On January 19th the DOE finalized changes to the Emergency Chapter 101 Regulations. These Emergency changes are in effect for the next year. The DOE has also developed Provisional Chapter 101 regulations that are slightly different. Attached you will find information letter #66 that the DOE sent to the districts on January 21st summarizing the change process and providing links to related documents.

You will also find attached a document developed by MADSEC that details the changes. There are two versions, the Emergency regulations and Provisional regulations. The Provisional version of 101 will be voted on by the Legislature before it goes into effect. This means that there is still one more opportunity to advocate for change. The Education committee will hold a public hearing on Monday February 8th at 10 AM in Augusta and work sessions on February 10th at 1:00 and February 11th at 9:00.

There are many changes in these new versions of Chapter 101. MASP attended the public hearing held on December 21st to address our concerns about the Emergency version of 101. Our testimony focused on three areas of concern; the removal of all the specific RTI regulations, the continuing problems with the DSM Diagnosis language and a change to the OHI section requiring a 1.5 SD deficit in "alertness". A copy of our testimony is attached.

MASP is disappointed that the DOE did not make any of the changes we recommended. (They didn't make changes advocated by other organizations either.) We strongly encourage all of our members to send an email to the members of the education committee advocating for these changes. Another issue many want addressed is the last change listed on the MADSEC document, which requires districts to pay consultants the average Medicare rate, which for LPE's doing testing is $55.80/hour.

The email addresses for the education committee are also attached.

Remember, when sending in your email, be sure not to include any attachments, as apparently attachments do not go through to their email addresses. It is essential that emails be sent prior to the February 8th hearings.

MASP also encourages as many members as possible to attend the hearings.

Remember, these are our elected representatives and thus are more responsive to public opinion than appointed staff in the DOE.

More information on the regulations will be in the upcoming MASP newsletter as well as on the MASP website. Any questions or concerns regardin g the Chapter 101 changes can be addressed to Ruth Crowell, Chair of the MASP GPR Committee at: rhcrowell@yahoo.com.

Please keep checking the MASP website for further updates. The upcoming Newsletter will also include articles addressing the revised regulations.

Any questions, concerns or suggestions may be addressed to the MASP GPR committee chair, Ruth Crowell: rhcrowell@yahoo.com.