College of Education Receives $800,000 to Train Teachers Educating Children with Disabilities

University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa
Contact:
Jean Johnson, (808) 956-2653
Center on Disability Studies
Heather Wong, (808) 956-6219
College of Education
Posted: Oct 22, 2003

The College of Education‘s Center on Disability Studies at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa was recently awarded a $800,000 grant from the U.S. Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) to fund Project TACT—Teaching All Children Together.

Research has shown that children with disabilities in Hawaiʻi spend a smaller percentage of their school day in regular classrooms as compared to those in any other state. Hoping to reverse this statistic, Project TACT will train 75 pre-service and in-service personnel, who are at the post-bachelor and master‘s levels, on the processes of educating children with high incidence disabilities using the general education curriculum in general education classrooms.

With two-thirds of the funds going towards stipends for these teachers, they will be required to sign a commitment to provide services to students with disabilities for two years for each year they receive stipend support. Courses for Project TACT will begin in Spring 2004.

Project TACT is one of only 15 projects across the nation funded by OSEP out of 84 that were recommended for funding and a total of 163 applications. Dr. Norma Jean Stodden serves as the principal investigator for the project.

The Center on Disability Studies is a research unit in the College of Education at UH Mānoa whose mission is to support the quality of life, community inclusion, and self-determination of all persons with disabilities and their families.

For more information about Project TACT, contact Project Director Jean Johnson at (808) 956-2653 or e-mail jeanj@hawaii.edu.

For more information, visit: http://www.cds.hawaii.edu