30-Day Comment Period for Master Contractual Agreement for Private Schools Offering Special Education Programs

The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) is a federal law that requires that state educational agencies (SEAs), including the Maine Department of Education (DOE), and local educational agencies (LEAs), including school administrative units (SAUs), ensure that all of the rights and protections are given to students with disabilities who are placed by their SAUs in a private school to receive a free appropriate public education (FAPE). When placing a child in a private school, the SAU must ensure that the student has the same rights and procedural safeguards as a child served by a public agency or school.

For years, private schools across Maine have been partnering with SAUs to ensure that students with disabilities have their services carried out in these private schools. While this is often the case, the Maine DOE has become aware of instances when SAUs have placed students in private schools to receive their special education services, only to have the private schools discharge them from these educational placements outside of the individual education program (IEP) team process.

Changing a student's educational program or placement outside of the IEP team process is a violation of the procedural safeguards, which are a part of the IDEA. Parents who have sought to challenge the change of placement through due process have been unable to obtain legal recourse because private schools cannot be parties to a due process hearing and are not subject to a corrective action plan at the conclusion of a state complaint investigation. At the same time, private schools that have safety concerns about maintaining placements lack an administrative avenue to have their concerns heard.

Maine law requires that private schools seeking to provide special education programs enter into a master contractual agreement with the commissioner (20-A M.R.S. 7252-A). Since the Maine DOE is responsible for ensuring that all SAUs are compliant with the IDEA, the Maine DOE has drafted a master contractual agreement between the Maine DOE and private schools offering special education services to children with IEPs. This draft agreement articulates responsibilities and outlines the procedures that private schools and SAUs will follow when a SAU places a student who has an IEP in a private school.

Before finalizing the master agreement, the Maine DOE is interested in receiving feedback and comments from all stakeholders. There will be a 30-day comment period from October 15 until November 15 when stakeholders are encouraged to provide feedback on the draft master agreement. This feedback will be used when finalizing the master contractual agreement, which will be issued in early January 2026.

The draft of the master contractual agreement can be found here. Comments can be provided using this form. Please direct questions to Laura Cyr at [email protected]. This information can also be found on the Maine DOE website.