Transition from Early Intervention to
School Age Special Education:
Data Report for FY11
Chapter 68 of the Acts of 2011, Line Item 7061-0012
November 2012
Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education
75 Pleasant Street, Malden, MA 02148-4906
Phone 781-338-3000 TTY: N.E.T. Relay 800-439-2370
www.doe.mass.edu
This document was prepared by the
Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education
Mitchell D. Chester, Ed.D.
Commissioner
Board of Elementary and Secondary Education Members
Ms. Maura Banta, Chair, Melrose
Ms. Beverly Holmes, Vice Chair, Springfield
Dr. Vanessa Calderón-Rosado, Milton
Ms. Harneen Chernow, Jamaica Plain
Mr. Gerald Chertavian, Cambridge
Mr. Matthew Gifford, Chair, Student Advisory Council, Brookline
Dr. Jeff Howard, Reading
Ms. Ruth Kaplan, Brookline
Dr. Dana Mohler-Faria, Bridgewater
Mr. Paul Reville, Secretary of Education, Worcester
Mr. David Roach, Sutton
Mitchell D. Chester, Ed.D., Commissioner and Secretary to the Board
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We do not discriminate on the basis of age, color, disability, national origin, race, religion, sex or sexual orientation.
Inquiries regarding the Department’s compliance with Title IX and other civil rights laws may be directed to the
Human Resources Director, 75 Pleasant St., Malden, MA 02148-4906. Phone: 781-338-6105.
© 2012 Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education
Permission is hereby granted to copy any or all parts of this document for non-commercial educational purposes. Please credit the
“Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.”
This document printed on recycled paper
Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education
75 Pleasant Street, Malden, MA 02148-4906
Phone 781-338-3000 TTY: N.E.T. Relay 800-439-2370
www.doe.mass.edu
Massachusetts Department of
Elementary and Secondary Education
75 Pleasant Street, Malden, Massachusetts 02148-4906
Telephone: (781) 338-3000
TTY: N.E.T. Relay 1-800-439-2370
Mitchell D. Chester, Ed.D.
Commissioner
November 2012
Dear Members of the General Court:
I am pleased to submit this report, Transition from Early Intervention to School Age Special
Education: Data Report for FY11. In cooperation with the Massachusetts Department of Public
Health (DPH), the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (the Department) is
required by Chapter 68 of the Acts of 2011, line item 7061-0012 to track and report on the
number of children receiving Early Intervention (EI) services and the number of those children
who later receive special education services.
At the time of this report, the confidentiality issues of two departments sharing student specific
information have precluded the Department from comparing child-specific information about
young children receiving EI services (from DPH data) and child-specific information about
young children after age three found eligible for special education (from the Department data).
Therefore, this report provides an overview of aggregate data from DPH and the Department
about the number of young children receiving early intervention (EI) services who exited from
EI in school year 2010-2011 (FY11); the number of those children who were determined to be
potentially eligible for special education services and referred by the EI program to the local
school districts for evaluation; and the number of young children who received an initial
evaluation to determine eligibility for special education services.
As new federal requirements for providing the Department with information about children
referred by EI programs to school districts for evaluation for special education eligibility are
implemented, the Department will be able to track and report this information with more
specificity.
If you have any questions about the report, please feel free to contact Marcia Mittnacht, State
Director for Special Education, at mmmittnacht@doe.mass.edu or at 781-338-3375.
Sincerely,
Mitchell D. Chester, Ed.D.
Commissioner of Elementary and Secondary Education
Table of Contents
Introduction ................................................................................................................... 1
Federal Requirements for Early Intervention .............................................................. 2
FY11 Data ....................................................................................................................... 3
Appendix A .................................................................................................................... 8
Introduction
The Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (the Department) respectfully submits
this Report to the Legislature pursuant to Chapter 68 of the Acts of 2011, line item 7061-0012:
“…Work in conjunction with the Department of Public Health to track, by community,
the number of children receiving early intervention services and the number of those
children who later receive special education services, and report on the findings.”
Certain laws that govern the confidentiality of personally identifiable student record information
currently preclude the Department and the Department of Public Health (DPH) from sharing
with each other certain student information without parental consent. For that reason, the
Department is not able to track and report at this time on the number of children receiving early
intervention (EI) services and who later received special education services.
