Starting next year, eight schools with model special-education programs will be used as hands-on training sites for teachers and staff statewide as part of efforts to improve services for disabled students.

The sites will focus on two key areas: teaching children with autism and supporting practices aimed at keeping special-education students in general-education classrooms for more of the day.

Once up and running, as early as summer, the "centers of educational excellence" will feature opportunities for teachers and staff members to "embed" in training classrooms and give school leaders the chance to study the framework of successful programs. State-level special-education officials will follow up visits to model schools with additional support.

The participating training sites — five of which will be for autism and three for inclusive practices — include public elementary and secondary schools scattered statewide, with one on Hawaii island, one on Maui and the rest in different districts on Oahu.

State Department of Education officials declined to name the schools because the program has not yet formally launched, but said more campuses will likely be added in the future.

The work, part of the federally funded Po‘okela project, is designed to show schools that crafting top-notch special-education programs is possible even in tough economic times.

"We really wanted to look at a way that we could effect change on a big scale," said Annie Kalama, Po‘okela project manager.

The department began planning for the project in January and started contacting selected training sites last summer. Launching the program and operating it for a year is expected to cost about $1.5 million, which the DOE will cover with federal funding through the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.

The DOE has also contracted with two consulting firms — at a cost of about $800,000 — to help improve special-education services, offer training and determine the effectiveness of revamped programs, including those under Po‘okela.

Kalama said the project is "not the answer to everything" and will emphasize that each school — and child — is unique, so services should be tailored to those needs.

She added, "We know that we have seen isolated cases of good practices, and some schools are doing really well, but overall we … felt like we needed to standardize the process so we could ensure a level of credibility statewide."

In Hawaiian, "pookela" means superior or outstanding.

The project is part of a push to improve Hawaii’s special-education system, which serves more than 19,000 children and accounts for about one-fifth of the DOE’s $1.3 billion general fund budget.

The two areas that the training centers will focus on ­— services for children with autism and efforts to bring disabled students into general-education classrooms — are among the biggest issues facing special education in Hawaii, advocates say.

Shanelle Lum, spokeswoman for Hawaii Families as Allies, an advocacy group for special-education children and their families, said inclusion has been a "big concern for a lot of families."

Some schools have opted to move to full inclusion — putting almost all special-education students, except those with the highest needs, in general-education classrooms. But overall, Hawaii has the lowest rate in the nation for the amount of time special-needs students spend in general-education classrooms during the school day.

Proponents of inclusion say it gives special-education students access to a rigorous curriculum, but others argue pulling kids out of general-education classrooms allows them to get individualized instruction.

A new report, commissioned by the department, pointed to the relatively little time that special-education students spend in general-education classrooms as a significant barrier to improving student achievement.

In 2008 about 16 percent of Hawaii students with disabilities spent 80 percent or more their day in regular-education classrooms, well below the national average of 59 percent, federal statistics show.

Meanwhile, Lum said, the current state of services for kids with autism has also worried parents, some of whom question whether their child is getting an appropriate education.

"We’re kind of anxiously anticipating what this (the Po‘okela project) will translate to," Lum said. "It’s a good start."