When Debbie Rogers’ son was in the third grade, school officials told her he had little or no academic potential.

He didn’t have even basic math skills. He couldn’t recognize letters, let alone read. But Rogers knew her son could learn. He just needed the right school.

Five years later, Rogers says she’s found it: the Ella R. Hodgins School in Augusta.

Today, her son can add, subtract, multiply and read. He is learning all the time.

“He loves social studies. He loves science. He loves to build things,” said Rogers, who lives in Whitefield.

But last week, the state announced that Rogers’ beloved middle school is one of 132 Maine schools failing to meet state standards and facing possible penalties under the No Child Left Behind Act. The Hodgins School landed on the list because too few special education students passed Maine’s standardized test.

Rogers can’t understand it.

“They’re doing a fantastic job. A fantastic job,” she said. “He’s gaining and he’s gaining at an amazing rate.”

But her school isn’t alone.

Eighty-six percent of the schools named last week – 114 of the 132 – failed, at least in part, because of special education.

It’s a situation that has aggravated and worried school officials. But for many parents, the list hasn’t changed a thing.

Said Rogers, “As long as he’s gaining, we’re happy.”

Failing

Under the federal No Child Left Behind Act, schools must show students are making “adequate yearly progress.” Schools face sanctions, including the transfer of students and the loss of federal funds, if they fail.

There are dozens of ways schools can miss adequate yearly progress. This year, most failed because their students – including individual groups – didn’t perform well enough on the reading or math section of the state’s standardized test, given in grades four, eight and 11.

Eighty-two schools, including 14 from central and western Maine, didn’t make adequate progress for one year. They were named to a monitor list.

Fifty schools, including 13 from this area, failed to make adequate progress for the last two years. They were put on a “continuous improvement priority” list.

Except for Mt. Blue High School in Farmington, all local failing schools landed on a list, at least in part, because their special education students didn’t score well on the test.

“I wasn’t surprised, only because you know they’re below grade level. You know they’re not going to reach the eighth grade standard in a year and three quarters,” said Hal Small, principal of Oxford Hills Middle School in South Paris, where about 10 percent of the school’s 610 students are in special education. Special needs students haven’t made adequate progress in reading and math for the last two years.

Small and many other school officials say it’s not right to classify a school as “failing” when disabilities can prevent students from meeting the same standards at the same time as their peers. Special education students are making great strides, they say, but the law only considers whether a child is working at grade level.

“They’re not being measured against their growth,” Small said.

The law does allow schools to offer limited testing accommodations, such as extra testing time. It also allows some severely disabled students to take an alternative test or be excused from testing altogether.

But many schools have a large number of profoundly disabled students and can’t legally exclude them all. Others schools are reluctant to take advantage.

“We didn’t have a student we honestly felt qualified,” said Gus LeBlanc, principal of the 825-student Montello Elementary School in Lewiston. “We played by the rules.”

Montello is now on the monitor list.

Scapegoats

School officials, particularly teachers, are also concerned about the effect of this year’s list on students themselves. They say the test can be stressful and intimidating for disabled students working well below grade level. They also worry that special needs students will become scapegoats in embarrassed communities.

“Then you start to get those people feeling Well, if we didn’t have that special education population, we’d be fine.’ That’s awful,” said Gail Bumpus, a special education teacher at Pettingill Elementary School in Lewiston, where special needs students didn’t make adequate progress in reading for a year.

But while school officials are voicing their concerns loudly enough to catch the attention of state officials and a No Child Left Behind task force, parents have been mostly silent.

Days after the state named the schools failing to meet standards, area school officials say they’ve heard from very few parents, if any.

Officials believe some parents don’t yet know about the list. Others, like Denise Soucy of Lewiston, know but don’t care.

“It’s arbitrary,” said Soucy, whose three children attend Montello. “It’s just not a fair assessment of what that school does.”

Soucy said Montello helped her kids tremendously. That’s what she cares about, not the state’s list.

“I really don’t pay attention to it. It’s not an issue for me,” she said.