Personnel Development To Improve Services and Results for Children With Disabilities—Preparation of Related Services Personnel Serving Children With Disabilities Who Have High- Intensity Needs

Overview

The purposes of this program are to (1) help address State-identified needs for personnel preparation in early intervention, special education, related services, and regular education to work with children, including infants, toddlers, and youth, with disabilities; and (2) ensure that those personnel have the necessary skills and knowledge, derived from practices that have been determined through scientifically based research, to be successful in serving those children.

Absolute Priority: Preparation of Related Services Personnel Serving Children with Disabilities who have High-Intensity Needs.

The purpose of this priority is to increase the number and improve the quality of related services personnel, including multilingual personnel and personnel from racially and ethnically diverse backgrounds, who are fully credentialed and licensed to serve children with disabilities who have high-intensity needs.

Competitive Preference Priority: Applications from New Potential Grantees (0 or 3 points).

Focus Areas:

Within this absolute priority, the Secretary intends to support projects under the following two focus areas: 

(A) Preparing Related Services Personnel to Serve Infants, Toddlers, and Preschool- Age Children with Disabilities who have High-Intensity Needs

This focus area is for projects that prepare related services personnel to provide services to infants, toddlers, and preschool children with disabilities who have high-intensity needs. In States where the certification age range is other than birth through five, applicants must propose a preparation project that complies with the State’s certification requirements for related services personnel to work in early intervention or early childhood special education.

(B) Preparing Related Services Personnel to Serve School-Age Children with Disabilities who have High-Intensity Needs.

This focus area is for projects that prepare related services personnel to work with school-age children with disabilities who have high-intensity needs.

Applicants must identify the specific focus area (i.e., A or B) under which they are applying as part of the competition title on the application cover sheet (SF 424, line 12). Applicants may not submit the same proposal under both Focus Area A and B. However, applicants may submit substantively different proposals for Focus Areas A and B.

Estimated Range of Awards:
$1,150,000–$1,250,000.

Estimated Average Size of Awards:
$1,200,000.

Maximum Award: We will not make an award exceeding $1,250,000 per project for a project period of 60 months or an award that exceeds $350,000 for any single budget period.

Cost sharing or matching is not required for this competition.