Because of current limitations on allowable sharing of data, the Department does not have childspecific information about children receiving EI services, and is therefore unable to crosswalk it
with special education data from the Department’s Student Information Management System
(SIMS). However, recent changes to federal law have amended notice requirements for referrals
from EI (Part C of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act or IDEA) to special education
(Part B of IDEA). These changes, which will take effect in the summer of 2012, will result in
DPH having the ability to provide the Department and the school district with specific
information about young children in EI programs who are deemed to be “potentially eligible” for
Part B special education services. With this new information, the Department will be able to
track and report with specificity on the number of children receiving EI who later receive special
education.
This report describes how the requested data can and will be produced in the future as a result of
changed requirements in federal law. Also, the report includes aggregate information that has
been provided to the Department by DPH about the number of young children exiting EI
programs in FY2011, and the number of these young children who were referred to school
districts because they were identified as “potentially eligible” for Part B special education
services under IDEA and state special education law, G.L. c. 71B. The data on the number of
children referred is sorted by community for school year 2010-2011.
1
Federal Requirements for Early Intervention
The Department of Public Health (DPH) is the designated lead agency responsible for providing
the early intervention program for infants and toddlers with disabilities in Massachusetts
according to the requirements of Part C of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (Part
C of IDEA). The Department of Elementary and Secondary Education is the lead agency for
special education services (Part B of IDEA) for students aged 3 through 21.
Changes to Part C IDEA regulations (34 CR Part 303), which were published in the Federal
Register on September 28, 2011 and made effective on October 28, 2011 (Final Regulations)1,
will affect some of the ways that DPH and the Department work together. The revised
regulations reflect changes made to IDEA, as amended by the Individuals with Disabilities
Education Improvement Act of 2004, to implement the Early Intervention Program for Infants
and Toddlers with Disabilities. These new regulations have presented an opportunity to allow the
Department and DPH to share information about students in a new way which will allow the
agencies to track the number of children receiving EI services are who are subsequently found
eligible for special education services, and other relevant information about the link between EI
and special education.
By way of background, the Massachusetts Early Intervention (EI) system is comprised of
community-based programs certified as Early Intervention providers by DPH. EI in
Massachusetts is a statewide, integrated, developmental service available to families of children
between birth and three years of age. Children may be eligible for EI if they have developmental
difficulties due to identified disabilities or delays, or if typical development is at risk due to
certain birth or environmental circumstances. DPH Certified EI programs determine eligibility
through an evaluation conducted by a multidisciplinary team based on informed clinical opinion
and utilizing a DPH-approved developmental inventory tool.
A young child is referred from his/her EI program to the school district where the child resides
prior to the child’s third birthday if the child is determined by the EI program to be “potentially
eligible” for Part B special education services. (A very small number of children are referred for
other types of services, such as an early childhood program.) In general, greater numbers of
children are referred than are found eligible for special education after evaluation because the
criteria for determining a child is “potentially eligible” is broader than the criteria used to
determine special education eligibility. The “potentially eligible” terminology comes from a
requirement under the IDEA that a child served by early intervention (Part C) be referred to the
school district to receive an evaluation to determine eligibility for special education (Part B) as
the child approaches age three when the child appears to meet the criteria for one of more
disabilities or impairments consistent with the definitions in state regulations at 603 CMR 28.02.
EI providers are not required to determine specifically the type of disability a child has or may
have, but rather to consider the likelihood that the child might meet the eligibility criteria for Part
B. Not all children who are “potentially eligible” meet the actual eligibility criteria articulated in
603 CMR 28.05(2) and are determined to be eligible for special education under Part B.
1
The final Part C Regulations can be found at: http://idea.ed.gov/part-c/search/new,
2
Previously, federal regulations governing Part C of IDEA required EI programs to forward childspecific information for the “potentially eligible” students to the school district of residence only,
and not to the Department. The Department collects student information from school districts
about preschool students only after students are given a state-assigned-student-identification
number (SASID) upon request by the school district. School districts do not report to the
Department whether a child was referred by an EI program. Therefore, the Department was
unable to track whether children who received EI services later received special education or
related services.
