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 serves 48 students in grades 3–12 and is attached to a designated mental‑health agency, which the school described as helpful for providing wraparound and crisis services. Kindle Farm staff said 100% of their students enter on IEPs and that the program serves students who often arrive disengaged, chronically truant, or behaviorally dysregulated.

Why it matters: both schools described students whose needs often exceed what local public schools can provide without intensive staffing or specialized clinical supports. "Trust and safety is where this starts," Gradinger said, explaining that establishing relationships and a secure environment is the prerequisite for students to manage stress chemistry and then learn.

School practices and capacity: speakers described small instructional groups (class sizes of about six students) and higher than typical adult‑to‑student ratios. Maple Hill said some elementary classes have five adults for six students; middle‑school groupings can have three adults per six students and high‑school groupings two to three. Both schools said they staff to provide therapeutic supports integrated with academics, using on‑site therapists, social workers and clinical supervision. Maple Hill and Kindle Farm said many of their students have histories of trauma and present with emotional disturbance or autism spectrum disorder diagnoses that contribute to severe dysregulation or withdrawal.

Funding and costs: committee members asked about tuition and funding. Maple Hill representatives told the committee their "small group" tuition rate is $95,000 per year and that students requiring a one‑to‑one staffing model are charged $105,000 per year; the school said the Agency of Education has approved a higher maximum rate (they cited $136,000) and that they expect roughly a 9% tuition increase next year. Kindle Farm described leveraging Medicaid for some students, which the school said lowers the net tuition cost to sending districts and allows the schools to bill Medicaid for therapeutic services where eligible.

Barriers to growth and replication: witnesses and committee discussion focused on the difficulty of scaling therapeutic models inside public schools. Speakers pointed to shortages of trained special‑education staff and mental‑health practitioners, the intensity and potential for staff burnout, and the need for ongoing clinical supervision and professional development. Kindle Farm and Maple Hill officials said public schools sometimes have in‑house or adjacent programs, but those often lacked the clinical infrastructure and staffing intensity the independent therapeutic schools provide.

Waiting lists and the moratorium on new independent schools: both schools reported substantial waiting lists; Maple Hill and Kindle Farm said they take multiple waiting‑list referrals and that districts often place students on several lists and accept the first available opening. Witnesses said a current moratorium on new independent schools affects the ability to open new therapeutic campuses, making expansion riskier for operators because of capital costs and uncertain placement guarantees.

Committee next steps: committee members asked what legislative changes or supports would help. Witnesses said continued technical support and clarity from the Agency of Education, predictable rate‑setting, training dollars targeted to special education and trauma‑informed practices, and clear definitions and accountability standards for what constitutes a "therapeutic" school would help protect program quality while preventing opportunistic entrants.

No formal vote or policy action occurred at the hearing. Committee members thanked the witnesses for their testimony and information.

Ending: witnesses told the committee they are willing to partner with public districts to build capacity but emphasized that their programs address a small, high‑need population for whom the combination of clinical and educational services is essential.