The Maine DOE previously (1/22/14) issued guidance with respect to students in crisis placements. That guidance applies as well to students who are hospitalized as a result of a mental health crisis, i.e., those students remain enrolled in their home SAUs, which SAUs remain responsible for providing educational services to them. In the case of a state agency client student in crisis who is expected to return to the same placement after stabilization, the SAU where the placement is located will continue to have educational responsibility. Where, however, the state agency client student (who is not also a state ward) is not expected to return to the same placement, typically because that facility has discharged the student, then the educational responsibility reverts to the SAU of the student’s parents’ residence. The student will remain a state agency client providing that the intention is to place the student outside the home after stabilization; should the intention become to return the student to the parents’ home after stabilization, the student would lose state agency client status and should be enrolled in the home SAU. For state wards, the SAU where the student resided prior to going into crisis remains educationally responsible until such time as the student is placed in another SAU.
Questions about this subject may be addressed to Jon Braff, Maine DOE’s Coordinator for State Agency Clients, 624-6671, jonathan.braff@maine.gov.