MSU’S special education department awarded $800,000 grant
Minot State University’s Department of Special Education recently received a four-year $800,000 federal grant from the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services, U.S. Department of Education. The grant’s purpose is to develop, implement, evaluate and disseminate a distance education interdisciplinary early childhood special education training project.
"This grant allows current and future professionals the opportunity to expand their area of expertise without drastically disrupting their family," said Alan Ekblad, associate professor of special education and principal investigator for the Personnel Development to Improve Services and Results for Children with Disabilities project. "Through the use of distance education the impact of North Dakota’s ‘ruralness’ is lessoned, thereby, enabling the state to provide progressive training to quality personnel often not easily reached."
ISRC will establish a rural distance education in-service training program that is able to supersede state boundaries and consequently can be put into operation across states. MSU’s Department of Special Education will implement and administer the project. This project will further include the North Dakota Part C (assists children with disabilities, who are ages newborn to 2 years old) and Part B (helps children with disabilities, who are ages 3-21 years old) programs and the North Dakota Head Start State Collaboration Office as key partners. Local partners will include regional infant development programs, special education units, Head Start and Early Head Start programs and reservation Head Start programs. All partners will be involved in every phase of the project.
Funds will be used to develop, implement and evaluate research-based early intervention and ECSE curricula with a foundation in family centered values, cultural competence, use of natural environments and developmentally appropriate intervention practices that include both the child and family. It will also be utilized to formulate strategies to provide the in-service training through distance education while incorporating interactive modes of technology to support face-to-face online activities and discussions.
Those targeted for intervention or early childhood special education programs who require further training to either meet or maintain Part C or Part B certification, personnel working in related jobs who would like EI or ECSE training in order to enter the EI or ECSE fields of service and related services personnel who serve young children with disabilities and seek further training to enhance their intervention skills.
Individuals with a bachelor’s degree in a human, health, allied medical or education discipline can apply for admission into MSU’s Master of Science in Special Education. Once admitted into the master’s program, individuals can be involved in the training project.
For additional information, contact Ekblad at 858-3045 or alan.ekblad@minotstateu.edu.
05/21/09