New Part C regulations require that EI programs forward child-specific information for
potentially eligible children to the school district that will be asked to assess the child and to the
state education agency (34 CFR § 303.209(b)). This provision takes effect on July 1, 2012. The
Department currently is revising internal procedures and data collection systems to support its
receipt of this information and the maintenance of it in a way that will allow for longitudinal
tracking. Additionally, the Department and DPH are updating the terms of an interagency
agreement to ensure the smooth transfer of information as well as a clear understanding of the
responsibilities of the Part C programs and the Part B programs for data sharing, timely referrals,
and evaluations.
FY11 Data
The following data tables include information currently available for school year 2010-2011
(FY11) about young children exiting EI and identified as potentially eligible for Part B special
education. This information includes only the number of children exiting EI programs during this
period, and the number of children who were referred to school districts as “potentially eligible”
for special education. As noted above, with the new data sharing requirements, the Department
anticipates that data reports for school year 2012-2013 will be able to reflect the number and
percentage of the young children who received early intervention services that have subsequently
been found eligible for special education as they enter the school age program (at age three).
In school year 2010-2011, 16,798 children exited from the EI programs, and 6,601 (or 39
percent) were referred from EI programs to school districts across the Commonwealth as
“potentially eligible” for special education. Reasons for exit are included in Table 1 below.
3
Table 1. Exiting Reason, FY11
FY11
Description
TOTAL NUMBER OF INFANTS AND TODDLERS EXITING (ROWS 1-9)
SECTION A: PROGRAM COMPLETION
1. COMPLETION OF IFSP PRIOR TO REACHING MAXIMUM AGE FOR PART C (< 3 years)
2. PART B (POTENTIALLY) ELIGIBLE (3 years)
3. PART B ELIGIBLE, CONTINUING IN PART C
4. NOT (POTENTIALLY) ELIGIBLE FOR PART B, EXIT TO OTHER PROGRAMS (3 years)
5. NOT (POTENTIALLY) ELIGIBLE FOR PART B, EXIT WITH NO REFERRALS (3 years)
6. PART B, ELIGIBLITY NOT DETERMINED (3 years)
SECTION B: OTHER EXIT REASONS
7. DECEASED (all discharges)
8. MOVED OUT OF STATE (< 3 years)
9. WITHDRAWAL BY PARENT (OR GUARDIAN) (< 3 years))
10. ATTEMPTS TO CONTACT UNSUCCESSFUL (< 3 years)
Source: Massachusetts Department of Public Health
Total
%
16,798
100.0%
4,671
6,601
0
1,085
154
28
27.8%
39.3%
NA
6.5%
0.9%
0.2%
20
497
1,823
1,919
0.1%
3.0%
10.9%
11.4%
As noted in Table 1, although 6,601 potentially eligible children is 39.3 percent of all young
children exiting from EI programs (16,798), this number is actually the majority (6,601/7,868 =
83.9 percent) of all children who exited EI at age three having completed the EI program. During
this period, almost half of the children receiving EI services (7,868 or 46.9 percent) completed
the EI program and exited from it at age three. (Table 1, A.2-A.6.) The other half (8,930 or 53.1
percent) exited for other reasons prior to age three (Table 1, A.1 and B).
Table 2 lists exit and referral data by community. The total number of young children who
formerly attended an EI program from each community is identified along with the total of
“potentially eligible” children referred to that community’s school district for evaluation to
determine if they are eligible for special education. Some of the larger cities and towns have
more than 100 young children identified as potentially eligible and referred from an EI program,
including:




Boston received 440 potentially eligible referrals;
Brockton and Fall River each received 145 potentially eligible referrals;
Springfield received 311 potentially eligible referrals; and
Worcester received 228 potentially eligible referrals.
