AUGUSTA — A federal special education official toured the Children’s Center of Augusta on Thursday, seeing how special-needs children in their crucial early developmental years get help that could benefit them for the rest of their lives, while also hearing about the challenges faced by special needs children and their families in rural Maine.

Jennifer Barrett-Zitkus of the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Special Education Program’s Division of Monitoring and State Improvement Planning during a tour Thursday of the Children’s Center of Augusta at 1 Alden Ave. Joe Phelan/Kennebec Journal

Jennifer Barrett-Zitkus of the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Special Education Program’s Division of Monitoring and State Improvement Planning toured the facility at 1 Alden Ave.

A $5.9 million, privately funded expansion last year more than doubled the size of the facility, where staff members provide therapy, early intervention and other developmental assistance to children until age 5.

Jeffrey Johnson, executive director of the Children’s Center, said 95% of neurotransmitter development of the brain takes place by the time children are 5. Intervention during those early years is crucial to help children with autism, cerebral palsy, mental health issues, Down syndrome and other medical conditions and delayed development, develop the brain pathways and skills they will need to move on to public school, continue their education and live as independently as possible, which benefits both the individual and society.

The visit was coordinated in part by Maine Department of Education officials to showcase the Children’s Center as an outstanding program in Maine.

“It’s nice to have somebody from the outside who is in a position of expertise who wants to come and take a look because they’ve heard this is a program they should know about,” Johnson said. “I’m very confident that, in a lot of ways, this place has been successful in staying connected to the research and then making it happen.

“The reason why it happens, we have phenomenal staff here, and we follow the research. That we can do with X amount of dollars. But the X-plus dollars is what you have to have to create a building that is state of the art, that supports the clinical intervention in special needs. And it’s the generosity of this community, the $5.9 million they gave us to build this building, that’s what’s been instrumental in making this happen.”

Barrett-Zitkus, a former classroom teacher, said the visit was a helpful view into how special education is being delivered through the program.

“We’re trying to understand Maine from the ground up. I’d love to know more about your programs,” she told a handful of Children’s Center staff members before she toured the facility and its classrooms designed with flexibility in mind so workers can provide learning environments that meet the special needs of the youths who come there.

Asked by Barrett-Zitkus to explain some of the barriers to helping special-needs children, Johnson said some areas of rural Maine have such small populations that school districts with five or fewer students with special needs do not have the money to hire staff members to help those children. He also said the center struggles to find funding to close the gap when federal funds do not cover the full costs of therapies recommended for students.

A tank containing fake fish bubbles Thursday in the Snoezelen Room, a controlled, multisensory environment, during a tour of the Children’s Center of Augusta at 1 Alden Ave. Joe Phelan/Kennebec Journal

Johnson said children come to the Children’s Center in Augusta from as far away as Wiscasset, and a 40-minute ride each way can be problematic for special-needs children.

Even with the recent expansion of the Children’s Center, the facility still has a waiting list for its program. However, the waiting list, which used to number between 100 and 200 children, is now down to 43 children.

The center seeks to teach children in an inclusive and least-restrictive environment, and give them communication skills they will need for the rest of their lives.

The Snoezelen Room at the center has the exclusive purpose of providing a sensory environment that helps calm children. The room, the only one of its kind in Maine, features adjustable lighting, multicolored lights and textures spread around the room, can play music, and has backlit water towers that bubble and have fake fish bobbing inside.

Johnson said the theory of snoezelen, taken from two Dutch words that translate roughly to mean “seeking a place of contentment or inner peace,” is that the room’s ability to help calm and soothe children makes them able to learn, something they would not be able to do if frustrated or upset.

The Children’s Center, which also offers case management services off-site, now serves about 225 children in Augusta, 90 of them directly at its facility on Alden Avenue.

Lighted water towers bubble Thursday at the Snoezelen Room, a controlled, multisensory environment, during a tour of the Children’s Center of Augusta at 1 Alden Ave. Joe Phelan/Kennebec Journal