Category: Special Education

Clarification of 1 percent rule for counting proficiency on alternate assessments

Maine students with the most significant cognitive disabilities may take an alternate assessment, known as the Personalized Alternate Assessment Portfolio (PAAP), based on alternate academic achievement standards. Those standards must be aligned with the State’s academic content standards, promote access to the general curriculum and reflect professional judgment of the highest achievement standards possible (see 34 C.F.R. § 200.1, July 2013).

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Educators engage in evidence-based professional development

More than 200 Maine special educators and representatives of the Maine Departments of Education, Vocational Rehabilitation, and Health and Human Services recently participated in evidence-based professional development for the State Personnel Development Grant (SPDG).

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Updates made to special education FAQs

The Maine DOE maintains an online collection of frequently asked questions about special education. The Department has added new sets of questions to the Caseload and Adverse Effect Form sections of the FAQs. The Child Development Services section has been removed, and an already-existing question from this section has been added to the IEP Team section.

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Additional IDEA, Part B funding for school administrative units

The Maine DOE Office of Special Services will make an additional $3 million in FY13 Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), Part B funding available to school administrative units to help offset financial losses they may have experienced as a result of the federal sequestration. These funds are part of the FY13 amount set aside by the Maine DOE, in accordance with its federally-approved Part B application, for State-level activities.

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Alternate assessment no longer required for second graders with disabilities

Beginning in fall of 2014, there will no longer be a fall administration of the New England Common Assessment Program (NECAP) for third grade students. As a result, as of this school year, Maine no longer requires that second grade students complete the Personalized Alternate Assessment Portfolio (PAAP), which tests grades 2-8 students with the most significant cognitive disabilities who are unable to participate in the NECAP.

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Commissioner applauds strong start of charter schools

Monitoring by the Maine Charter School Commission of the two charter schools that served students during the 2012-13 academic year show the state’s first charters are meeting their missions

AUGUSTA – The State’s Acting Education Commissioner is applauding the state’s first two public charters after their inaugural monitoring reports show the central Maine schools are engaging students and adapting quickly to meet emerging needs.

Cornville Regional Charter School in Cornville, which served approximately 60 grade K-6 students, and the Maine Academy of Natural Sciences (MeANS) in Hinckley, which served 52 students grades 9-12, opened in the fall of 2012 after Maine, under the leadership of Governor Paul R. LePage, became the 41st state to allow public charter schools. 

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Clarity on charter school special education student funding

In response to several questions from the field, the Department is providing clarity for charter schools regarding funding allocations for students who are newly identified as special education but were not identified as such by their attending school administrative unit (SAU).

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DOE, UMaine launch autism resource, research institute

AUGUSTA – Mainers who serve children with autism and their families will soon have a statewide system of supports.

The Maine Autism Institute for Education and Research (MAIER), a partnership of the Maine Department of Education and the University of Maine’s College of Education and Human Development, will open on Jan. 1 at the UMaine campus. The two organizations have committed to contribute a total of $288,000 to fund the first 18 months of the new collaborative.

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Spring training for educators of English learners

The University of Maine Project Reach program invites K-12 teachers across subject areas to apply to its scholarship program, which aims to improve classroom instruction for English learners (ELs) in Maine. The project focuses efforts on current teachers of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) subjects and provides a variety of professional and financial assistance to help teachers complete the English as a Second Language (ESL) endorsement coursework.

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