Personnel Development to Improve Services and Results for Children with Disabilities
The U.S. Department of Education was only accepting applications for the Personnel Preparation in Special Education, Early Intervention and Related Services and the Preparation of Special Education, Early Intervention and Related Services Leadership Personnel grants as part of this program.
Grant: Personnel Development to Improve Services and Results for Children with Disabilities
Agency: U.S. Department of Education
Division: Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services (OSERS)
Deadline: This competition is closed. The deadlines were March 1, 2013 for Preparation of Special Education, Early Intervention and Related Services Leadership Personnel grants and March 18, 2013 for Personnel Preparation in Special Education, Early Intervention and Related Services.
Description: The purposes of this program are two-fold:
- To help address state-identified needs for highly qualified personnel – in special education, related services, early intervention and regular education – to work with children, including infants and toddlers, with disabilities.
- To ensure that those personnel have the necessary skills and knowledge, derived from practices that have been determined through scientifically based research and experience, to be successful in serving those children.
There are three different types of grants that will be awarded through this program:
- Personnel Preparation in Special Education, Early Intervention and Related Services grants are intended to improve the quality and increase the number of personnel who are fully credentialed to service children with disabilities. Projects funded by this grant must prepare early intervention, special education and related services personnel at the associate, baccalaureate, master's and specialist levels. Within this type of grant, there are four focus areas from which funding will be awarded. The deadline is March 18, 2013. Focus areas include:
-
- Preparing personnel to serve infants, toddlers and preschool-age children with disabilities.
- Preparing personnel to serve school-age children with low-incidence disabilities.
- Preparing personnel to provide related services to children, including infants and toddlers, with disabilities.
- Preparing personnel in minority institutions to serve children, including infants and toddlers, with disabilities.
- Preparation of Special Education, Early Intervention and Related Services Leadership Personnel grants are intended to increase the quantity of special education, early intervention and related services personnel who have been prepared at the graduate and advanced graduate levels and who are well-qualified for, and can effectively carry out, leadership positions in universities, state educational agencies (SEAs), state lead agencies, local educational agencies (LEAs), local lead agencies, schools or programs. These grants support programs that train higher education faculty, researchers or direct service providers and culminate in a doctoral degree or provide postdoctoral learning opportunities. This type of funding also supports programs that train special education or early intervention administrators. The Deadline is March 1, 2013.
- Special Education Preservice Program Improvement grants are intended to support the improvement and restructuring (through expansion or redesign) of K-12 special education teacher preparation programs to ensure that program graduates meet relevant requirements and effectively serve children with high-incidence disabilities.
Fit for public broadcasting: This funding opportunity is most relevant to public broadcasting stations that are university licensees. Only institutions of higher education are able to be the lead applicant for this program, but local stations can be involved through partnerships. This program provides funding for trainings, and local stations may be able to create media components for these training programs. The creation of training websites is specifically mentioned in the program notice.
Eligibility: Institutions of higher education are eligible to apply for funds under this program.
Anticipated funding: An estimated $85,799,000 is available for the Personnel Development to Improve Services and Results for Children with Disabilities program in FY 2013. Approximately $10.75 million will be available for Personnel Preparation in Special Education, Early Intervention and Related Services grants. Awards will be made across all four focus areas. Nine grants each will be awarded under focus areas A and C; 13 grants will be awarded under focus area B; and 12 grants will be awarded under focus area D. Grants will not exceed $250,000, and have a project period lasting up to 60 months.
Approximately $4.25 million will be available for Preparation of Special Education, Early Intervention and Related Services Leadership Personnel grants. A total of 17 awards will be made not exceeding $250,000.
How to apply: Applications may be submitted electronically via Grants.gov. Online submission requires registration, a process that usually takes three to five business days but can take as long as four weeks. Be sure to visit Grants.gov and begin registering well in advance of the deadline. In order to do business with the U.S. Department of Education, applicants must register their Data Universal Numbering System (DUNS) number and Taxpayer Identification Number (TIN) with the Central Contractor Registry (CCR) and must maintain an active CCR registration while the application is under review and, if awarded a grant, during the project period.
Resources:
Personnel Preparation in Special Education, Early Intervention and Related Services program notice
Preparation of Special Education, Early Intervention and Related Services Leadership Personnel program notice
Program website
