News & Events

Leaders from the disability community joined the Arne Duncan, U.S. Secretary of Education and White House officials to celebrate the anniversary of Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973."Disability Rights: Enforcement Hightlights" was published to commemorate this anniversary.

The U.S. Department of Education has awarded a $4.9 million grant to the University of Kansas to create a national center to help students with disabilities learn in an inclusive center with their peers who do not have disabilities. The Technical Assistance Center for Inclusive School-Wide Reform will share information with educators and other persons on research and practices in educating students with disabilities in regular school classes.

The U.S. Department of Education has awarded $3.1 million in grants to institutions to prepare graduate students for leadership positions in special education and related services. The grants are to prepare doctoral and post-doctoral students to fill faculty positions in special education and early intervention. They will also train scholars to become supervisors of personnel providing direct services to infants and children with disabilities.

The National Center for Learning Disabilities collected data from adults in the United States using an online survey in August 2012. This survey showed that there is a need for more education about the causes and treatments for learning disabilities, and a better understanding of workplace rights for people with learning disabilities. Over half of the respondents (55%) wrongly believe that corrective eyewear can treat certain learning disabilities.

disABLEDperson, Inc. has announced its Fall 2012 scholarship competition for college students with disabilities. Applicants must write an essay with no more than 750 words answering a specific question. Entry deadline is October 19, 2012. Register online and paste your essay into the form. To qualify, students must be enrolled in a 2 or 4 year accredited college or university in the U.S. and must be a full-time student and U.S. citizen.

This guide for students has information about all the federal aid programs available for students planning to attend college. Page 6 of the guide has information specifically for students with intellectual disabilities. You'll find more information about federal student aid programs at www.studentaid.ed.gov. The guide opens a PDF document.

The U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) is rethinking its accountability system to shift from a primary focus of compliance to one of results. The results-driven accountability (RDA) system will use resources to improve educational results and functional outcomes for children with disabilities. Through its RDA blog, OSEP will post new questions every two weeks where the public can answer, make comments and post ideas to help OSEP create this new system. The blog is open now through fall of 2012.