[Mesppsdir] Priority Notice- Filing of Chapter 101: Maine Unified Special Education Regulation *EMERGENCY RULEMAKING*

[Bousquet, Rachel]

I couldn’t agree more Michele!  Done!

Sent from my iPhone

On Jun 9, 2023, at 3:42 PM, Michelle Hathaway <michelle.hathaway at jfmh.org> wrote:


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I immediately filed my letter of support for this rule making effort and would support ALL of you to write in immediately!  MDOE personnel have worked on our behalf, but we have to work just as hard to help ourselves too!  PLEASE, do not be complacement on this issue.
Michelle

From: mesppsdir <mesppsdir-bounces at maillist.informe.org> On Behalf Of Adley, Mary
Sent: Friday, June 9, 2023 2:48 PM
To: mesppsdir at maillist.informe.org
Subject: [Mesppsdir] FW: Priority Notice- Filing of Chapter 101: Maine Unified Special Education Regulation *EMERGENCY RULEMAKING*

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FYI Champions of Educations,

Alas, the Emergency Rule notification regarding SPPS invoicing. Have a fabulous weekend!

Mary

From: Maine Department of Education <communications.doe at maine.gov<mailto:communications.doe at maine.gov>>
Sent: Friday, June 09, 2023 2:34 PM
To: Adley, Mary <Mary.Adley at maine.gov<mailto:Mary.Adley at maine.gov>>
Subject: Priority Notice- Filing of Chapter 101: Maine Unified Special Education Regulation *EMERGENCY RULEMAKING*

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Priority Notice from the Maine Department of Education

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Filing of Chapter 101: Maine Unified Special Education Regulation *EMERGENCY RULEMAKING*

Dear Champions of Education,

In March 2023, The Maine Department of Education (DOE) implemented emergency measures to address the financial shortfall facing Maine’s special purpose private schools. At that time, the DOE deployed available resources to provide a financial stopgap. In the immediate sense, these resources provided temporary relief, however, on May 31, the DOE determined that fiscal year 2024 is a critical timeline for the financial stability of special purpose private schools and the availability of a continuum of educational placements for students with disabilities. In order to ensure compliance with Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) and the Maine Unified Special Education Regulation (MUSER) and to ensure the provision of a free, appropriate public education (FAPE) to all eligible students, the DOE has chosen to move forward with an emergency rule change. The current funding structure outlined in Section XVIII.3.C(2) of MUSER for private schools that serve exclusively students with disabilities (referred to throughout as “special purpose private schools”) is causing those schools to limit or cease operations, leaving some of Maine’s most significantly impacted children without the educational placements they are entitled to by law. Further breakdown of this critical component of the continuum of educational placements will leave the State unable to maintain compliance with IDEA and MUSER at the start of the 2024 fiscal year.

The DOE has determined that a rule change is necessary on an emergency basis in order to protect the public health, safety and general welfare by ensuring that there is a continuum of placements available for all students with individualized education programs (IEPs) in accordance with federal and state law as follows:

  *   Change #1: Section XVIII.3.C(2) is amended to change the required number of instructional days to the “days on which instruction was provided in accordance with the school’s calendar” rather than the actual days of student attendance for the year.  Rationale: The current funding formula penalizes the private school when a student is unable to attend, even if the lack of attendance is due to a disability-related reason, despite the obligation of the private school to have staff and supports available for the student every day of the school year.
  *   Change #2: adds a section (3-A) to ensure “Each SAU shall pay the daily tuition rate calculated above for the total number of student days, regardless of whether the student is in attendance each day, with the following exception:  the IEP Team determines whether a student attends during ESY/full-year programming; if the IEP Team decides a student doesn’t need ESY/full-year programming, the SAU is not required to pay the daily tuition rate for any day that falls outside the student’s program year (e.g. during the summer months).”  Rationale:  Some students attend special purpose private schools only during the regular school year, while others attend extended school year, or year-round programming.  Because the proposed revised rule moves away from linking payment to attendance, an exception was warranted to provide that the sending SAU is only obligated to pay for the days in each student’s program, instead of having every SAU pay for the full year, despite sending a student for the regular school year only. A note has been added following this language to clarify specifically what changes when a student attends only during the regular school year.
  *   Change #3: adds a section 4(D) which provides that “nothing in subparagraph (4) shall limit any increase in the tuition rate resulting from the change in calculating the number of student days in subparagraph (2) from the actual days of student attendance to the days on which instruction was provided in accordance with the school’s calendar.”  Rationale:  This change ensures that any increase in tuition resulting from the change in 2023 does not get reduced by the cap on the percentage of increase from year to year.

A period of public comment opens on June 12, 2023. Due to the need to prevent imminent harm to the students who depend on these educational placements and the emergency status of this rule change, the public comment period has been reduced to 15 days and the public hearing has been suspended.

Written comments may be submitted to DOE Legislative Team member Laura Cyr, State House Station #23, Augusta, Maine 04333; 207-446-8791 or laura.cyr at maine.gov<mailto:laura.cyr at maine.gov> until 5:00 p.m. on June 19, 2023.

As an emergency filing, the proposed changes become active upon filing and are in effect for a period of one year from the date of adoption.

Timeline for Rulemaking for Chapter 101 – Emergency, Major Substantive

  *   Comment Period Begins: June 12, 2023
  *   Comment Period Ends: June 26, 2023
  *   Anticipated Date of Adoption: July 1, 2023

The proposed emergency amendment to Chapter 101 can be found here: https://www.maine.gov/doe/about/laws/rulechanges<https://maine.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=a582edd6473e477ef6307c769&id=2732548a90&e=20811a8ea5>

Sent June 9, 2023



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