Across the United States, debates around education increasingly pivot on one essential question: Should schools continue to separate students with disabilities into distinct spaces, or should they commit fully to the promise of shared classrooms? In Maine, where one in five children receives special education services, well above the national average, that question has become especially urgent. What is emerging now is a deliberate attempt to redraw the boundaries of learning itself.
Breaking down silos in special education
For decades, Maine has struggled to keep pace with national benchmarks on inclusion. In 2022, only 56 percent of its special education students spent most of their school day in general classrooms, ten percentage points lower than the national average, according to the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). Despite recent efforts, progress has been incremental.With 21 percent of its student population identified as needing special education, Maine ranks among the highest in the nation, tied with New York and Pennsylvania and second only to Puerto Rico (NCES, 2023). This disproportionate demand has intensified calls for reform, both to improve educational outcomes and to confront rising costs.
The pilot: An experiment in collaboration
Three elementary schools, Downeast in Bangor, Turner, and Leeds Central, are now at the forefront of a five-year pilot programme designed to dismantle long-standing silos. Supported by federal funding through the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) and in partnership with the University of Maine at Farmington, the initiative focuses on embedding inclusive practices within everyday teaching rather than treating them as separate interventions.The programme’s first year emphasises leadership training and audits of existing practices. The following years will expand into professional development around strategies such as Universal Design for Learning (UDL), which builds flexibility into lesson plans so that every student, regardless of ability, can engage meaningfully with the material.
Confronting costs and complexities
The stakes extend far beyond pedagogy. Special education expenditures in Maine are surging, aggravated by the high cost of sending students to private special-purpose schools, which can charge districts hundreds of dollars a day. The Maine Education Policy Research Institute (MEPRI) has further warned that escalating student behavioral challenges not only strain staff but also drive up special education referrals, compounding costs and worsening teacher shortages.Lawmakers have attempted to ease the financial strain, most recently through bills L.D. 933 and L.D. 71, which sought to expand state funding for special education, but such measures failed to advance. Meanwhile, communities continue to resist rising local tax burdens, intensifying the pressure on school administrators.
Reducing barriers, elevating learning
The pilot aspires to prove that inclusive practices are not simply an ethical choice but also a practical one. By designing lessons with multiple access points, whether through small group reading, audio learning, or interactive discussions, teachers can reach a broad spectrum of learners without relying on constant one-on-one interventions.This approach may also reduce the number of students formally categorized as needing special education, ensuring that many receive support earlier within the general classroom. At its core lies a simple truth: When schools invest in inclusion, every student stands to gain.
The promise and the peril of scale
Yet the question remains: Can this small experiment reshape the broader educational landscape? Scaling inclusive practices across a state with entrenched funding challenges and high identification rates will demand political will, community buy-in, and sustainable financial models.Still, the opportunity is historic. If successful, Maine’s pilot could become a blueprint for states grappling with similar dilemmas, demonstrating that inclusion strengthens both academic performance and social cohesion.
Outlook: Toward a more integrated future
What is unfolding in these three schools is not a marginal adjustment to teaching methods, it is an attempt to reimagine education itself. It is about creating learning environments that reflect the communities students inhabit, rather than isolating them in parallel systems.If the pilot succeeds, the quiet changes taking place in Maine’s classrooms may one day be remembered as the starting point of a broader shift: A movement toward education without walls, where the measure of a school’s success is not how it divides its students, but how it brings them together.
