The top governing board of the New York State Education Department is weighing a proposal that would prohibit New York schools from sending severely troubled and mentally ill students to a facility in Massachusetts that uses electric shock as a form of punishment.

The Judge Rotenberg Center, in Canton, Mass., counts about 150 New Yorkers among its 250 students, most of whom suffer from emotional and psychiatric disorders or developmental disorders such as autism. About half are fitted with electrodes on their arms and legs and specially wired backpacks that allow staff members to apply a two-second jolt if they misbehave.

The Rotenberg Center was embroiled in scandal in March when a student’s mother sued, claiming its disciplinary approach was effectively corporal punishment, which is illegal in New York State. Since then, the school has received national headlines and press attention from People magazine and “Good Morning America.”

State Senator Martin Golden, a Republican of Brooklyn, who is working on legislation that would ban aversive therapy in social service, mental health, and education, has said New York State spends more than $300,000 a child sent to Rotenberg.

The deputy commissioner of the Education Department, Rebecca Cort, has been leading the fight against the facility. She prepared the proposal discussed at the Board of Regents meeting on Monday. Over the course of her research, she has discovered two preschools in New York State that administer aversive punishments such as “noxious sprays, odors and/or tastes as consequences for inappropriate behaviors.”

Ms. Cort’s proposal, which she presented to the Board of Regents,calls for a near total ban on aversive therapy in New York State schools. Aversive therapy could be administered only if approved by a committee of outside experts.

The proposal also specifies that out-of-state schools like Rotenberg should fall under the ban’s jurisdiction if students from New York State are enrolled; an analogous measure was approved in New Jersey in March.

“All New York State children deserve to be treated with respect and dignity in the course of their receipt of appropriate education programs and services,” the proposal says.

Rotenberg’s founder and executive director, Michael Israel, defended his school in an interview, saying his methods are preferable to the “psychotropic drug cocktails” prescribed to children in most psychiatric facilities.

If the Board of Regents approves the proposal – which may come to a vote next month – Rotenberg stands to lose about half its students. The school would not be able to meet the regulations, Mr. Israel said, and many of the New York residents would be sent home.

Mr. Israel stressed that Rotenberg screens students before applying aversive therapy. “We have to go to court on an individual basis with every student when we want to use aversives,” he said. “The judge appoints a lawyer who represents the interests of the student – independent of the school and the parents – and that lawyer has a psychologist advise him or her on whether to approve, modify, or reject our plan.”

Mr.Israel said the Department of Education has ignored this policy. He added that he thinks Ms. Cort is withholding a positive report about Rotenberg filed in September 2005 after an inspection.

Ms. Cort and some Rotenberg parents attended Monday’s meeting. According to Mr. Israel, some of them wore buttons that read “Parents for Effective Treatment” and a picture depicting drug paraphernalia crossed out with a red line. Some parents brought photographs of their children and held them on their laps.

Neither Ms. Cort nor the Regents were available for comment at the time of writing.