Maine
Maine has no NAEC-accredited epilepsy center. Not a Level 4, not a Level 3, not one. If your seizures aren't controlled, the specialized care you need is in Boston or New Hampshire, and you have to get there. Maine is also the only state in the country with a driving rule specifically covering the period when you're coming off seizure medication. Here's the whole picture.
Representation
Susan Collins, U.S. Senator (R-ME) | (202) 224-2523
Angus King, U.S. Senator (R-ME) | (202) 224-5344
Go Here To Find Your Congressional Representative
Driving Laws
Maine's Bureau of Motor Vehicles uses Functional Ability Profiles rather than a single flat seizure-free number. The relevant chapter took effect May 3, 2023.
If you have a long-standing seizure disorder, meaning more than five years, you're eligible for a license after being seizure-free for three months and on medication. You'll be re-evaluated every four years. Others may be held to a longer period. 29-250-003 ME. CODE R. § 2.
For a first-ever unprovoked seizure, the rule splits: no driving for six months if you're off medication, or no driving until a minimum of three months seizure-free if you're on medication. After that, you follow the standard epilepsy rules.
If you had a provoked seizure and the likelihood of recurrence isn't known, from a head injury or a brain infection, for example, no driving until you're seizure-free for at least six months.
Here's what makes Maine unusual. If your seizure happened during a medically supervised medication change, you can't drive until your treating clinician considers you medically stable, generally at least one month on the new regimen. And if your medication is being tapered with the intention of stopping it entirely, you can't drive while tapering or for three months after the medication has stopped. Maine is the only state in the country that restricts driving specifically for people discontinuing anti-seizure drug treatment.
There is one rule that works in your favor. If you have an established pattern of at least one year of nocturnal-only seizures, driving is permitted.
Physician reporting: Maine has no provision requiring physicians to report patients diagnosed with epilepsy to a central state agency. A physician or any other person who reports an impairment to the Secretary of State's office in good faith has immunity.
If you can't drive: Anyone over 18 can get a state identification card from the Motor Vehicle Division for $5.00 with two forms of identification. ME. REV. STAT. ANN. tit. 29-A § 1410. That is one of the cheapest state IDs in the country, which matters if losing your license also costs you income.
Confirm current requirements with the Maine Bureau of Motor Vehicles and the Epilepsy Foundation's Maine driving law page.'
School Laws
Twenty-four states have enacted a version of the Epilepsy Foundation's Seizure Safe Schools model legislation. Maine is not among them, and neither is any other New England state except Connecticut.
What Maine families have instead: Section 504 and IDEA are federal, and they are stronger than any state statute. A district that has no seizure training program can still be required to accommodate your child. Put every accommodation request in writing. Ask which staff have completed seizure recognition and first aid training, and get names and dates. Ask for a written Seizure Action Plan and ask to see the one currently on file.
If your district tells you it can't do something because Maine has no law requiring it, that is not the correct legal standard, and you should say so in writing.
Support
Epilepsy Foundation New England is the regional affiliate covering Maine. There is no Maine-specific Epilepsy Foundation office. EFNE runs support programming, education, and advocacy across the region, including active work on Seizure Safe Schools legislation and SUDEP awareness.
Epilepsy Care
If your seizures aren't controlled after 12 months with a general neurologist — or after two medications have failed — national guidelines say you should be at a Level 3 or Level 4 center. Most people who meet that bar were never told it existed.
Check out the NAEC to find a Level 3 or4 Epilepsy Center near you.
Maine is one of six states in the country with no NAEC-accredited epilepsy center of any level. If your seizures aren't controlled, comprehensive care means leaving the state.
Your realistic options are Boston, roughly two hours from Portland and closer to five from Bangor, where several major academic programs operate, and Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon, New Hampshire, which is often the shorter drive from western Maine.
This is not a small inconvenience. National guidelines say that if your seizures aren't controlled after twelve months with a general neurologist, or after two medications have failed, you should be at a Level 3 or Level 4 center. For a Mainer, meeting that threshold means arranging out-of-state travel, out-of-network billing conversations, and in many cases a multi-day trip for an inpatient monitoring stay. Most people who meet that bar were never told the centers existed, and in Maine they're also never told what reaching one would actually require.
If you're going to make that trip, ask your neurologist for a referral in writing and ask specifically whether the center you're being sent to is NAEC-accredited and at what level. Hospital marketing pages use "comprehensive epilepsy center" loosely. Accreditation is what matters.
Full current directory: naec-epilepsy.org/find-a-center
Use the comments section to add additional resources for Maine, review the resources listed above, or give a shout-out to people in your state.