Even with four binders of paperwork, for Scott and Stephanie Davis, photocopy costs are the least of their worries.

After winning a due process hearing through the Maine Department of Education in January, the Naples family said the School Administrative District 61 special education department still hasn’t lived up to the ruling to provide their autistic son Logan, 5, with an education appropriate for his condition.

“It’s been a long battle and it doesn’t seem to be over yet,” said Scott Davis, a merchant marine. “I don’t know how educators can do this to students.”

Logan Davis was diagnosed with autism when he was 18 months old. Scott Davis said his son is prone to tantrums and explosive behavior over simple things like changes in his routine. He said he’s experienced this while taking his son skiing several times a week.

“If we drive a different route,” said Scott Davis,” Such as take a shortcut or a different turn, there will be a problem all day.”

Scott Davis and his wife Stephanie Davis said the individual education plan SAD 61 made for their son to enter kindergarten with was inadequate and didn’t conform to the applied behavior analysis model the state recommends.

“It’s been very frustrating for us,” said Stephanie Davis. She cares for the family’s three children now, but has worked in the district as a substitute teacher and a level-three educational technician.

“We just want the best for our son,” she said.

The due process hearing decision said the education plan SAD 61 drafted for Logan Davis was not appropriate and a new one needs to be drafted that includes a specially-trained teacher, a personal aide and a transition program from the speciality school he currently attends.

Frank Gorham, the superintendent of SAD 61, said he will not comment about any of the issues involved at this time.

Lisa Hanson, the director of special education for the district, said she is unable to comment on anything surrounding the Davis family or the due process hearing because it is a “confidential issue.”

Stephanie Davis said that’s the same thing she was told last year when she asked to see the credentials of the SAD 61 special education teacher her son would be working with.

She said she encountered brick walls from the special education department at the first open house she attended in 2007.

When he was 2, Logan Davis was enrolled at the Margaret Murphy Center, a private school in Auburn. Stephanie Davis said at the Magaret Murphy Center, her son was taught following the principles of applied behavior analysis, a method of teaching based on psychological observations and rewards and punishment to improve behavior.

“This is the accepted method in the United States for teaching students with autism,” said Peter James, Logan Davis’s grandfather. James was a school administrator for 25 years and the Lake Region High School principal from 1980 to 1994.

James said although applied behavior analysis is the only recognized system for teaching autistic children, the special education department at SAD 61 doesn’t use it.

Stephanie Davis said her son her son has a high-functioning form of autism and she believes he owes some of it to being enrolled at the Margaret Murphy Center right after he was diagnosed. She said her son had tremendous verbal improvement three months after he enrolled and was taught using applied behavior analysis.

But, Scott Davis said, SAD 61 wanted to put his son in a classroom with low-functioning autistic children and no applied behavior analysis. They thought this plan was wrong for their son and attended several meetings with school officials to try to change it.

Based on input from the staff at the Margaret Murphy Center, they wanted Logan Davis to have a teacher trained in applied behavior analysis and an aid who would work with their son one on one while he is “mainstreamed.”

Mainstreaming means to put a special education child in the classroom with regular students. Scott and Stephanie Davis wanted Logan Davis mainstreamed instead of being placed with low-functioning autistic students.

In addition, they wanted a staff member from the Margaret Murphy Center to attend school with Logan Davis to ease the transition between schools.

Scott and Stephanie Davis kept meeting with school officials for mediation, but to no avail. They said Hanson would always declare at the beginning of the meeting that she had to leave in 90 minutes.

“As a proud employee of the district, I can’t imagine that being done,” said James. “The special education directors I worked with for 25 years at SAD 61 would never do that.”

So the case went through an administrative hearing with the Maine Department of Education.

Peter Stewart, the hearing officer who settled the due process hearing, declared that the school needs to provide Logan Davis with everything his parents asked for and to reimburse them for their legal fees, which was between $45,000 and $50,000.

But the Davis family said it still isn’t over.

“We went through due process, we have a legal document, and we can’t get the district to admit that document exists,” said James.

Stephanie Davis said SAD 61 still hasn’t come up with an individual education plan for Logan Davis, even though he was supposed to start attending school this week. She said they now offer to use applied behavior analysis on him for one hour a day.

“Applied behavior analysis isn’t one hour a day,” she said, “It’s all day.”

She said that the law requires SAD 61 to pay Logan Davis’ tuition at the Margaret Murphy Center under a “stay put” right since the decision in January. She said SAD 61 has only been paying half of it. She said the amount the school owes has piled up to $20,000 and they were told by SAD 61 to bill it to MaineCare, the state medicaid program, which they do not qualify for.

James Schwellenbach, who acted as the attorney for SAD 61 in the case, said he is unable to comment on the issue until he receives written consent from the Davis family.

Scott Davis said he’s frustrated with the whole process and feels that the school has wasted a lot of time and money, but hopes the resolution will improve the special education program for other children.

“We feel that hopefully we’re breaking ground for future generations,” he said.

LDavis1-3: Scott and Stephanie Davis with the stacks of documents they’ve acquired while fighting for an educational plan for their son Logan at SAD 61. The binders are stuffed with education law summaries, therapy reports, court documents and correspondence print-outs. “We’ve spent a lot of money on three-ring binders and photo copies,” said Scott Davis.LDavis1-3: Scott and Stephanie Davis with the stacks of documents they’ve acquired while fighting for an educational plan for their son Logan at SAD 61. The binders are stuffed with education law summaries, therapy reports, court documents and correspondence print-outs. “We’ve spent a lot of money on three-ring binders and photo copies,” said Scott Davis.“We’ve spent a lot of money on three-ring binders and photo copies,” said Naples resident Scott Davis of the fight he and his wife Stephanie have waged to work out an educational plan with SAD 61 for their son Logan, who is autistic.