The Department of Education shall adopt rules necessary to implement this paragraph. Rules adopted by the Department of Education to implement this paragraph are major substantive rules pursuant to Title 5, chapter 375, subchapter II-A 2-A;

SUMMARY

This bill does the following:

1. It adds "emotional disability" to the definition of "exceptional student" in the Maine Revised Statutes, Title 20-A, section 7001;

2. It adds "undue burden" as a requirement concerning requests for extension of leased space agreements relating to local school administrative units;

3. It amends the definition of "homeless student" in compliance with the provisions of federal law;

4. It amends the homeless student provisions to be addressed by Department of Education rules to implement federal law;

5. It amends and clarifies the section of the statute defining the tuition rate that may be charged by schools receiving tuition students who are enrolled in regular school day applied technology educational programs at applied technology centers. It adds language establishing the tuition rate that may be charged by the applied technology center, satellite or region; and

6. It amends the statutes regarding local funding requirements for gifted and talented programs and the reporting dates and implementation dates for those programs.