One in four students in Wiscasset schools receives special education services. Depending on the student’s needs, that can mean anything from getting extra help with schoolwork for part of the day, to needs so serious the student cannot be more than three feet from an adult, Interim Superintendent of Schools Lyford Beverage said.

The school department’s 26-percent special education rate, nearly 10 percent higher than the state average, may be linked to the demographics of Wiscasset and other towns whose students attend Wiscasset schools, Wiscasset Special Education Director Jess Yates said.

Also, the school department’s intervention program is still evolving, to better help teachers meet a student’s needs in the classroom and avoid having the student enter special education, Yates said.

Progress is being made through co-teaching, which helps some students in special education learn alongside their classmates and also benefits the rest of the class, she said. “I think we’ve made some really great inroads this year, and I’m really excited for where we’re headed.”

On April 15, Yates and Beverage outlined the program’s proposed $1.6 million budget, up about $109,000 from this school year; and efforts to help students in special education reach the same goals the department has for all students, to earn a high school diploma and be prepared for college and work.

“Our goal is to make them productive citizens, like every other child,” Yates said.

There are no proposed additions to staff, she said. Factors driving the budget hike are added transportation needs among current students, and the alternative education program’s switch from the regular education budget into special education. Plans also call for that program to move across Gardiner Road to the high school. Special education staff are excited at the prospect of giving students more opportunities to join in lunch or other activities at the school, Yates said.

One challenge in budgeting for special education is that its costs can ramp up when a student with substantial needs enrolls, and that can happen at any time, officials said. The department wants to educate those students, and has to, under federal law, Beverage said.

“A lot of this stuff, our hands are tied on,” School Committee Chairman Steve Smith said about the budget. “We don’t have a lot of leeway.”

Under the pullout deal with RSU 12, Wiscasset must keep taking the district’s students for another nine years, Smith said. Students from the district’s towns comprise most of the program’s 39 students from other towns, officials said. The program currently serves 148 students.

The school committee will hear proposed budgets from Transportation and Maintenance Director John Merry and Wiscasset High School Principal Cheri Towle at 6 p.m. April 29, in the high school library. Voters will keep or alter the school budget piece by piece at a budget meeting, set for 6 p.m. May 27 in the high school gym. The budget referendum will be June 9, Beverage said.