84.324R:
Outreach Projects for Children with Disabilities

This document lists the grants funded in Fiscal Year 2004 by the Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP), U.S. Department of Education, under its competition 84.324R, Outreach Projects for Children with Disabilities. This funding is authorized by the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), our nation's special education law.

The Bigger Picture

NICHCY is pleased to make this listing available to you online. The listing comes from a longer publication with the incredibly long title of: Volume 1 of Discretionary Projects Supported by the Office of Special Education Programs under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, Fiscal Year 2004: Research, Innovation, and Evaluation.

Interested in what other Research and Innovation grants have been funded by OSEP in 2004? Please visit:
www.nichcy.org/directories/research-innovation.asp

For an overview of OSEP's discretionary funding programs, and to find complete listings of all its program areas, competitions, and funded projects, please visit:
www.nichcy.org/directories/intro.asp

For a print copy of the complete Research, Innovation, and Evaluation directory (Volume 1), or any of the other directories (while supplies last), please contact Todd Fisk, the Directory/Database Manager, at:
tfisk@aed.org

84.324R
Outreach Projects for Children with Disabilities

Purpose: Strategies are needed on the postsecondary level to address difficulties faced by students with disabilities as they prepare for future employment. Students with disabilities in higher education are unable to obtain comprehensive career planning services, face problems in accessing needed accommodations while in school, have difficulty acquiring meaningful work experience prior to graduation, and are in need of specialized placement and support services after graduation. The Rehabilitation Research and Training Center on Workplace Supports at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU- RRTC) will assist a minimum of nine colleges and universities (two-year and four-year) in Virginia to adopt, implement, and evaluate a proven individualized career planning model. The model is student directed and incorporates an array of university services and community supports that enable students to develop strategies to determine the accommodations or adaptations required for professions or employment settings and the transferring or arranging for those accommodations.

Methods: The Career Connections Program model to be replicated has been extensively validated at the VCU-RRTC for seven years. The model builds on the essential elements of career development and planning for young adults with disabilities and emphasizes: (a) student direction and choice, (b) continuous career planning throughout the students' academic experience, (c) extensive involvement of employers in the planning process, and (d) coordination of university and community services designed to effectively meet the employment preparation needs of individuals with disabilities. To facilitate the replication and implementation of the model, the project will design and deliver a variety of training, technical assistance, and support activities, customized to meet the specific needs of each participating college or university.

Products: During Year 1 of the project, three Virginia universities and colleges will work with project staff to design an extensive technical assistance package that will best meet their implementation needs. At a minimum each participating site will receive five days of on-site technical assistance in the planning and implementation of the model. Three new Virginia sites will be added in Year 2 and again in Year 3 of the project. Follow-up support will continue to be provided to the original sites throughout the course of the project. Technical assistance will be provided in the form of Web casts, e-newsletters, electronic documents, Web site postings, Internet chat rooms and bulletin boards, conference calls, and evaluation activities.

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Purpose: InterAct Arizona is an outreach project to expand the Student-Led Individualized Education Program (SL-IEP) model within Arizona to schools in 54 sites over the three-year project period, enabling students to learn necessary self-determination and self-advocacy skills and to assume more control of the IEP process to the extent of their interests and capabilities.

Methods: InterAct Arizona has worked with school districts, charter schools, adult services, and community organizations in all geographic areas of the state, providing a variety of tools to improve transition services for students with disabilities. Participation of students in the transition process ranged from simply introducing their parents at the IEP meeting, to working with teachers to plan the agenda and lead the meeting, to designing and implementing the content of the IEP. Students have made presentations with staff at state, national, and international conferences; parents have become more involved in promoting the model; and teachers have become part of the training and outreach team for InterAct Arizona's efforts to increase awareness about SL-IEPs. This project will continue the work of InterAct Arizona by accomplishing the following objectives: (a) establishing 54 outreach sites to implement SL-IEPs during the three-year project, (b) establishing teams for each site for implementation locally, (c) providing training for the site teams, (d) maintaining ongoing technical assistance to each site, (e) providing training to community and state stakeholders to promote sustainability, and (f) developing and disseminating products to facilitate replication in additional sites in Arizona and nationally.

Products: Project results will include: (a) involvement of at least 500 students in SL-IEPs; (b) increased participation of parents, students, and educators in IEP meetings; (c) increased awareness of related stakeholder groups about SL-IEPs; (d) interagency collaboration to sustain SL-IEPs in the state; and (e) interactive products, including CD-ROMs, videos, and manuals, to facilitate replication of the model.

