Grant aims to improve education for disabled students

The University of Florida is using a new federal grant to improve the education of students with severe disabilities.

The $800,000 grant will pay for UF to recruit and train three doctoral students in special education who seek to become professors and researchers with expertise in significant disabilities. Those academics will be ready to train teachers and work with school districts in instructing students with disabilities ranging from autism to multiple physical disabilities, said Diane Ryndak, associate professor in special education at UF.

"They're students who have more extensive needs and more diverse needs than most special education teachers are prepared to meet," she said.

The U.S. Department of Education also will allow UF to hire eight postdoctoral fellows. They will work with the doctoral students on research projects and mentor them about services for students with severe disabilities.

"Our services for those students don't reflect what we know based on research," Ryndak said.

The four-year grant covers tuition and assistant positions for the students. In exchange, they must work two years in the field for every year of coursework they complete or repay the money.

The Alachua County School District often gets teachers certified to teach general classes as well as special education, said Kathy Black, the district's executive director of exceptional student education and student services.

Those teachers can be unprepared to teach students with severe disabilities, she said.

"They have not had the experience working with students or they have not had the time in training," she said.

That can lead to turnover, she said, as teachers leave the special education field to teach general subjects that can be less taxing.

Ryndak is leading two projects to address the issue. One is a collaboration with other state universities to train teachers already in the field, while the grant is part of the other project that aims to instruct professors who will train teachers before they earn their degrees.

More than 90 percent of Florida's teachers serving students with severe disabilities lack the state's endorsement for teaching in the field, according to UF.

"In Florida, there hasn't been an emphasis on developing teachers with that expertise," Ryndak said.

Contact Nathan Crabbe at 338-3176 or nathan.crabbe@gvillesun.com.