If I leave 1 and 1/2 early each day to get my child, can I be fired for job abandonment?

You should find another job as soon as possible If you are discharged, you may be able to collect unemployment, but you will need a good lawyer experienced in UI law. You should notify your employer in writing of your need, and ask for accommodations. If you are denied this, you may be able to collect unemployment, but only if there was no other option, such as after school care, etc. I know of no law that requires the employer to accommodate your request. They have a business to run.

Your situation may be covered by the Family & Medical Leave Act. For the FMLA to apply, the following conditions must be satisfied: [1] You have to work for the company for at least 12 months prior to the beginning of the requested leave time; [2] the employer must have 50 or more employees at your worksite, or within a 75 mile radius of your worksite; [3] you must give the employer adequate and timely notice of the need for leave under the FMLA (although one is not usually required to mention the FMLA by name, nor is one usually required to use the words "leave" or "leaves of absence"); [4] you must not exceed the 12 weeks of leave time available to you under the FMLA; [5] you must have worked at least 1250 hours in the 12 months prior to the beginning of the leave (which usually averages about 25 hours per week); and [6] you must timely submit to the employer any completed forms that the employer asks you to have completed and submitted back to it. You should consider requesting intermittent FMLA leave to provide care for your disabled child in the form of leaving early to go pick him/her up from the school bus due to the fact that he/she cannot care for him/herself. Each time block you leave early could be considered a period of protected leave under the FMLA. If you work a 40 hour work week, and leave 1.5 hours early each day of a five-day work week, you would use 7.5 hours of leave per week. Over the course of a year, you would use around 390 hours of your 480 available FMLA hours, and thus even have some available FMLA leave time to spare. I suggest that you immediately request intermittent FMLA leave to care for your disabled child during the last 1.5 hours of your work shift. You should specifically use the term "Family & Medical Leave Act" in your request so that there is no ambiguity as to the nature of your request. You should not delay in making this request, as each attendance occurrence that you incur prior to requesting leave can count against you toward termination. If the employer gives you a form to have filled-out by your child's doctor, explain the situation to the doctor, have the doctor complete and sign the form, and make sure that you return the completed form within 15 days of the date your employer gives you the form to have completed by the doctor. If you do not return the completed form within the 15 day deadline to return it, the employer can deny your request for protected FMLA leave, and the absences will count against you for purposes of termination.

I think you have to find another job. As long as you are not being singled out, i.e. the shifts are the same for everybody, I don't think you have much of a case. However, still file for unemployment. If they contest, you may find a favorable hearing officer.