The Research to Practice Division (RTP) provides leadership and oversees the implementation of knowledge development, transfer, and use to improve educational results for infants, toddlers, children, and youth with disabilities. The Division, together with parents of children with disabilities, individuals with disabilities, researchers, developers, trainers and service providers, formulates an agenda to improve the quality of early intervention and education for infants, toddlers, children, and youth with disabilities. The Division is responsible for implementing this agenda through a systematic approach to program improvement through research, demonstration, outreach, technology development, technical assistance, training, evaluation and service delivery. The Division administers the research to practice programs of IDEA to improve programs and enhance the impact on infants, toddlers, children, and youth with disabilities.

The Division provides leadership to four Teams. Three teams are organized by age clusters to be aligned with the structures that deliver services in communities:

• Early Childhood Team
• Elementary and Middle School Team
• Secondary, Transition and Post-Secondary Team

The fourth, the National Initiatives Team supports national studies along with projects that encourage the advancement of captioning and description technology.

In performing their responsibilities, Research to Practice Division Teams:

• Analyze current practice and integrate findings on specific topics in order to more effectively and efficiently assist researchers, trainers, service providers, and federal program managers to enhance current efforts and plan future directions;
  
  
• Assess, plan, and implement strategies for programmatically addressing federally-established priorities and initiatives;
  
  
• Develop priorities, review applications, and monitor grants, cooperative agreements, and contracts that individually and/or collectively are designed to support federally-established priorities and initiatives;
  
  
• Work collaboratively with other Division staff in conducting competitions and monitoring projects;
  
  
• Manage information clearinghouses designed to provide information to improve programs and services for students with disabilities;
  
  
• Provide technical assistance to agencies and groups awarded contracts or grants and those that have responsibilities for providing or administering programs; and,
  
  
• Develop and administer new marketing and dissemination strategies.