AUGUSTA -- The way school districts provide special education services to a segment of students with severe special needs could gradually change, if state education officials have their way.

As state officials search for ways to bridge a $66 million budget gap this year, the push for more public programs that serve students with autism, mental illness, rare learning disabilities and emotional disorders is intensifying.

School districts and Maine state government spend millions of dollars each year to send students with severe special needs to private schools that offer intensive educational and emotional support services. The private schools, in many cases, provide students with the one-on-one attention that they require but that public schools aren't equipped to offer.

School districts still have to pay, however, and the costs range from $100 per student each day to more than $500 per student, plus the cost of specialized transportation, according to rates the schools negotiate with the Maine Department of Education. At a year-round program, annual costs can exceed $100,000.

During the 2007-08 school year, according to the Department of Education, districts and state government spent $60.8 million to place high-need students in private programs.

"When you look at the expenditures, you see special education costs are growing twice as fast as regular education," Education Commissioner Susan Gendron said. "And that becomes a debate in every community."

Gendron told members of the Legislature's Education Committee this week that she's working with superintendents to identify lower-cost alternatives to placing students in private programs.

"There are different ways of doing things," Gendron said, "instead of tuitioning that student out of district."

The state education department, Gendron said, is urging special education directors to work with neighboring districts to establish regional, in-school programs serving high-need students.

The Maranacook-area school district, which serves students in Manchester, Mount Vernon, Readfield and Wayne, has traditionally sent students with autism and other severe learning disabilities to private programs in Auburn, Bath and Cape Elizabeth.

Now, the district expects savings from a regional center for autism it started in a vacant wing of Wayne Elementary School, said Lew Collins, the district's special education director.

Open to students from throughout the Augusta region, the Wayne program cuts costs by keeping students closer to home rather than busing them out of the area.

Collins estimated in late July the three-student program's first year would cost $157,000, all paid for by federal economic stimulus money.

"You're looking at a program that will be extremely high quality at a lower public cost," Collins said in July.

Gendron told legislators on Thursday state education officials are searching for a public model that can be easily replicated around the state.

"Let's really look at how we might reduce the costs," she said, "not reduce the services."

Matthew Stone -- 623-3811, ext. 435

mstone@centralmaine.com