PROVIDENCE — A proposal to make several changes to special education is scheduled to be approved by state education officials later this week, carrying consequences for many of the 32,000 students with disabilities and their families.

One of the most contentious changes is lifting the restrictions on class size for special-education students and caseloads for special-education directors.

Current regulations limit self-contained classrooms to 10 or fewer special-education students, with one teacher and one teaching assistant, one of the strictest requirements in the country.

Classes with severely disabled students are limited to six students. Caseloads for administrators are also kept low. Any change in these areas would prompt significant alterations in teacher contracts throughout the state.

Other proposed changes include reducing services to 420 students whose parents choose to send them to private school, and no longer automatically offering a 230-day extended school year to 1,100 students with severe disabilities.

Groups representing students with disabilities, teacher unions and some private schools criticized the proposed changes earlier this year when they were first discussed by the state’s Board of Regents for Elementary and Secondary Education, saying they feared they meant a loss of services to special-education students, and increased strain on teachers and schools.

State education officials defended the proposed changes, saying that in most cases the alterations would not necessarily result in fewer services to students, although they acknowledged some private-school students were likely to lose some support.

They referenced the federal education reform law, No Child Left Behind, which requires the yearly testing and public reporting of test scores of various student groups, including those in special education, as a tool to ensure that students with special needs receive the same quality instruction as their peers.

“These are steps that will make school districts more accountable for student performance and achievement for students with disabilities at a higher level than just maintaining arbitrary class size,” said Kenneth G. Swanson, director of special populations for the Rhode Island Department of Education. “I think there has been a false sense of security given that just because a child is in a class of six or ten students that something good is going on there. Our achievement data would suggest otherwise.”

If the changes are approved by the Regents at Thursday’s 4 p.m. meeting, a series of public hearings will be scheduled for early November. The proposal would then undergo 60 additional days of review, discussion and possible modification before going before a formal vote of the Regents, Swanson said. In addition, copies of the proposed changes will be posted on the state education department Web site and be made available to people who do not have access to a computer, Swanson said.

THE PROPOSED CHANGES stem from new federal requirements which states must adopt by June 30, 2008, as part of the reauthorization of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.

States have no control over some changes, such as the decision by the U.S. Department of Education to include students with Tourette’s syndrome under the disability category “other health impaired.”

But other matters are up to individual states. Federal law lays out the minimum that states must provide for special-education students, but Rhode Island historically has offered far more to students with disabilities — such as requiring small classes, when the federal requirement imposes no such limit.

The state has also required the municipality where a special-education student lives to pay for services even when parents place the student in private school. However, the federal Education Department recently changed the law to require the city or town where the private school is located to pay for services. In addition, federal law requires municipalities to pay only a portion of the cost of services, called a “proportional share” that equals about $1,100 a student in Rhode Island. In response to this change, the Regents are recommending the state adopt the federal law, even though it will mean that about 420 students are likely to lose some services.

In addition, the state is recommending that districts no longer automatically offer severely disabled students a longer school year of 230 days, unless their Individual Learning Plan expressly requires one.

Losing ground in these areas concerns families of special-education students and their families, who have often had to fight for extra support and help for their children, says Cheryl Collins, director of education and training at the Rhode Island Parent Information Network, an advocacy group.

“Many parents are interpreting these changes at this time as a loss,” Collins said. “The fear is that they and their children will lose something they have benefited from.”

At the same time, Collins says she is reserving judgment until she reviews the precise language of the proposed changes and hears the concerns of families during the public hearings.

“My hope is that we come to an agreement, as a state, about making decisions that will meet the needs of students with special needs,” Collins said. “We hear about a teacher who might be overburdened or parents with a concern, but often we don’t hear about the students in a lot of this discussion.”

LOOSENING Rhode Island’s strict size limit is causing problems in Providence, where the teachers union is suing the city and the state for allowing the class size for special-education students to jump from 10 to 12, a decision driven primarily by the district’s budget woes.

Providence was forced to cut $3.2 million from its current spending plan after state lawmakers voted to not give schools a 3-percent increase in state aid. The state education department approved a request by Providence Supt. Donnie Evans to expand class sizes, and Evans said the 22 special-education teachers made available by the enlarged classes were needed to fill other jobs in the district.

Providence teachers said they would not be able to do their job effectively with larger classes.

State education officials disagree, saying in several work sessions over the past several months that no scientific data suggests that “10 is the magic number.” Research has found, however, that 15 special-education students “seems to be the tipping point,” Swanson said, adding any changes to state regulations would include a recommendation that districts not exceed 15 special-education students.

State education officials argue that properly grouping students according to their learning styles and needs and ensuring they have highly effective teachers are more important than class size.

“A strict class size does not guarantee quality,’ said David V. Abbott, deputy commissioner of education. “If it were my child, I’d rather have them in a class with 12 students and a highly qualified teacher than one of 10 students in a basement room with someone working with an emergency certification.”

jjordan@projo.com