The U.S. Department of Education today announced a package of more than $8.7 million in special education grants to establish nine centers to study issues related to reading, behavior and learning disabilities.

Centers will be located at the universities of Kansas in Lawrence; Nebraska in Lincoln; North Carolina in Charlotte; Oregon in Eugene (two); South Florida in Tampa; Texas in Austin; and Wisconsin in Madison; and at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee.

Of the nine projects, six will focus specifically on improving reading skills and behavior among students in grades K-3, while a seventh will coordinate the evaluation of the effectiveness of the centers. Another center will target learning disabilities, while still another will work to identify effective practices to meet the needs of very young children ¾ especially, infants, toddlers and pre-schoolers ¾ with or at risk for behavioral problems.

"President Bush and I are committed to making sure our education system offers America’s students with disabilities the opportunity to learn through methods and programs that are proven to work," said U.S. Secretary of Education Rod Paige. "We hope to see model programs that will advance our efforts to understand how we can best help children with special needs."

The reading and behavior centers will demonstrate school-based models of programs and practices to serve children in grades K-3 who are identified as having marked difficulty learning to read or who exhibit serious behaviors that lead to discipline problems as they get older.

Elementary schools will be selected by each of the six reading and behavior centers for implementing the model programs.

Coordinating the evaluation of the six projects for grades K-3 will be a center at the University of Wisconsin in Madison.

For children under age 6 ¾ especially, infants, toddlers and preschoolers ¾ a center will be created at the University of South Florida in Tampa to identify effective practices to meet the needs of those with or at risk for behavioral problems.

That project will promote the exchange of information among parents, family members and practitioners and conduct research to improve services and interventions.

Meanwhile, a Center on Learning Disabilities will be located at Vanderbilt University to help continue the work that has taken place so far as part of the U.S. Office of Special Education Programs’ Learning Disabilities Initiative on issues surrounding the accurate and early identification of children with learning disabilities.

The center will review current research about learning disabilities and conduct studies based on gaps in that knowledge base. It will also design a system of disseminating information and providing technical assistance that links research to practice.

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NOTE TO EDITORS: Following is a list of grantees, with contact names, phone numbers and award amounts.