Hannah Giroux, a behavioral health professional and education technician, plays with Oliver on the floor Tuesday at Thomas J. McMahon Elementary School in Lewiston. The two were working on transitioning between playtime and desk learning. Starting this school year, a new program called CLIMB serves 26 students in grades K-3 and aims to expand while keeping special education students in local schools, closer to their families and communities. Andree Kehn/Sun Journal

LEWISTON — For years, special education students in Lewiston had to attend schools outside the district, sometimes miles from home. Now, Thomas J. McMahon Elementary is home to 26 of those students.

A new program called CLIMB serves K-3 students and aims to keep them in local schools, closer to their families and communities.

Launched this school year, the program is set to expand to students K-6 in the coming years. The district has hired about 40, including teachers and specialists, to see the program through.

Kirsten Crafts, the district’s special education director, said she developed the idea for an in-house special education program after years of working in different roles.

“When I was at the high school as an assistant principal and as a teacher and everything else, I felt like the best times and the best things I witnessed was when our special education kids got to participate in unified sports,” Crafts said.

“I just felt like we have the capabilities to do this, so why wouldn’t we try our very best to include (special education students) in our community, rather than have them travel all the way to Westbrook or wherever it may be, wherever a placement is available?” Crafts said.

“I know that sometimes people think it’s about money, and of course, money is an issue, but really, it’s what’s best for the kids and their families, being able to just be a part of the community,” she said.

Shawn Sabourin, a Behavioral Health Professional and Ed Tech 3, works on matching adjectives with pictures with Samuel Sendabo on Tuesday at McMahon Elementary School in Lewiston. Andree Kehn/Sun Journal

On average, the district pays about $150,000 for each student to attend an outplacement program, Crafts said. In its first year of operation, it is unclear how much the district is saving through CLIMB. Yet, the potential is huge.

“In order to fund the program, to start it, we had to put money up front to get it going,” Crafts explained. “It was like this balancing act — looking at what my overall budget was for outplacing kids, which was millions of dollars, and then pulling some of that back for the program.”

Those resources were funneled into updating the bathrooms over the summer to be handicap compliant and hiring all the staff. “The lucky part for us is that we had a wing (at McMahon Elementary) that was given to us. We saved on having to find a building and heat it separately and all that stuff,” Crafts said.

“Right now, we’re saving money but it’s going to take time for it to pay off,” she said. “Going into the budget season, the numbers won’t be amazing just because it takes an investment to make it happen.”

Having students remain near their homes and families is already making a positive impact.

“We have had students transition back, who’ve never been in school with their siblings,” Katie Colasante, multidisciplinary director at the program, said. “They’re on the playground or walking through the halls, and they’re seeing their siblings or their cousins.”

“They’re having that true neighborhood school experience, which just wasn’t accessible to them,” Colasante said. “They’re still getting the same quality of education (as their peers.) It’s a pretty beautiful thing to witness kids seeing their relatives, whether they’re staff in the main building or students,” she added.

“We had a lot of issues with transportation during COVID,” Crafts said. “Vans wouldn’t run all the time, sometimes drivers were out. A whole bunch of people were driving kids down to Westbrook because we didn’t have vans.”

“Now, we’re here, we have an extra school van. We can go pick up kids if the van’s not running,” Crafts said. “So much closer and just more accessible to the kids.”

Having a program close to home is helping special education students stay on track with their general education peers. “Prior years, we would be waiting for them to be accepted. They’d just be sitting at home until a special purpose private school could take them,” Crafts said.

“Not everybody is happy in the community about CLIMB because there are misconceptions about what it is and what it isn’t,” Crafts said. “Because unless you’re in it, you don’t always know. I feel proud of it. The staff is doing a great job. The kids are very well serviced.”