NICHCY is the National Dissemination Center for Children with Disabilities. We serve the United States, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Territories, providing families, students, educators, and others with information on topics regarding children and youth with disabilities, birth through 22. Beginning in October 2003, this includes research-based information about effective practices for educating and providing services to children with disabilities, information about how the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) affects children with disabilities, and information about educational research programs and initiatives involving children with disabilities.
Anyone may contact NICHCY for information. Many of our materials are available in Spanish and are also available in alternative formats upon request, such as on disk.
At NICHCY we receive thousands of phone calls, letters, and e-mails every year from parents and professionals. Although we have many publications and other resources that you can order from us or read on our Web site, you may need to talk to one of our trained information specialists to help clarify or identify what you really need. Our information specialists have backgrounds in special education and other disability-related areas, and have worked as teachers, advocates, researchers, trainers, and social workers. Some are also parents of children with disabilities. They are happy to talk to you, help you figure out what you need, and answer your questions. Our staff of information specialists responds to requests, providing answers to a variety of questions, referring people to helpful resources in their state, and sending out NICHCY publications and/or materials that we have collected in our disability library.
NICHCY is operated through Cooperative Agreement #H326N030003 between the Academy for Educational Development (AED) and the Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP), U.S. Department of Education. That means we operate within AED and are funded by a grant from OSEP. For more information, visit About Us. We do not have a mailing list for individuals nor do we have memberships. To find out about the latest products and services available from NICHCY, see our What's New page.