4
Table 2. Number of young children receiving early intervention services by
district and number referred as “potentially eligible” for special education
001
002
003
004
005
006
007
008
009
010
011
012
013
014
015
016
017
018
019
020
021
022
023
024
025
026
027
028
029
030
031
032
033
034
035
036
037
038
039
040
041
042
043
044
045
046
047
048
049
Town
Total
Abington
Acton
Acushnet
Adams
Agawam
Alford
Amesbury
Amherst
Andover
Arlington
Ashburnham
Ashby
Ashfield
Ashland
Athol
Attleboro
Auburn
Avon
Ayer
Barnstable
Barre
Becket
Bedford
Belchertown
Bellingham
Belmont
Berkley
Berlin
Bernardston
Beverly
Billerica
Blackstone
Blandford
Bolton
Boston
Bourne
Boxborough
Boxford
Boylston
Braintree
Brewster
Bridgewater
Brimfield
Brockton
Brookfield
Brookline
Buckland
Burlington
Cambridge
Total
16,798
50
43
6
24
70
*
69
29
59
111
6
*
*
37
19
126
22
17
14
73
16
5
35
24
49
51
12
*
*
102
104
16
5
9
1,611
21
10
20
6
67
15
57
*
444
6
42
*
50
179
PE
6,601
21
18
*
7
37
*
19
13
17
49
*
*
*
15
7
53
14
7
6
34
6
*
14
7
22
19
5
*
*
39
48
11
*
*
445
8
*
5
*
37
*
18
*
145
5
12
*
22
49
050
051
052
053
054
055
056
057
058
059
060
061
062
063
064
065
066
067
068
069
070
071
072
073
074
075
076
077
078
079
080
081
082
083
084
085
086
087
088
089
090
091
092
093
094
095
096
097
098
099
Town
Canton
Carlisle
Carver
Charlemont
Charlton
Chatham
Chelmsford
Chelsea
Cheshire
Chester
Chesterfield
Chicopee
Chilmark
Clarksburg
Clinton
Cohasset
Colrain
Concord
Conway
Cummington
Dalton
Danvers
Dartmouth
Dedham
Deerfield
Dennis
Dighton
Douglas
Dover
Dracut
Dudley
Dunstable
Duxbury
EBridgewater
E Brookfield
ELongmeadow
Eastham
Easthampton
Easton
Edgartown
Egremont
Erving
Essex
Everett
Fairhaven
Fall River
Falmouth
Fitchburg
Florida
Foxborough
Total
53
5
15
*
21
5
80
169
*
*
*
188
*
*
31
13
*
25
5
*
13
71
39
58
8
27
14
13
5
79
23
*
18
40
6
20
5
33
49
5
*
8
*
128
18
433
35
142
*
35
PE
15
*
6
*
14
*
27
56
*
*
*
72
*
*
19
8
*
9
*
*
*
24
24
26
*
14
7
6
*
35
14
*
*
13
*
6
*
16
19
*
*
*
*
59
7
145
14
72
*
21
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
Town
Framingham
Franklin
Freetown
Gardner
Gay Head
Georgetown
Gill
Gloucester
Goshen
Gosnold
Grafton
Granby
Granville
GBarrington
Greenfield
Groton
Groveland
Hadley
Halifax
Hamilton
Hampden
Hancock
Hanover
Hanson
Hardwick
Harvard
Harwich
Hatfield
Haverhill
Hawley
Heath
Hingham
Hinsdale
Holbrook
Holden
Holland
Holliston
Holyoke
Hopedale
Hopkinton
Hubbardston
Hudson
Hull
Huntington
Ipswich
Kingston
Lakeville
Lancaster
Lanesborough
Lawrence
Total
158
90
17
45
*
31
*
67
*
*
47
8
*
17
48
22
18
5
14
23
7
*
17
20
*
5
22
7
288
*
*
60
*
19
23
6
28
273
17
31
*
70
15
*
32
24
24
12
5
320
PE
66
48
6
23
*
10
*
29
*
*
25
*
*
5
19
11
7
*
*
8
*
*
*
9
*
*
9
*
85
*
*
29
*
10
6
*
11
112
9
8
*
34
7
*
15
11
14
5
*
127
5
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
198
199
200
201
202
Town
Lee
Leicester
Lenox
Leominster
Leverett
Lexington
Leyden
Lincoln
Littleton
Longmeadow
Lowell
Ludlow
Lunenburg
Lynn
Lynnfield
Malden
Manchester-by-S
Mansfield
Marblehead
Marion
Marlborough
Marshfield
Mashpee
Mattapoisett
Maynard
Medfield
Medford
Medway
Melrose
Mendon
Merrimac
Methuen
Middleborough
Middlefield
Middleton
Milford
Millbury
Millis
Millville
Milton
Monroe
Monson
Montague
Monterey
Montgomery
Mt Washington
Nahant
Nantucket
Natick
Needham
Leicester
New Bedford
New Braintree
Total
10
17
7
134
*
46
*
*
20
28
580
22
12
365
20
136
*
67
33
6
101
43
14
6
27
20
109
31
54
12
16
119
74
*
19
102
22
18
*
53
*
17
10
*
*
*
7
25
52
67
170
356
*
PE
*
6
*
65
*
13
*
*
12
14
197
11
*
127
5
61
*
29
14
*
43
16
8
*
10
8
38
11
17
6
9
40
33
*
*
49
8
10
*
26
*
5
*
*
*
*
*
