2.__Full payment.__Beginning July 1, 2008, the commissioner shall pay to each school administrative unit, in the year of allocation, 100% of the unit's special education costs as defined in section 15603, subsection 22.__Payments must be made monthly, not more than 7 days after the department receives notification from the unit of its prior month's special education costs.

3.__Special education costs; delayed payments.__Special education costs that would have been payable to a school administrative unit under the School Finance Act of 1985 in the 1999-2000 school year will be paid to the school administrative unit over a 5-year period beginning July 1, 2002.__The commissioner shall establish a schedule for payment of special education costs.__These funds do not affect the calculation of state subsidy under this chapter.

Sec. 14. 20-A MRSA §15613, sub-§4, ¶B, as enacted by PL 1983, c. 859, Pt. G, §§2 and 4, is repealed.

Sec. 15. 20-A MRSA §15613, sub-§6, as amended by PL 1997, c. 326, §5, is repealed.

SUMMARY

The purpose of this bill is to guarantee that each school administrative unit in the State will receive compensation for its current year special education costs on a monthly basis. Compensation for special education costs will equal the unit's most recent monthly special education expenditure multiplied by the average statewide state share percentage of program costs in the current year.

It also increases the State's share of special education costs to 100% effective July 1, 2008 and adds a provision for paying 1999-2000 school year special education costs to school units over a 5-year period, beginning in July 2002.