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Five school districts have already formed a program, and consolidation may persuade others to try it.

By BETH QUIMBY, Staff Writer October 18, 2007

GORHAM — Last year, public school students from Limington who needed special services traveled more than an hour by bus to private schools in Portland and South Portland.

This fall, they're attending school closer to home, in Gorham, as part of a new special-education program housed in what was an empty school building. The five school districts that joined to form the Sebago Educational Alliance Day Treatment Program hope it will lower costs for special-education programs.

The joint venture by Windham, Westbrook, Raymond, Gorham and School Administrative District 6 – which serves Buxton, Hollis, Limington, Standish and Frye Island – was planned long before the Legislature passed the school district consolidation law in June.

"We were looking for something better for kids, at a better cost," said Linda Powell, director of special education services in Windham.

STATE AID TO BE ADJUSTED

More school districts might find themselves forming similar programs to save money to meet the requirements of the consolidation law, which includes special education as an area in which school districts must cut costs.

The law is aimed at reducing school administration costs by merging the state's 290 school districts into about 80 new districts. Starting July 1, 2008, state funding for special education, facilities management and transportation will be cut by 5 percent, and school administration funding will be cut in half.

Education Commissioner Susan Gendron said Wednesday that not all districts will have to cut their special-education spending by 5 percent, as originally projected.

Because of better reporting procedures and a drop in special- education enrollment, the state will be able to adjust state aid for special education to districts based on enrollment decreases and increases.

But school administrators remain concerned about the potential effect of the law on their programs.

Lynda Green, superintendent in SAD 57, said any fine-tuning that the state can make in the district's special-education allocation is appreciated. But the money is not enough to cover the cost of special education in her district, which serves Alfred, Limerick, Lyman, Newfield, Shapleigh and Waterboro.

"Our costs are quite a bit higher" than what the district receives from the state, she said.

CHALLENGE FOR RURAL DISTRICTS

Maine has one of the nation's highest percentages of students in special-education programs. Nineteen percent of the state's 204,000 students were enrolled in special education in 2004-05, the last school year for which data are available from the National Center for Education Statistics. That was second only to Rhode Island's 20 percent.

Those students need special services because of learning disabilities such as autism, deafness or mental retardation. They may be educated in regular classrooms, in special classrooms and other public and private schools, institutions or hospitals.

Maine's special-education costs rose 48 percent, when adjusted for inflation, from 1996 to 2006. Overall education costs rose 26 percent in that period.

Last year, the state's taxpayers spent $282 million on special education, about 15 percent of the total spent on public education, compared with nearly 13 percent of all education spending 10 years ago.

Carrie Thurston, president of the Maine Administrators of Services for Children with Disabilities and the special education director for SAD 3, said sprawling districts such as hers will be hard-pressed to make any cuts if their state aid is reduced. Thurston is the only special-education administrator in her district, which encompasses 450 square miles between Waterville and Bangor.

"For me to drive from one school to another takes an hour," she said.

Most of the eight schools in her district have one special- education teacher.

She said it is impractical to try to cut costs by rotating them between schools....