Therapeutic school directors tell Senate committee they face wait lists, staffing and funding limits

MONTPELIER, Vt. — Directors of two Vermont therapeutic independent schools told the Senate Education Committee on March 12 that their programs serve high‑acuity special education students, operate at small class sizes, and face persistent waiting lists and staffing and funding constraints.

Martha Tucker, director of education at Maple Hill School in Plainfield, Joe Astic, executive director at Maple Hill School, and Drew Gradinger, director of Kindle Farm School (a program affiliated with the designated agency HCRS), described day programs that combine therapeutic services and individualized, proficiency‑based academics for students who qualify for special education under IEPs.

Maple Hill, the witnesses said, started in 1966 as residential group homes and became a licensed independent day school in 1989. The school now operates three campuses and enrolls about 24–25 students, serving students referred by multiple supervisory unions. "We are a day school," Tucker said, noting Maple Hill follows the public school calendar and buses students from up to an hour away in some cases. Maple Hill representatives told the committee the school originally served grades 7–12 and, about two and a half years ago, added an elementary program covering roughly grades 4–7 to respond to unmet need.

Gradinger said Kindle Farm…