The Maine DOE is proposing changes this fall to the rules regarding the provision of child find, early intervention services, and special education and related services to eligible children with disabilities age birth to 20.
The Department is proposing several amendments to Chapter 101:
- Add provisions that define “regional special education program” and “service coordinator” (to replace “case manager” in favor of the federal terminology), provide a timeline for initial eligibility determinations, establish approval standards for regional special education programs, codify Child Development Services’ approval of private preschool programs, establish parameters for special education monitoring in communities without schools (per Chapter 70, Resolves, June 26, 2013), establish parameters for provision of educational records electronically, and extend the option of complaint investigation as an enforcement mechanism for stand-alone mediation agreements
- Clarify responsibility for transition to Individuals with Disabilities Act (IDEA) Part B (from Part C) programming, responsibilities of the receiving school administrative unit in cases of out-of-district placements, the scope and nature of “early intervention services,” the scope of “consultation” as a special education service, approval standards for special purpose private schools, computation of public school special education tuition and private school special education tuition
- Revise procedures for out-of-district placements to reflect a change in practice
- Remove the restriction on the Department’s ability to provide guidance on the content of individual education plans, and the restriction on enforcement of mediation or resolution session agreements containing attorney’s fees
- Correct a certification category and add/clarify contracted provider categories in the finance section of the rule
- Make other technical changes move a provision to another section; reflect a change described above in a related section of the rule; correct a typographical error; improve some wording; and outside the text of the rule, update the citation to the statutory authority for the rulemaking
The proposed revisions to the rule are available here.
A public hearing will be held on Monday, Nov. 3 from 9 a.m. to noon in Room 208 of the Burton Cross Office Building at 111 Sewall Street in Augusta.
Written comments may be submitted to the Department’s Director of Special Services Janice Breton via email at janice.breton@maine.gov; by mail at 23 State House Station, Augusta, Maine 04333-0023; or via hand delivery to the 5th Floor of the Burton Cross Office Building at 111 Sewall Street in Augusta. The deadline for all comments is 5 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 21.