Financial Assistance Available to Train in Special Education
Training comes from The Teachers College Special Education Fellowship Program at Emporia State
Emporia, KS (03/29/2019) — A recently announced increase in grant funding from the Kansas Board of Regents will allow two-thirds as many educators to work toward endorsements in high-incidence special education.
"Students with high-incidence disabilities are the most prevalent among children and youth with disabilities in U.S. schools. Overall, this would be 80 percent of all disabled students," said Dr. Marjorie Bock, professor of special education at Emporia State. "High incidence disabilities include students with emotional and/or behavioral disorders, learning disabilities and mild intellectual disabilities. This would include everything from speech and language impairment to children on the Autism spectrum."
The funding from KBOR allows The Teachers College Special Education Fellowship Program (TCSEFP,) which Bock oversees, to offer 25 fellowships for 2019-20, an increase from the 15 available this past year.
Over the past three years, a total of 44 students have received fellowships and successfully completed the program. KBOR has provided grant funding support for the TCSEFP each of the past three years. The funding for 2019-20 set at $116,000 is nearly double the amount of the previous annual amounts.
Fellows need to be admitted into the program by June 1, 2019. Summer coursework begins June 17, 2019. Students who will be teaching high incidence special education on a waiver in August 2019 are eligible to participate in the TCSEFP. For additional information about this program or to apply for a fellowship, please contact Dr. Marj Bock (mbock1@emporia.edu).
"This increase is due to the many positive comments graduates of our TCSEFP have provided," Bock said. "KBOR has been very satisfied with the results we are generating."
The TCSEFP is an online, 11-month fellowship program that leads to completion of a high incidence special education endorsement. Those participating in the fellowship program complete 24 credits of graduate coursework over an 11-month time period. They receive tuition assistance from a KBOR grant and other funding sources. They also benefit from intense, explicit mentoring throughout their first year teaching special education.