Ky. Shares Grant to Improve Teaching Special Needs Students

Kentucky will share a $24 million grant with more than 20 states to improve training for teachers working with children with disabilities. Kentucky will receive more than $1.1 million in the grant’s first year to train teachers to better prepare students with special needs to graduate and pursue either a career or further education. State Department of Education Spokesperson Lisa Gross says there is still a lot of work to do to close the achievement gap between special needs students and those without disabilities. She says,

“What this grant will do is it will help grownups, it will help teachers and other educators tailor instruction for students and provide services to them so that they have an experience in school that will help them get ready for whatever they are going to do outside of high school."

Gross says low incidence disabilities include blindness, autism and other rare developmental delays and health issues. The funding period for the U.S. Department of Education grant runs from October 2012 to September 2017.