Child services ‘sunset’ dates aren’t death sentences

In a recent editorial, the Bangor Daily News asks the Department of Education not to shut down the regional Child Development Services sites and not to eliminate the regional CDS governing boards.

The plea comes from a misunderstanding of the intent of proposed legislation, LD 836, which has been put forward by the department in order to help transition to a new structure that will work best for children from birth to age 5.

Let me assure you that the Department of Education is not trying to sunset either CDS or its governing boards.

It is true that the department proposed last year to consolidate the 16 regional governing boards into one statewide board to ensure a consistent delivery of services to all children in the CDS system. The Legislature chose to slow the process down and to ask the Department of Education to be responsible for payroll and benefits and other administrative functions to free up regional sites and their boards to focus on the delivery of services to children with developmental, speech and physical delays or needs. The Legislature wanted time to see how such a system would work.

The Legislature also created the Subcommittee to Study Early Childhood Special Education. In January, the subcommittee completed its report and proposed legislation for improving upon the CDS system.

As for the proposed “sunsets” – calling for the elimination of pieces of statute after a certain date – our proposal does nothing more than underscore the fact that there is nothing in the current statute that gives clear direction about CDS operations after September 2007. Already, three-quarters of the existing language defining roles and responsibilities contains sunset provisions.

The structure put in place by the Legislature has created a shift of responsibility from the regional level to the state level, which has changed the scope of the boards’ and sites’ responsibilities, which require the Legislature to examine all pieces of responsibility carefully. Eliminating structures without new ones to replace them would not serve our children or any of the participating agencies.

The Legislature will have to confirm or establish a structure that will take us beyond that date – with or without our proposed sunsets.

Since 1998, the Department of Education has worked in partnership with the Maine Advisory Council for the Education of Children with Disabilities to implement the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act for children birth to age 20 and to vastly improve educational opportunities for them. We know what a successful partnership with stakeholders and providers looks like, and we are committed to duplicating those successes in further refining delivery of services to the youngest of children with special needs.

We are reviewing the report completed earlier this year by the Subcommittee to Study Early Childhood Special Education, as well as the proposed legislation that has come out of that report and look forward to working together with the Legislature’s Education Committee and stakeholders. We all have the same goal – providing the best services possible for every child from birth to age 5 who needs those services. That will require a thorough review of past, present, and future roles and responsibilities, and we look forward to working with all stakeholders to find the structure that works best.

Susan Gendron is commissioner of the Maine Department of Education.