Maine high schoolers with intellectual and developmental disabilities are urging lawmakers to support the creation of more inclusive higher education opportunities.

More than a dozen students, advocates and higher education leaders spoke Monday at a public hearing in front of the Education and Cultural Affairs Committee to support LD 46, a bill sponsored by Rep. Kelly Murphy, D-Scarborough. The bill would create Inclusive Post Secondary Education, or IPSE, programs at five Maine colleges through $100,000 grants.

These programs, housed at traditional colleges or universities, are designed for students with intellectual or developmental disabilities or autism, which have their own admissions process and special support systems. The bill would also provide scholarships for students. A similar bill passed the House and Senate last year but didn’t receive funding from the appropriations committee.

“For so many students with intellectual disabilities or who are on the autism spectrum, formal education most often ends with their high school diploma,” Murphy said while introducing the bill. “This proposed legislation could change that, in alignment with educational opportunities already being offered in other states.”

Laurel Huntsberger, a senior at the Ecology Learning Center charter school in Unity who has Down syndrome, said she wants to go to college like her peers but is unsure what opportunities she has in Maine.

“I don’t know what’s next for me after graduation. I fall into a gap. I haven’t found programs that meet my needs, interests and abilities,” Huntsberger testified. “This bill offers a solution that supports many young people who are capable and eager for college but need some extra support to be successful in that setting.”

Maine has one program, founded in 2023, for intellectually and developmentally disabled students at Saint Joseph’s College in Standish. There’s also a new program in the works at the University of Maine at Farmington.

Kate Worden, 18, a senior at Deering High School who takes both special education and mainstream courses, talks to a reporter about her college goals. Ben McCanna/Portland Press Herald

Kate Worden, a senior at Deering High School in Portland who takes both special education and mainstream courses, testified about the economic benefits of creating postsecondary opportunities for intellectually disabled students. She said students who participate in IPSE programs have three times the employment rate of their disabled peers who do not.

“Peer models help us achieve academic and social goals. We build relationships, increase our networks, and most importantly, we acquire independent skills,” Worden said.

Higher education professionals from several Maine institutions also spoke in support. Audrey Bartholomew, a University of New England professor of education, said Maine educators already have an interest in creating IPSE programs.

“The expertise, the energy and the commitment are already here. What’s missing is the initial investment to get these programs off the ground. This bill provides a critical first step,” she said. “A modest amount of funding can serve as a catalyst for a new movement in Maine, allowing colleges and universities to develop inclusive higher ed programs and, most importantly, provide scholarships.”

Sarah Howorth, an associate professor of special education at the University of Maine, testified in support of LD 46 on behalf of the state’s public university system. She said expertise on intellectual disabilities, and education for students with them, already exists within the system, and she echoed ideas about the broad economic benefits of increasing higher ed opportunities for those students.

“A transition to meaningful employment is a way that many young people find fulfillment in early adulthood, and advances the goal in the state’s 10-year economic strategy of increasing labor force participation, including among individuals with disabilities,” Howorth testified. “It’s also important to remember that the services and supports that are offered to students with autism and intellectual disabilities on college campuses, like peer mentors, will help all students.”