Program Office: Office of Special Education Programs
ALN: 84.325
Program Type: Cooperative Agreements, Discretionary/Competitive Grants
Also Known As: Special Education — National Activities — Personnel Preparation
Program Description
The Personnel Preparation program helps meet state-identified needs for adequate numbers of fully certified personnel to serve children with disabilities by supporting competitive awards to:
- Provide research-based training and professional development to prepare special education, related services, early intervention, and regular education personnel to work with children with disabilities
- Ensure that those personnel are fully qualified, and possess the skills and knowledge that are needed to serve children with disabilities; and
- Ensure that those personnel are fully qualified, and possess the skills and knowledge that are needed to serve children with disabilities.
The Department is required to make competitive grants that support training activities in a few high priority areas, including:
- general personnel development and preparing beginning special educators,
- personnel serving children with low incidence disabilities, and
- leadership personnel.
These grants are typically 5 years in length.
Personnel Development.
This broad authority requires the Department to support at least one of the following activities:
- promoting partnerships and collaborative personnel preparation and training between institutions of higher education (IHEs) and local educational agencies (LEAs),
- developing, evaluating, and disseminating innovative models for the recruitment, induction, retention, and assessment of teachers,
- providing continuous training and professional development to support special education and general education teachers and related services personnel,
- developing and improving programs for paraprofessionals to become special educators,
- promoting instructional leadership and improved collaboration between general and special education,
- supporting IHEs with minority enrollment of not less than 25 percent, and
- developing and improving programs to train special educators to develop expertise in autism spectrum disorders
Beginning Special Educators.
The Department also is required to provide support to beginning special educators. Specifically, the Department is required to make at least one award to:
- enhance and restructure existing teacher education programs or develop teacher education programs that prepare special education teachers by incorporating an extended clinical learning opportunity, field experience, or supervised practicum (e.g., an additional 5th year), or
- create and support teacher-faculty partnerships between LEAs and IHEs (e.g., professional development schools) that provide high-quality mentoring and induction opportunities with ongoing support for beginning special educators or in-service support and professional development opportunities.
Personnel to Serve Children with Low Incidence Disabilities.
Awards to support personnel to serve children with low incidence disabilities are designed to help ensure the availability of quality personnel in this area by providing financial aid as an incentive to the pursuit of careers in special education, related services, and early intervention. Under this authority, the term "low incidence disabilities" primarily refers to visual or hearing impairments and significant intellectual disabilities, however, beginning in fiscal year 2014, the Administration expanded the definition to also include persistent and severe learning and behavioral problems that need the most intensive individualized supports.
Leadership Personnel.
Leadership preparation activities focus on improving results for students with disabilities by ensuring that leadership personnel in both regular and special education have the skills and training to help students with disabilities achieve to high standards. Under this authority, leadership personnel may include a variety of different personnel, such as teacher preparation and related service faculty, administrators, researchers, supervisors, and principals. Authorized activities include preparing personnel at the graduate, postgraduate, and doctoral levels, and providing interdisciplinary training for various types of leadership personnel.
While individuals and students are not eligible for awards under the Personnel Preparation program, many grantees are required to use at least 65 percent of their award(s) for student support (e.g. tuition, stipends, and payment of fees). Students who receive financial assistance from projects funded under the program are required to pay back such assistance, either by working for a period of time after they complete their training in the area(s) for which they received training, or by making a cash repayment to the Federal Government. In recent years, approximately half of the program's total funding have been used to directly support student scholarships.
A large majority of grants awarded through this program goes to IHEs to provide scholarships to train additional special education and early intervention personnel. However, the Department also makes awards to centers under this program. Unlike awards that provide support for scholarships, which are designed primarily to increase the supply of personnel, center-based awards tend to focus on enhancing the quality of work in a particular topical area through such activities as professional development, technical assistance, partnerships, or the development of materials and best practices.
Eligibility
Eligible applicants include institutions of higher education (IHEs), local education agencies (LEAs), nonprofit organizations, state education agencies (SEAs), and other organizations and/or agencies
In addition to the categories above, public charter schools that are LEAs under state law, other public agencies, private nonprofit organizations, for-profit organizations, outlying areas (American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, and the U.S. Virgin Islands), freely associated states, and Indian tribes or tribal organizations.
Applicant Information
ALN | Grant Title
84.325A | National Center for Improving Teacher and Leader Performance to Better Serve Children with Disabilities
84.325B | National Center on Historically Black Colleges and Universities, Tribally Controlled Colleges and Universities, and Other Minority Serving Institutions to Diversify the Workforce Serving Children With Disabilities
84.325C | Early Childhood Personnel Equity Center
84.325D | OPEN | Preparation of Special Education, Early Intervention, and Related Services Leadership Personnel
84.325E | National Center for Development and Dissemination of Digital Open Educational Resources that Translate Research to Practice for Building the Capacity of Personnel Serving Students with Disabilities
84.325F | National Professional Development Enhancement Center
84.325G | Professional Development Center: Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders
84.325H | Doctoral Training Consortia Associated With High-Intensity Needs
84.325J | National Center to Enhance the Training of Personnel Who Share Responsibility for Improving Outcomes for Young Children with Disabilities (National Early Childhood Training Enhancement Center)
84.325L | Leadership Development Programs: Increasing the Capacity of Leaders to Improve Systems Serving Children With Disabilities
84.325N | Associate Degree Preservice Program Improvement Grants to Support Personnel Working with Young Children with Disabilities
84.325P | Improving Retention of Special Education Teachers and Early Intervention Personnel
84.325Q | National Center to Inform Policy and Practice in Special Education Professional Development
84.325R | Preparation of Related Services Personnel Serving Children with Disabilities Who Have High-Intensity Needs
84.325S | Preservice Improvement Enhancement Grants to Support Related Service Providers to Effectively Serve Children with Disabilities and Their Families
84.325T | Special Education Preservice Training Improvement Grants
84.325V | Leadership Preparation in Sensory Disabilities
84.325X | Preservice Program Development Grants at Historically Black Colleges and Universities, Tribally Controlled Colleges and Universities, and Other Minority Serving Institutions to Diversify Personnel Serving Children with Disabilities
84.325Z | National Center for Supporting School Building and Early Intervention Program (EIP) Administrators to Effectively Implement the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) and Improve Systems Serving Children with Disabilities
Legislation, Regulations, and Guidance
Program Authority
20 U.S.C. 1461 and 1481 of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA).
Applicable Regulations
- The Education Department General Administrative Regulations (EDGAR) in 34 CFR parts 74, 75, 77, 79, 81, 82, 84, 86, 97, 98, and 99.
- The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Guidelines to Agencies on Governmentwide Debarment and Suspension (Nonprocurement) in 2 CFR part 180, as adopted and amended as regulations of the Department in 2 CFR part 3485.
- The Uniform Administrative Requirements, Cost Principles, and Audit Requirements for Federal Awards in 2 CFR part 200, as adopted and amended as regulations of the Department in 2 CFR part 3474.
- The regulations for this program in 34 CFR part 304.
The regulations in 34 CFR part 79 apply to all applicants except federally recognized Indian tribes. The regulations in 34 CFR part 86 apply to IHEs only.
EDGAR
Education Department General Administrative Regulations (EDGAR); 34 CFR 304
Contact
Tracie Dickson
U.S. Department of Education
Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services (OSERS)
400 Maryland Avenue, SW
Washington, D.C. 20202
202-987-0145