The state's most vulnerable special-needs children could see a serious gap in services beginning July 1, according to service providers.

They raised an alarm yesterday at a Department of Education proposal that would lower rates paid for special needs services and could drive as many as 80 percent of the professionals out of the business.

"It's fiscally impossible to provide services with the high level of employees we have. We can't do it," said Donald Wachelka, executive director of Quality Behavioral Outcomes, which serves 40 children on Maui and came in as the lowest bidder for the last contract.

It's these low rates the DOE has been expecting to establish as the new cost standard for special needs children, though Wachelka said they were "start-up rates" and he can no longer meet them.

"We were intending to ask for a rate increase," he said.

The rate change would affect the professionals who work directly with as many as 1,200 children.

During an informational briefing at the state Capitol chaired by Sen. Suzanne Chun Oakland, DOE special education officials said they would take another look at the rates they've proposed, but no promises were made to move them upward.

"Our hope is to standardize the rates," said Debra Farmer, educational specialist in the DOE's special education section. "We're here to listen and take the concerns back."

LOWER SKILLS

One agency warned that with rates as low as proposed — and services reduced or cut as a result — the state could risk inferior, inadequate services and even another Felix lawsuit.

"The rates would force you to hire people with lower skills and I would worry about the risk that poses to these children," said Howard Garval, president and chief executive officer of Child and Family Services, which provides services to about 100 autistic children including 14 severely disabled children in two special schools.

"We would hate to have to discontinue those services," said Garval, "but we're already in a deficit and if the rates go forward we're going to lose those services."

Under the DOE proposal, payment rates to the agencies would be $27 an hour instead of $34 for skilled trainers; $63 for Intensive Instructional Services Coordinators, who plan children's care programs, instead of $80 or more now; and $45 for parent training compared with about $78 now.

Those levels mean skilled trainers — the professionals who work directly with children on a day-to-day basis — would see a drop in pay from between $16 and $19 an hour to between $12 and $14, with similar drops for the other categories, putting reimbursement for these skilled professionals far lower than Mainland rates.

Parent Deborah Tucher who has a team of skills trainers for her 8-year-old autistic son, was in tears as she spoke of what a rate reduction would mean to her family.

"One trainer I've had for three years has just told me she can no longer live on the cut," she said. "Another has already been told by her agency they'll cut their autism services."

Before the meeting, Big Island parent Susan Wood, said: "I know for a fact our skills trainer is not going to work for $12 to $14 (an hour). He can go to the hotels and make more money."

Tina McLaughlin, president of CARE Hawai'i which serves about 120 children, said she expects a 70 percent reduction in services, while Dr. Raelyn Hillhouse, from Hawai'i Behavioral Health, expects to see an 80 percent turnover — meaning the loss of 350 to 400 paraprofessionals from her staff. Hillhouse said she expects that means her agency will no longer be able to serve from 250 to 300 of its children at the proposed rates.

"We'll do our best to meet the DOE needs but we don't expect to be able to help," Hillhouse said.

CONSOLIDATE RATES

Jeff Bergbauer, administrative director of the Hilo, Hawai'i, office of The Institute for Family Enrichment that provides services for around 700 children statewide, said before the meeting that his agency has had a couple of skills trainers leave out of fear.

"It's a mystery to us why the DOE leadership is saying we want to cut the resources for special ed," he said. "It's hard to attract people into this profession working with disabled, troubled and hard to deal with children."

DOE officials asked the providers to send them an immediate breakdown of their income levels and costs to give the department a better understanding of what they're facing. The agencies were asked to have their financial reports in as early as Tuesday because of the looming deadline to make a decision on the contract.

During budget briefings with key legislative committees during this and last week, schools Superintendent Pat Hamamoto assured concerned legislators that the department has no intention of cutting services to children covered by the Felix Consent Decree.

But she did say that the department has been paying a wide range of different rates across the system and wants to consolidate the rates across the board to all providers.

And DOE spokesman Greg Knudsen has said the department is setting rates closer to what they are in the marketplace.

"We have recalibrated the rates that we're proposing to pay for those services based on prevailing community rates," Knudsen said. "They're less than what the DOE has been paying because we've been paying far more than prevailing community rates."

Knudsen said he believes that during the years of the Felix Consent Decree some of the rates were escalated.

"We have a responsibility to use government funds appropriately and should not be paying inflated prices for the services," he said.

Reach Beverly Creamer at bcreamer@honoluluadvertiser.com.