Districts share positive signs after special education for young children shifted to schools
Schools in the state's initial cohort have identified more young students with needs and are working with parents and specialists to meet them. (Photo by Getty Images)
Timothy Tweedie, superintendent and principal of the Veazie Community School, said he'd seen an uptick in students entering the kindergarten with unmet special education needs in recent years, and wanted to get a jump on addressing that.
So last year, the school became part of the first cohort of districts to take over responsibility for providing special education services to preschoolers with disabilities, as the state began its process to implement that change broadly over the next four years.
Tweedie shared his experience during a presentation to the Education Committee Wednesday about the changes with Child Development Services, the quasi-independent agency that in recent years was failing to meet many young students' special education needs.
In response, the state passed a law last session shifting the responsibility of identifying and educating children between the ages of 3 and 5 away from CDS and to individual districts.
'Some of our earliest learners were not receiving the services that they really needed before they were school age, and so we're playing catch up with several students,' said Tweedie, whose district is among 17 now working with the Maine Department of Education to implement those changes.
Students' progress in these district-run programs has exceeded expectations, said Debrajean Scheibel, the special education director at Veazie Community School. The 163-student school was anticipating three preschoolers with Individualized Education Programs, designed to meet the needs of special education students under federal law, but nine students eventually signed up.
'The most amazing thing for us is the parents of these early childhood children are so grateful that they are finally getting services,' Scheibel said. 'They don't wait a month, three months, or maybe a year.'
'They are getting the evaluations completed in a timely manner, and we have staff that can provide the services today.'
Because of staffing challenges and other issues, CDS was struggling to meet its legal obligation to provide services for young students with disabilities before they entered school, creating an increasing number of kindergarteners with unmet needs. Many parents of young children were waiting on waitlists for months or years to get services, even after being identified by doctors as needing special education.
The agency's system was 'problematic,' according to Sandy Flacke, deputy director for the Office of Special Services within the Maine Department of Education, which advocated to shift that role to districts.
Families of young children say state failing to provide special education support
The first cohort included districts from Aroostook to York counties, although none of the state's largest districts were part of the initial group. The department met with districts weekly to develop a plan to follow in collaboration with CDS, which still has some involvement, according to the update. The law gives the state until 2028 to transfer all responsibility to districts. In the meantime, CDS will keep filling in gaps as more districts roll out these services.
According to Flacke as well as associate commissioner of public education Megan Welter, the first cohort has seen significant progress and the second, which is starting this year, will build on that with larger districts participating. At the start of the 2045-25 school year, there were 153 children with Individualized Education Programs across all 17 cohort districts, and according to the most recent count, that number is now 309. That means schools have identified more young students with needs and are working with parents and specialists to meet them.
The department has developed a funding formula, established to cover 100% of costs at the state level, which has kept up with increasing enrollment. The department told lawmakers they've also established parental advisory committees to provide feedback on the shift so far, which will help with the addition of the next cohort and is offering technical support to districts.
Scott Reuning, director of special services at MSAD 35, which serves Eliot and South Berwick, said even before joining the first cohort his district had a strong PreK program with staff experienced in offering special education services. Like Veazie, the district got more students than expected, with 55 current students and four more referred to PreK special education services.
'Once our parents got wind of the school district providing the services, the frustration that people had experienced before was removed, and so the referrals are coming more quickly. I didn't anticipate that,' he said. But the program is going well, and the results are evident, Reuning said.
'When I see a student with a significant disability walk into a building in September and not be able to function, and a month later they're making progress, that is nice to see, and especially at such a young age.'
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