C. The commissioner shall adopt or amend rules to define allowable expenditures used to determine per student costs.

D. An agency shall file an annual financial report detailing the allowable expenditures and the computation of the tuition rate at such time and in the form the commissioner may require.

E. Increases in the tuition rate from one year to the next may not exceed 15% the tuition rate established through negotiation unless evidence is presented to the commissioner that a hardship will exist if a higher rate of increase is not approved, and this evidence is deemed determined sufficient by the commissioner.

F. The commissioner shall establish a tuition rate for new special education programs in special purpose private schools and private general purpose agencies based on the estimated allowable costs of these schools.

Sec. 7. 20-A MRSA §7302, sub-§3, as amended by PL 1997, c. 736, §1, is repealed.