After several years of effort, the state has begun receiving federal dollars through Medicaid reimbursements that will help pay for services to children with special needs.

The first reimbursement check was for $14,534, but state Department of Education officials said yesterday that the way has now been cleared for "millions" in reimbursements once the program is fully operational.

Funding totals will not be known until the program is in full operation.

The federal money will cover costs the state has been bearing for services including speech therapy/audiology, occupational therapy, physical therapy, nursing and behavioral health services.

Eligible services must be provided by professionals and health workers such as speech pathologists, audiologists, occupational therapists, physical therapists and others licensed to practice in Hawai'i, or by assistants working under the supervision of those licensed professionals, according to a statement from the DOE.

State Sen. Norman Sakamoto called it "a positive step."

"I think for several years our challenge was to show that we could qualify for the reimbursement because other states were getting that money," said Sakamoto, D-15th (Waimalu, Airport, Salt Lake), chairman of the Senate Education Committee.

Board of Education member Denise Matsumoto said the reimbursements will help take the cost burden off the state.

"The special ed services are a partially unfunded mandate from the feds and this is one other way to get federal dollars for those services," she said. "This will definitely help us alleviate the state burden."

Approximately 11 percent of the state's public school students, or around 19,000 children, are eligible for special education services under the Felix Consent Decree, and those costs have been carried by the state. The decree is a federal court mandate to provide educational services to students with mental and emotional disabilities.

These costs now total almost $400 million per year, or about 24 percent of the DOE budget, according to Superintendent Pat Hamamoto.

In 2005 the state Legislature passed Act 141, which established the Department of Education as a Medicaid provider. That act directed the department to work with the Department of Human Services and the Department of Health to identify Medicaid-eligible health services being provided to public school children and to submit claims.

Matsumoto said it won't change the level of services provided to children; instead, it just adds federal funding to help pay for them.

With federal approval for the Department of Education's Medicaid School-Based Claiming Program, it means the state can claim reimbursement for services that are Medicaid eligible when the providers are Medicaid qualified and parental authorization has been secured.

To submit claims, services must be described in a student's Individualized Education Program and approved under the state Medicaid plan.

Reach Beverly Creamer at bcreamer@honoluluadvertiser.com.