10
20
15
6
174
*
203
204
205
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
219
220
221
222
223
224
225
226
227
228
229
230
231
232
233
234
235
236
237
238
239
240
241
242
243
244
245
246
247
248
249
250
251
252
253
254
255
Town
New Marlborough
New Salem
Newbury
Newburyport
Newton
Norfolk
N. Adams
N. Andover
N. Attleboro
N. Brookfield
N. Reading
Northampton
Northborough
Northbridge
Northfield
Norton
Norwell
Norwood
Oak Bluffs
Oakham
Orange
Orleans
Otis
Oxford
Palmer
Paxton
Peabody
Pelham
Pembroke
Pepperell
Peru
Petersham
Phillipston
Pittsfield
Plainfield
Plainville
Plymouth
Plympton
Princeton
Provincetown
Quincy
Randolph
Raynham
Reading
Rehoboth
Revere
Richmond
Reading
Rockland
Rockport
Rowe
Rowley
Royalston
Total
*
*
8
44
140
28
34
64
73
7
25
34
35
43
*
41
20
83
8
*
6
8
*
20
20
6
126
*
28
18
*
*
*
128
*
27
94
7
5
*
242
81
43
59
22
150
*
168
48
11
*
15
*
PE
*
*
5
12
39
10
9
22
39
5
9
10
19
17
*
16
7
39
*
*
*
*
*
13
10
*
41
*
11
8
*
*
*
46
*
12
37
*
*
*
110
42
19
28
8
62
*
67
19
*
*
*
*
256
257
258
259
260
261
262
263
264
265
266
267
268
269
270
271
272
273
274
275
276
277
278
279
280
281
282
283
284
285
286
287
288
289
290
291
292
293
294
295
296
297
298
299
300
301
302
303
304
305
306
307
308
Town
Russell
Rutland
Salem
Salisbury
Sandisfield
Sandwich
Saugus
Savoy
Scituate
Seekonk
Sharon
Sheffield
Shelburne
Sherborn
Shirley
Shrewsbury
Shutesbury
Somerset
Somerville
South Hadley
Southampton
Southborough
Southbridge
Southwick
Spencer
Springfield
Sterling
Stockbridge
Stoneham
Stoughton
Stow
Sturbridge
Sudbury
Sunderland
Sutton
Swampscott
Swansea
Taunton
Templeton
Tewksbury
Tisbury
Tolland
Topsfield
Townsend
Rockland
Tyngsborough
Tyringham
Upton
Uxbridge
Wakefield
Wales
Walpole
Waltham
Total
6
12
97
24
*
34
54
*
28
11
36
9
6
*
6
74
*
31
145
35
15
13
69
16
29
787
13
*
57
53
18
27
30
7
8
19
33
177
11
63
7
*
11
17
-26
26
*
12
38
70
6
59
203
PE
*
7
36
8
*
15
32
*
13
7
14
*
*
*
*
32
*
17
46
18
7
5
31
9
16
311
*
*
26
21
*
14
12
*
*
5
11
79
*
29
*
*
9
5
19
12
*
6
14
32
*
28
84
6
309
310
311
312
313
314
315
316
317
318
319
320
321
322
323
Town
Total
PE
Town
Ware
28
18
324 West Newbury
Wareham
72
31
325 West Springfield
Warren
11
*
326 W.Stockbridge
Warwick
*
*
327 West Tisbury
Washington
*
*
328 Westborough
Watertown
68
24
329 Westfield
Wayland
14
7
330 Westford
Webster
44
20
331 Westhampton
Wellesley
46
16
332 Westminster
Wellfleet
5
*
333 Weston
Wendell
*
*
334 Westport
Wenham
9
*
335 Westwood
West Boylston
20
7
336 Weymouth
W.Bridgewater
14
*
337 Whately
West Brookfield
*
*
Source: Massachusetts Department of Public Health
Total
6
93
6
*
58
164
47
*
*
17
28
31
116
*
PE
*
39
*
*
27
73
18
*
*
6
13
13
68
*
338
339
340
341
342
343
344
345
346
347
348
349
350
351
Town
Whitman
Wilbraham
Williamsburg
Williamstown
Wilmington
Winchendon
Winchester
Windsor
Winthrop
Woburn
Worcester
Worthington
Wrentham
Yarmouth
Total
45
18
*
9
68
21
54
*
43
84
519
*
18
41
PE
18
7
*
*
34
12
24
*
14
37
228
*
10
22
DPH data show 6,601 referrals of “potentially eligible” young children for evaluation for the
school year 2010-11. According to data available from the Department’s Student Information
Management System (SIMS) for this same period, 4,927 two- or three year olds received an
initial evaluation to determine eligibility for special education services during this period. These
initial evaluation numbers suggest that only about 75 percent of the DPH referrals are
represented in the Department’s SIMS data for 2010-11. Reasons for the discrepancy may
include:



Some referrals may have been made in 2010-11, but students were evaluated in the 201112 school year.