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Purpose: Self-regulation has become recognized as one of the most critical factors in understanding the course of a young child's development and its impact on daily care routines and behavior. The model on which this project is based, the SELF Model of Regulation, is a comprehensive, exemplary practice of assessment and intervention that incorporates a clinical reasoning process while addressing the complex nature of self-regulation. This project will continue the implementation of the SELF outreach activities and will provide additional empirical data as it aspires to become a "proven model." The Extended University of the University of New Mexico will provide training and technical assistance in the SELF Assessment-Intervention Process through a distance education outreach project.

Methods: The SELF Outreach Project will offer accessible and innovative training and technical assistance to Region VI Head Start Trainers and Part C Training and Technical Assistance Teams in five partner states, focusing on personnel and family members in largely rural areas. Project staff will provide specific training and technical assistance by introducing the model of self-regulation and its application in a three-step assessment-intervention process. The theoretical framework of the SELF process is based on information from multiple disciplines, including education, psychology, occupational therapy, speech/language pathology, and medicine. The outreach project will offer four delivery strategy options: (a) self-contained training package (manual, CD-ROM and Trainer's Guide with Audio Conferencing); (b) information on an interactive assessment Web site; (c) online workshops and courses, and (d) in-person demonstration, technical assistance, and follow-up training.

Products: More than 100 training and technical assistance personnel will receive direct training in the SELF Process. These individuals will in turn provide training to more than 1,000 early childhood personnel, thus impacting the lives of at least 10,000 young children and their families. The outreach components will be nationally disseminated, providing many more early childhood professionals and families from across the country the opportunity to receive information, training, and technical assistance.

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Purpose: The Washington Research Institute will replicate and disseminate a validated, proven intervention model specifically designed to support the neurobehavioral organization and development of the growing number of infants (newborn to eight months in developmental age) who are born with very low/extremely low birth weight or disabilities and to support their families.

Methods: The model draws from the theory and research on early infant neurobehavioral organization and development as well as individualized, relationship-based, child-responsive intervention approaches. The intervention model will be used to train home-, center-, and community-based early intervention professionals, paraprofessionals, and parents in supporting the neurobehavioral organization and development of these infants. The project will improve educational services to infants born with very low/extremely low birth weight or disabilities and their families by helping 13 new outreach sites to adopt and replicate the model through instruction in two levels of training. These include: (a) Level I Training: training in the administration and implementation of the "Infant Behavioral Assessment," the "Neurobehavioral Curriculum," and "Holding Parents Holding Their Baby"; and (b) Level II Training: training staff-parent trainers to promote the replication of the core constructs of this model beyond the outreach period.

Products: The outcome of this project will be the dissemination and replication of a comprehensive neurobehavioral assessment and intervention program that supports the neurophysiological integrity of infants born with very low/extremely low birth weight or disabilities. Parents will benefit from the facilitation and support offered by the training, thus assuring mutually satisfying parent-infant interactions and confidence in their ability to support the neurobehavioral and developmental needs of their infant. Early intervention professionals and paraprofessionals will benefit by learning to provide appropriate neurobehavioral facilitation to these fragile infants during an assessment, intervention, or care-giving session.

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Note : Transferred from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Formerly H324R020077.

Purpose: The CMI-Outreach Project will increase awareness of the Case Method of Instruction (CMI) and facilitate its use in early intervention preservice and inservice personnel preparation.

Method: A major focus of project activities will be the direct training of preservice and inservice instructors in the use of CMI. An intensive three-day training program will be offered to instructors in six states in the U.S. Innovative features of this training include:

1. All instructors will participate in training with a partner or team to ensure that they have readily available support for implementing CMI in their own courses or workshops following their participation in training.

2. The curriculum will take participants through a progression of training activities to ensure adequate skills for conducting CMI after training (awareness, knowledge, skill development through modeling, and practice with feedback).

3. All training participants will develop written plans for incorporating CMI into their existing training responsibilities (i.e., university courses, workshops/seminars).

4. A follow-up session will be held approximately six months after the initial training to assess participants' implementation of CMI and to address any concerns or areas of difficulty they may have experienced in using the method.

5. All participants will agree to assist in conducting at least one training event in their own state in which they share their knowledge, skills, and experience in using CMI with other preservice and inservice instructors (i.e., train-the-trainer approach).

6. A state advisory board will be identified and convened in each of the six targeted states to help identify needs and to generate support needed by training participants to follow-through with their plans to use CMI and to train others in the method.

