Elizabeth Maher of Sebago said it was five years ago when she first noticed the difference between her twin boys.

“He couldn’t hold eye contact,” Elizabeth Maher said of Liam, who is now 6 and has been diagnosed with severe autism. While his brother Jarrod progressed normally, Liam slid back into an earlier stage of development, forgetting how to speak shortly after his first birthday.

Social problems soon developed. He was happier being alone by himself in the car than at a birthday party. He started to get picky about little things, such as only using plastic utensils when he ate.

Maher and her husband, Raymond, said they encountered more problems this fall when it was time for Liam to enter kindergarten in School Administrative District 61.

Their son was already enrolled at the Margaret Murphy Center, a private school in Auburn that specializes in educating mentally handicapped children, and he needed a smooth transition into the public school.

“They were very defensive from day one,” said Maher of SAD 61. She and her husband said that they encountered obstacles when they asked for things like the credentials of the teachers who would be working with Liam.

“The Margaret Murphy Center got the exact same screening from us,” said Raymond Maher. He said he wanted to know exactly who would be teaching his son and the private school was open with information about their educational programs, but the public school wasn’t.

Stephanie Davis, the mother of an autistic child in Naples, said she encountered the same problems.

“We wouldn’t send our child to a preschool without viewing it,” said Davis. She said SAD 61 special education director Lisa Hanson cited confidentiality and wouldn’t share teacher credentials.

Davis said tuition at the Margaret Murphy Center from January to June is between $30,000 and $40,000, depending on the needs of the student.

Both the Maher and Davis families said the individual educational plans the school district prepared for their children were inadequate and went to the Maine Department of Education to overrule them.

Hanson, who said she is not allowed to talk about the Maher or Davis cases, said state and federal mandates require that the individual educational plan customized for each special education student be designed by a team

“Single-handedly, no one has the authority to make that decision for a child,” said Hanson.

She said that team includes the parents, as well as a special education teacher, a regular teacher and an administrator.

“Parents know their children best,” said Hanson.

She said it’s rare for parents to oppose the individual educational plan and turn to the Maine Department of Education for mediation.

Diverse districts

“There are no curriculum methods handed by the state,” said Steve Floyd, assistant director of student services in Windham. “We look at the individual needs of the student and devise an education plan.”

He said that the needs of special education students vary from individual to individual, so the schools need flexible guidelines.

“Unlike a lot of neighboring districts, we don’t have an autism program,” said Erin Chase, the director of special education in SAD 15 in Gray and New Gloucester. She said some school districts like Scarborough isolate autistic students in a single classroom, while her district mixes them in with other special education students.

In addition, special education students can be mixed in with the general student population in a process known as “mainstreaming.”

“All of our special education students in SAD 15 have some mainstreaming,” said Chase.

She said the small size of SAD 15 is part of the reason there is no separate program for autistic children. The other main reason is that autism has a wide spectrum.

“It’s not a cookie cutter. Everyone is so different,” said Chase. She said some students on the higher end of autism can function in a classroom with a supervising aide, while those on the low end of the spectrum need a functional life-skills classroom because they have trouble with things like staying seated and buttoning a button.

Jaci Holmes, the federal liaison for the Maine Department of Education, said that most parents are happy with the individual educational plan they help draft with the school.

“We have a very low number of complaints and due process hearings, as compared to the rest of the country,” said Holmes.

She said complaints that are voiced go to mediation. If that doesn’t resolve it, the Maine Department of Education holds a due process hearing with a hearing officer that can make a legal ruling to change the individual educational plan.

The Davis family won their due process hearing in January 2008. The Maher family, who received their verdict about the same time, did not.

The Davis family was granted the use of applied behavior analysis in their son’s plan and Stephanie Davis describes it as the “gold standard” for teaching autistic students. It is a method of teaching based on psychological observations and rewards and punishment to improve behavior.

Elizabeth Maher said she wanted Liam to be taught using applied behavior analysis, too. She said she was disappointed with the verdict and doesn’t think the hearing officer spent enough time getting to know her son before closing the case.

“Applied behavior analysis has been very effective for most students with autism, but not all students with autism,” said Chase. “You have to remember autism is a very broad category of diagnosis.”

Holmes agreed, and said that other methods include the play-based floor time method and the highly intensive Lovaas method, which uses some principles from applied behavior analysis.

Sherrie Weese, the financial coordinator for SAD 61, said the cost to educate each special education student in the district is $11,733, only slightly higher than the $11,293 the district pays to teach the other students.

Maher said she and her husband still don’t feel their son is getting the education federal and state laws require the district to provide. They said he was supposed to start school at Stevens Brook Elementary School in January, but the school still hasn’t devised a transition plan for him from the Margaret Murphy Center.

“We can’t keep him in the Margaret Murphy Center forever,” said Raymond Maher. The district was paying his tuition during the due process hearing, but he has been paying out of pocket since January. He said he could buy a new car with the amount of money he’s put into his son’s education so far.

“Our son is the one who truly lost,” said Elizabeth Maher.

Liam Maher, 6, of Sebago, is an autistic student at the Margaret Murphy Center in Auburn. His parents would like him to be enrolled in a school in SAD 61 but do not like the plan the district has created for his special education needs. Those plans differ throughout the state, based on the needs of the students and