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RSU 52 begins taking 3- and 4-year-olds into public pre-K special-education services after CDS gaps; district tracking referrals and costs
Summary
Administrators told the board that RSU 52 is now serving 3- and 4-year-olds with special-education needs previously handled by Child Development Services, reporting 14 children in referral and 15 already identified; state DOE fully funds pre-K but the district is manually tracking staff time charged to the pre-K line.
District leaders told the RSU 52/MSAD 52 school board that the district is taking on services for 3- and 4-year-old children with disabilities that had previously been handled by Child Development Services (CDS), citing state law changes and CDS capacity issues.
Director Drysdale and other administrators said the district is receiving referrals through its website and local providers. The transcript shows the district had 14 children in the referral pipeline and 15 already identified as of the Sept. 11 meeting; staff warned the number will increase as children turn 3 throughout the year.
Administrators said Maine’s DOE fully funds the 3–4 pre-K work through state pre-K funding. District staff reported one full-time employee is fully charged to the pre-K fund; other existing staff are logging time and will be allocated a percentage of salary based on manual tracking each pay period until patterns are established. The district said payroll specialist Ashley and administrators are collecting timesheet data from teachers, ed techs and special-education support staff to apportion costs appropriately to the pre-K line.
Board members asked if CDS had been failing to perform assessments and whether the state change was intended to shift responsibility to local schools. Administrators said the law changed because CDS was not meeting needs statewide and the legislature required public schools to assume responsibility; they declined to speculate on CDS operations but said the district is preparing to meet the needs locally.
Administrators described ongoing workload impacts: two autism support program (ASP) positions remained unfilled and the district is using long-term substitutes and existing ed techs while waiting for behavioral-health professionals from partner agencies. Staff said they expect to track pre-K staffing allocations for at least a year before finalizing recurring budget apportionments.
