An Act To Amend and Improve the Education Laws Concerning Portable Space and Rule-making Authority
Maine Legislature, Session 123, LD 0150
Committee: Education and Cultural Affairs
Sponsors: NORTON, MITCHELL
Amends: 20-A MRSA §15672

Legislative Document 
No. ISO 
H.P.132 
House of Representatives, January 12,2007 
An Act To Amend and Improve the Education Laws Concerning 
Portable Space and Rule-making Authority 
Submitted by the Department of Education pursuant to Joint Rule 204. 
Reference to the Committee on Education and Cultural Affairs suggested and ordered 
printed. 
Presented by Representative NORTON of Bangor. 
Cosponsored by Senator MITCHELL of Kennebec. 
Printed on recycJed paper 
IJ'/~ /J? 7i/dC~ 
MILLICENT M. MacFARLAND 
Clerk 
Be it enacted by the People of the State of Maine as follows: 
Sec. 1. 20-A MRS A §5001-A, sub-§3, ~A, as amended by PL 2003, c. 181, §1, 
is further amended to read: 
A. Equivalent instruction alternatives are as follows. 
(1) A person is excused from attending a public day school if the person obtains 
equivalent instruction in: 
(a) A private school approved for attendance purposes pursuant to section 
2901; 
(b) A private school recognized by the department as providing equivalent 
instruction; 
(c-l) A home instruction program that complies with the requirements of 
subparagraph (4); or 
(d) Any other manner arranged for by the school board and approved by the 
commissioner. 
(2) A student is credited with attendance at a private school only if a certificate 
showing the name, residence and attendance of the person at the school, signed 
by the person or persons in charge of the school, has been filed with the school 
officials of the administrative unit in which the student resides. 
(4) The following provisions govern a home instruction program. 
(a) The student's parent or guardian shall provide a written notice of intent to 
provide home instruction simultaneously to the school officials of the 
administrative unit in which the student resides and to the commissioner 
within 10 calendar days of the beginning of home instruction. The notice 
must contain the following information: 
(i) The name, signature and address of the student's parent or guardian; 
(ii) The name and age of the student; 
(iii) The date the home instruction program will begin; 
(iv) 
A statement of assurance that indicates the home instruction 
program will provide at least 175 days annually of instruction and will 
provide instruction in the following subject areas: English and language 
arts, math, science, social studies, physical education, health education, 
library skills, fine arts and, in at least one grade from grade 6 to 12, 
Maine studies. At one grade level from grade 7 to 12, the student will 
demonstrate proficiency in the use of computers; and 
(v) A statement of assurance that indicates that the home instruction 
program will include an annual assessment of the student's academic 
progress that includes at least one of the forms of assessment described in 
division (b). 
(b) On or before September 1 st of each subsequent year of home instruction, 
the student's parent or guardian shall file a letter with the school officials of 
the administrative unit in which the student resides and the commissioner 
stating the intention to continue providing home instruction and enclose a 
copy of one of the following forms of annual assessment of the student's 
academic progress: 
(i) 
A 
standardized achievement test 
administered through the 
administrative unit in which the student resides or through other 
arrangements approved by the commissioner. If the test is administered 
through the administrative unit in which the student resides, that 
administration must be agreed to by the school officials of the 
administrative unit prior to submission of the written notice of intent to 
provide home instruction; 
(ii) A test developed by the school officials of the administrative unit in 
which the student resides appropriate to the student's home instruction 
program, which must be agreed to by the school officials of the 
administrative unit prior to submission of the written notice of intent to 
provide home instruction; 
(iii) A review and acceptance of the student's progress by an identified 
individual who holds a current Maine teacher's certificate; 
(iv) A review and acceptance of the student's progress based on, but not 
limited to, a presentation of an educational portfolio of the student to a 
local area homeschooling support group whose membership for this 
purpose includes a currently certified Maine teacher or administrator; or 
(v) A review and acceptance of the student's progress by a local advisory 
board selected by the superintendent of the administrative unit in which 
the student resides that includes one administrative unit employee and 2 
home instruction tutors. For the purpose of this subdivision, a "home 
instruction tutor" means the parent, guardian or other person who acts or 
will act as a primary teacher of the student in the home instruction 
program. This provision must be agreed to by the school officials of the 
administrative unit in which the student resides prior to submission of the 
written notice of intent to provide home instruction. 
(c) 
Dissemination of any information filed under this subparagraph is 
governed by the provisions of section 6001; the federal Family Educational 
Rights and Privacy Act of 1974, 20 United States Code, Section 1232g 
(2002); and the federal Education for All Handicapped Children Act of 1975, 
United States Code, Sections 1401 to 1487 (2002), except that "directory 
information," as defined by the federal Family Educational Rights and 
Privacy Act of 1974, is confidential and is not subject to public disclosure 
unless the parent or guardian specifically permits disclosure in writing or a 
judge orders otherwise. 
Copies of the information filed under this 
subparagraph must be maintained by the student's parent or guardian until the 
home instruction program concludes. The records must be made available to 
the commissioner upon request. 
