There’s an old saying about “throwing the baby out with the bath water.” Now, under the guise of state budgetary constraints, the Maine Department of Education (DOE) wants to take it one step further and has put forth a new plan that would throw the babies with disabilities out with the bath water.

Although LD 1772 has been called a “bold proposal for a seamless, cohesive implementation of the special education responsibilities of IDEA [the federal law for special education],” we believe it must not pass in any form. Why? The current early intervention and early childhood special education system is working well.

According to surveys administered to families of young children with disabilities by the Department of Education, the Child Development Services (CDS) system received a greater than 90 percent satisfaction rating with the current system delivery model. Please join us and e-mail or call your legislator and state your strong opposition to this bill.

Everyone knows a young child with a disability. The child may be a relative, a neighbor or a child you see with their parents at the mall or grocery store. Regardless of the degree or nature of the disability, research demonstrates the positive benefits of early intervention. The statewide survey also supports the benefits described in the research. We believe changing the CDS system to centralized control (in Augusta) is not a better way to go. In addition to centralizing control of early intervention, the DOE is proposing that families should support the consolidation of rural schools into 35 mega-districts in order to save money and increase efficiency while decreasing local control and accountability.

We do not believe the commissioner has demonstrated how any of her proposals will increase the efficiency of service delivery to children in the CDS system or in public schools. We believe changing the CDS system as quickly as July 1 will only disrupt services to children. What the commissioner proposes is essentially loss of local control, which would then give parents a lesser voice in the education of all children.

Other concerns with the commissioner’s plan are as follows. It calls for centralizing the financial responsibilities of the system by July 2006. This is being proposed with less than six months to accomplish it, no staff in Augusta to oversee it and no software in place to accommodate it. This is also being proposed when the commissioner’s plan calls for the shifting of responsibility and services to the schools by July 2008.

If the responsibility for this function goes to the schools in two years, why go to the work and expense of centralizing this function now? The commissioner’s future service delivery model also does not allow for the training expense of those in the current system, and there is no allowance for or designation of responsibility for training those in the school administrative units.

The plan to be implemented by the adoption of LD 1772 will not improve Maine’s early intervention or early childhood special education system. It is simply too much too fast. If the existing system needs improvement, then let’s begin to target areas for change and begin refining them.

Please, let’s not throw the baby, with or without disabilities, out with the bath water.

Candice Fuller is a CDS parent and Virgie Burpee is a CDS provider. Both are residents of Dyer Brook.