Dade school district officials should place Oliver in MAST Academy, which has a sought-after magnet program in marine biology and a student body of just 600. But school district leaders, who are required by federal law to devise individual plans for educating disabled students, say they've created an appropriate place for the 15-year-old at Palmetto Senior High, enrollment 3,300.

So far, Miami-Dade has spent about $30,000 fighting the Lauredo family over Oliver's plan. Says Susan Lauredo: "The money the district is spending fighting us, they can use to come up with a plan to educate Oliver and other kids like him."

A growing number of South Florida parents are filing administrative challenges to school districts' plans for educating their disabled children. But in this case, it was the school district that initially took Oliver's parents to an administrative hearing -- after they refused to send Oliver back to Palmetto.

Oliver Lauredo shows off his pet skink, Jep. He is fascinated with wildlife. DONNA E. NATALE PLANAS/MIAMI HERALD STAFF Chapter 2 gallery

The Lauredos said Palmetto's large setting and student population agitated his condition -- a claim supported by doctors. While Oliver seemed fine at school, his parents said he came home vomiting and was consumed by tics so they pulled him from school last August as he was starting ninth grade.

"I couldn't be in the hallway because I don't like crowds," says Oliver. "I used to get nervous."

Creating an appropriate educational environment for Oliver is challenging. Diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome at age 4, he has a high degree of sensitivity to stimulation that demands a "setting that is [not] physically and emotionally overwhelming," according to a statement from his doctor, Carlos Gonzalez, that which is now part of the record in his case. An overwhelming setting would cause illness and emotional breakdown, the doctor said.

After an earlier breakdown in 2004 at Palmetto Middle, doctors agreed that Oliver's illness had "resulted to a significant degree from the sensory overload he was exposed to in the large middle school environment," court records show. His psychologist had suggested putting him in a school with 700 or fewer students "in a low-density setting."

At Palmetto Senior, educators offered to put Oliver, who had previously been mainstreamed into regular classes, in a self-contained class with other disabled students -- prompting the Lauredos to decide to educate him at home with services provided by the district.

That arrangement lasted until November; district leaders discontinued the home services, conceding that they "do not come close'' to providing Oliver with an appropriate education, as required by law.

Susan Lauredo wasn't very satisfied, either. "Oliver deserves to be among typical peers," she saidsays.

The district then took the Lauredos to an administrative hearing, where the family argued that MAST Academy, with its relatively small campus and student body, was the only setting they found suitable.

But Judge Robert E. Meale decided Oliver's parents and their experts could not prove how the size of a particular school contributes to the environmental factors that cause Oliver's breakdowns. Meale also threw out a proposal by Dr. Ann Marie Sasseville, the district's supervisor of autism programs, to educate Oliver at a residential facility.

However, Meale also ruled that Oliver's educational plan at Palmetto deprived him of a "free and appropriate education'' -- the standard required by federal law -- with regard to his sensory needs and reading comprehension.

 The school had proposed that Oliver's reading teacher would have no more than three students, Meale noted -- but he said ruled that even that was too high a number. "A class of three is small, but a class of one is three times smaller," he wrote. His ruling noted that Oliver reads at a third-grade level -- a fact that Meale attributed to the district's failure to teach Oliver "effectively in reading for the past four years."

In response, officials have recently outlined a new plan for Oliver that calls for his slow integration back into school. Oliver has been scheduled for one-on-one instruction in language arts and reading.

His designated classroom was once a book vault equipped with a thick steel door to block out noise. An aquarium has been placed in the room in recognition of his affinity for marine life. Other accommodations include letting Oliver enter and exit classes through a side entrance three minutes early as well as chew gum in class to relieve stress. He's also been given a permanent pass to the restroom.

But the Lauredos have refused to send him back to Palmetto, saying that such adjustments would isolate Oliver from his peers, and that the environment at Palmetto is just too overwhelming. District leaders say the Lauredos' choice, MAST Academy, is an option only if he passes the admissions process.

 "We don't just place kids in magnet programs because parents ask," said Laura Pincus, a senior school board attorney. "The obligation of the school district is to pick a setting and make that setting work based on the student's individual needs."

The Lauredos spent about $21,000 home schooling Oliver last school year. They've appealed Meale's ruling to federal court and are awaiting their trial date.

Said Says his father, Rod Lauredo: "A year or two in court is nothing for a district with unlimited resources."

 "A year of our son's life has been stolen," says Susan, an architect who now stays home with Oliver; Rod works as an investment banker.

Now, with classes ended for the summer, Oliver goes fishing at the Deering Estate, like he did at lunchtime most school days.

His preoccupation with wildlife, particularly reptiles and marine life, has Oliver interested in herpetology or becoming a charter boat captain. As one psychologist observed Oliver after he lost a fishhook: "So desirous of returning to fishing, he jumped into the water, retrieved his hook, and resumed fishing, without apparent discomfort from his soaked shoes and pants."

 He often sells the goldfish and iguanas he catches to pet stores.

 "I like nature. I'd like to teach my classmates how to fish," sayssaid Oliver.

This summer, he's sure to spend more hours on the pier, transfixed at the water's edge by the schools of mullet dancing below.

But when fall rolls around and classes begin, he hopes to be back in school. "I miss my friends," he said, sighing.