127th MAINE LEGISLATURE
		LD 1081		LR 1348(02)
	An Act To Change the Individualized Education Program Notice Requirements
	Fiscal Note for Bill as Amended by Committee Amendment " "
	Committee: Education and Cultural Affairs
	Fiscal Note Required: Yes
Fiscal Note
Potential current biennium cost increase - Federal Expenditures Fund Potential current biennium cost increase - local school administrative units
Fiscal Detail and Notes
	Making it easier for a parent to block a change proposed by a school administrative unit (SAU) to a child's special education services and requiring SAU's to initiate a more costly dispute resolution process may result in increased costs to the Department of Education, who provides the dispute resolution services, and/or local school administrative units due to a potential increase in the number of higher cost mediation and/or hearing requests and a decrease in the number of lower cost complaint investigations from what currently occurs.
	Under current law, a parent can only block a change in their child's special education services by requesting a complaint investigation, mediation or a hearing.  According to the Department of Education, the complaint investigation is the least expensive of the 3 options.  However, federal law only allows for parents to request a complaint investigation and is not an option for local SAU's.  The Department of Education estimates that, had this provision been in place during fiscal year 2013-14, the additional cost would have been approximately $95,000.  This estimate assumes an additional cost of conducting a hearing versus a complaint investigation to be approximately $5,000 per request and is based on 19 requests for complaint investigations during that year.  The impact to the Department and local SAU's will depend on actual experience.