Inclusive Education: Grant for New Project Aims to Provide Equitable Services for Students with Disabilities
May 08, 2020
An $8 million, five-year grant will improve educational inclusivity for children with disabilities in New Jersey’s public schools, authorities announced Thursday.
The grant funds a new project stemming from a partnership between Montclair State University’s Center for Autism and Early Childhood Mental Health and the non-profit New Jersey Coalition for Inclusive Education. The funding was awarded through the New Jersey Department of Education’s annual allocation of federal funds from the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.
“This project sets us on a new path to equitable services for our students with disabilities,” state Education Commissioner Lamont Repollet said in a statement. “Through this partnership with Montclair State University and NJCIE, educators and families will get the support they need to increase the number of fully inclusive New Jersey schools.”
The rate at which New Jersey separates children with disabilities from peers who do not have disabilities in educational settings is well above the national average.
In 2017, the most recent year for which national data is available, 63.5% of students ages 6 through 21 receiving special education were in a general class 80% or more of the time, according to the U.S. Department of Education. But in New Jersey, just 44.6% of students with disabilities were in similarly inclusive environments.
“Inclusive education is considered a right in this country,” said Fred Buglione, president and CEO of the Coalition for Inclusive Education. “It’s a right that was initially laid out through the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. New Jersey hasn’t necessarily been as inclusive in the past as a lot of other states.”
Now, Montclair State, which is known for graduating teachers certified to educate students with disabilities, and the Coalition for Inclusive Education, the only organization in the state focused on inclusivity, are trying to change the calculus for students with disabilities.
The resulting program, known as the New Jersey Inclusive Education Technical Assistance project, will provide support to both K-12 schools and pre-Ks across the state through a three-tiered effort.
The approach will focus not just on education but also on students’ mental health, self-regulation and communication abilities and capacity to feel safe, said Gerard Costa, Montclair State Center for Autism director.
Project leaders will select 15 public schools annually to receive support for up to five years to address individual needs. Speaking the afternoon of the announcement, Buglione said 20 schools applied during the first three hours the support application was available. The first cohort will be selected by June 30.
The 75 schools that receive assistance during the course of the project will be “model inclusion sites,” Costa said.
The program will also offer technical assistance, such as free webinars and resources for educators and parents. Leaders expect 60 such events during each year of the grant.
The project will involve a leadership group comprising “parents, educators, professors, anyone who has a strong interest in seeing inclusive education expanded in the state,” Buglione said. Issues the group raises during its quarterly meetings will serve as the basis for two annual school staff trainings.
“The disability world and disability studies has often been dominated by models of exclusion and separation,” Costa said. “It’s something called othering.
“I think it took a courageous set of leaders in our state Department of Education to honestly say, ‘We are not where we should be. This is not the model of social justice and inclusion we want,’” he added. “I think what changed ... was the leadership currently has just been visionary.”
Source: North Jersey