(d) If the home instruction program is discontinued, students of compulsory 
school age must be enrolled in a public school or an equivalent instruction 
alternative as provided for in this paragraph. 
The receiving school shall 
determine the placement of the student. At the secondary level, the principal 
of the receiving school shall determine the value of the prior educational 
experience toward meeting the standards of the system of learning results as 
established in section 6209. 
(~ The eommissiOHtlf shall ameHd or adopt rules to aeeomplish the pHFposes 
of this subparagraph. 
Rl:iles adopted pursuaHt to this diyisioH are major 
substaHtiye rules as defiHed iH Title 5, ehapter 375, &l:ibehapter 2 A. 
Sec. 2. 20-A MRS A §7404, sub-§l, as amended by PL 1999, c. 775, §5, is 
further amended to read: 
1. Funding. Students from this State may attend the school free of tuition and room 
and board expense. Funding for these students is provided by legislative appropriation 
based on the services necessary, including room and board, to satisfy the individualized 
education programs of the students, as defiHed by departmeHt rule. 
Rules adopted 
pursuaHt to this subseetieH are major substaHtiye rules as defiHed iH Title 5, shapter 375, 
subehapter II A. Funding must support maintenance of the center school and that portion 
of the island used by the center school, security, outreach services, adult education, 
access to the education network of Maine and operations of the center school, including 
the residential program, parent-infant program, preschool program and communication 
garden program. Funding must also support maintenance and operations of any satellite 
school. 
Sec. 3. 20-A MRSA §15672, sub-§2-A, ~, as enacted by PL 2005, c. 2, Pt. D, 
§36 and affected by §§72 and 74 and c. 12, Pt. WW, §18, is amended to read: 
B. Lease costs for school buildings when the leases, including leases under which the 
school administrative unit may apply the lease payments to the purchase of portable, 
temporary classroom space begiI1fl:iHg JaHuary 1, 1988, have been approved by the 
commissioner for the year prior to the allocation year. BeginniHg J1:11)' 1, 1998 lease 
Lease costs include costs for leasing: 
(1) Administrative space. A sshool admiHistrative urnt rna)' lease admiHistratiye 
spase 'Hith state support uHtil July 1, 2003. A school administrative unit engaged 
in a state-approved lease-purchase agreement for administrative space is eligible 
for state support until July 1, 2008; 
(2) Temporary and interim HOHadmiHistratiYe instructional space. Temporary 
space is instructional space consisting of one or more mobile or modular 
. 37 
buildings that are portable, that are constructed on- or off-site and that can be 
disassembled and moved economically to a new location. Interim instructional 
space is fixed instructional space that a school administrative unit rents for a 
defined period of time and then vacates at the end of the lease. 
(a) 
A 
school 
administrative unit 
with 
state-approved need 
for 
HOHadmiHistrative instructional space may lease temporary or interim space, 
with state support, for a maximum of 5 years. A school administrative unit 
may appeal to the state board commissioner if this limitation presents an 
undue burden. When making a determination on a school administrative 
unit's request for relief based on undue burden, the state board commissioner 
may consider, but is not limited to considering, the following: 
(i) Fiscal capacity; 
(ii) Enrollment demographics; and 
(iii) Unforeseen circumstances not within the control of the appealing 
school administrative unit. 
An extension granted by the commissioner beyond the 5-year maximum for 
state support is limited to a period of one year. Any additional request for 
extensions must be submitted and reviewed on an annual basis. The state 
board's commissioner's decision is final. 
(b) 
A school administrative unit engaged with state-approved need for 
instructional space may engage in a lease-purchase agreement for temporary 
or interim nonadministratiye instructional space is eligible fer with state 
support for a maximum of.w .2. years; and 
(3) Permanent small nonadministrative instructional space that replaces 0T--i5 
eonverted from existing approved leased portable temporary or interim 
instructional space. The existing approved leased portable spaee will be eligible 
fer state support until July 1, 2003. Permanent small instructional space consists 
of new buildings or additions to existing buildings that are secured to a 
permanent foundation. Once an existing leased portable temporary or interim 
instructional space has been eonverted into replaced by a permanent 
nonadministrative small instructional space through an approved lease pureRase 
financing agreement, that space is eligible for state support for a maximum of 10 
years. 
The department shall adopt rules necessary to implement this paragraph. 
Rules 
adopted by the department to implement this paragraph are major substantive rules 
pursuant to Title 5, chapter 375, subchapter 2-A; 
Sec. 4. 20-A MRS A §15672, sub-§2-A, ~, as enacted by PL 2005, c. 2, Pt. D, 
§36 and affected by §§72 and 74 and c. 12, Pt. WW, § 18, is repealed. 
SUMMARY 
This bill amends, improves and clarifies certain sections of the Maine Revised 
Statutes, Title 20-A to change the lengths, terms and extensions of waivers for lease-
purchase agreements for temporary, portable classroom space, removes the language 
requiring rules for home instruction and removes the language that the Maine Educational 
Center for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing and the Governor Baxter School for the Deaf 
funding is determined by Department of Education rule.