Districts may not have requested the assignment of SASID for and submitted data reports
for the young children who were referred and evaluated, but not found eligible for special
education services.
School district data on evaluations may include reporting errors.
Of the children reported to the Department by school districts as receiving an initial evaluation,
4,791 (4,791/4,927 or 97.2 percent) were found to be eligible for special education. The
Department, as part of its activities in relation to the new Part C regulations, will have greater
ability to ensure that the data reported is valid and reliable for the 2012-13 school year.
7
Appendix A
Chapter 68 of the Acts of 2011
7061-0012
For the reimbursement of extraordinary special education costs under section 5A of chapter 71B
of the General Laws; provided, that reimbursements shall be prorated so that expenses of this
item do not exceed the amount appropriated in this item; provided further, that upon receipt by
the department of elementary and secondary education of required special education cost
reports from school districts, the department shall reimburse districts based on fiscal year 2011
claims; provided further, that the department may expend funds to continue and expand
voluntary residential placement prevention programs between the department of elementary and
secondary education and other departments within the executive office of health and human
services that develop community-based support services for children and their families; provided
further, that the department shall provide not less than $6,500,000 to the department of
developmental services for the voluntary residential placement prevention program; provided
further, that the department of elementary and secondary education shall fully cooperate in
providing information and assistance necessary for the department of developmental services to
maximize federal reimbursement and to effectively serve students in less restrictive settings;
provided further, that the department shall expend funds to provide books in accessible synthetic
audio format made available through the federal NIMAS-NIMAC book repository for the
outreach and training of teachers and students for the use of NIMAS-NIMAC and human speech
audio digital textbooks; provided further, that the department shall expend funds for the costs of
borrowing audio textbooks by special education students; provided further, that funds may be
expended for the monitoring and follow-up activities of the department’s complaint management
system, review and approval of local educational authority applications, and local school
districts’ compliance with the part B requirements of the federal Special Education Law, known
as the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, in the provision of special education and
related services to children with disabilities; provided further, that funds may be expended to
administer the reimbursements funded herein; provided further, that funds may be expended to
reimburse districts for extraordinary increases in costs incurred during fiscal year 2012 which
would be reimbursable under said section 5A of said chapter 71B; provided further, that
reimbursements for current year costs shall be limited to school districts which experience
increases of greater than 25 per cent from costs reimbursable under said section 5A of said
chapter 71B and incurred during fiscal year 2011 to costs reimbursable under said section 5A of
said chapter 71B and incurred during fiscal year 2012 or other cases of extraordinary hardship
where special education costs increase in relationship to total district costs as the department
may define through regulation or guidelines; provided further, that reimbursements for current
year costs shall be allocated as one-time grants and shall not decrease reimbursements in the
following fiscal year; provided further, that the department shall conduct audits of fiscal year
2011 claims; provided further, that if the claims are found to be inaccurate, the department shall
recalculate the fiscal year 2012 reimbursement amount and adjust the third and fourth quarter
payments to the districts to reflect the new reimbursement amount; provided further, that the
department shall file a report with the house and senate committees on ways and means not later
than February 15, 2012, on the results of the audit; and provided further, that the department
8
shall work in conjunction with the department of public health to track, by community, the
number of children receiving early intervention services and the number of those children who
later receive special education services and shall report the house and senate committees on
ways and means on April 1, 2012 detailing the findings.
$213,119,160
9