Products: In addition to providing direct training for instructors in targeted states, the project will also engage in activities aimed at national dissemination of the information about CMI and resources to support instructors using the method. These efforts will include a Web site that provides public access to case materials, a Web-based "bulletin board" for the exchange of information and ideas among instructors, and a series of on-line discussions with CMI experts. The project will also undertake the task of writing case stories and related training materials that are specifically designed for the use of training of allied health professionals, as this is an area of needed resources. Finally, the project will write, field test, and distribute a guidebook on case writing in order to encourage and enable instructors to write their own case stories.

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Purpose: The Illinois Transition Outreach Training for Adult Living (TOTAL) Project will provide outreach and technical assistance to replicate nine proven exemplary transition practices through regional train-the-trainer seminars, implementation training at the local level, and statewide distribution of multimedia training resources.

Methods: The Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) will serve as the lead agency and will assemble a State Transition Training and Technical Assistance Team of service providers, state agencies, young adults with disabilities, and families of youth with disabilities. The ISBE will provide the team members with train-the-trainer seminars in exemplary transition practices. The State Transition Team will subsequently provide train-the-trainer seminars to 150 regional representatives of consumer and advocacy organizations throughout Illinois. These individuals will then be qualified to conduct ongoing training and technical assistance in exemplary transition practices within their regions. The State Transition Team also will build local capacity to provide and implement exemplary transition practices through delivery of outreach training to 20 local sites throughout the state to advance school-wide replication.

Products: The TOTAL Project will develop multimedia resource packages for providing train-the-trainer and implementation self-study opportunities to learn exemplary transition practices. The multimedia resource packages will be produced in a variety of accessible formats and disseminated to interested parties throughout the state. The State Transition Team will assist the ISBE in developing and implementing a systemic sustainability plan for incorporating training and technical assistance regarding exemplary transition practices into the existing structures of state agency service providers and consumer and advocacy organizations.

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Purpose: This project will address the needs of the children and youth, ages 3-21, with severe or multiple disabilities (including low-incidence disabilities) who are not able to use speech, manual signs, or high-tech communication devices.

Methods: The project will be an extension of other federally funded outreach projects that have targeted communication intervention and alternative forms of communication in the early childhood population in parts of the western, midwestern, and eastern U.S. This project will extend the other projects in three ways: (a) the project staff will be able to respond to requests from audiences who are involved with children of all ages because these strategies are applicable across the life span and many individuals who have not been exposed to appropriate communication intervention at an early age are able to learn to communicate effectively once an appropriate system is targeted; (b) the geographic area to be served will be expanded to include the entire United States; and (c) the project will develop an online course so that the communication intervention training will become widely and permanently available beyond federal funding.

Products: The online course will constitute a new training mechanism that will make distance education available. The course will disseminate effective alternative communication intervention strategies to professionals, parents, and speech-language pathologists across the United States in a manner that will promote long-term impact.

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Purpose: This project has identified and established a network of 17 programs in 11 local school systems in Maryland and other programs across the country, serving students with significant disabilities in postsecondary settings. Using this network as the basis for outreach activities, the project staff from the University of Maryland, working in conjunction with personnel from the Division of Rehabilitation Services and the Division of Special Education of the Maryland State Department of Education, will create and disseminate training and products designed for students with significant disabilities.

Methods: The project will: (a) expand a Web site that provides a national audience of professionals, families, and students with an on-going, updated source of information, training, and access to products supporting students with significant disabilities in postsecondary settings; (b) develop Web-based training modules; (c) pilot test the "Guide for Transition Services in Postsecondary Settings" in three states to improve planning, implementation, and evaluation of transition services; and (d) produce and distribute products, training, and information to a national audience of professionals, families, and students regarding practices and evaluation methods for supporting students with significant disabilities in postsecondary settings.

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Purpose: The National Parent Leadership Development Project for Interagency Coordinating Councils (ICCs) will develop a diverse group of ICC parent leaders who will possess the skills necessary to positively impact the Early Intervention program (IDEA, Part C) and its delivery of services to children birth to three in their states by serving effectively on statewide coordinating councils and their committees or subcommittees.

Methods: The Federation for Children with Special Needs has developed a leadership support model with input from parent leaders in 25 states across the country. Based on a series of national training institutes and participatory inventories of needs and issues for parent leaders, the model focuses on key areas: the notion of a personal leadership style and how it applies to a constituent representative; strategies for understanding complex organizational systems and how to function within them; and using a family's personal experiences to amplify policy issues. Addressing the urgent need for skilled parent leaders who are actively engaged in collaborative policy in such positions, the project will address four key activities: (a) provide training to parents for effective participation in state ICC activities through annual ICC parent leadership institutes in five states (15 states over three years); (b) ensure and support the replication of the leadership development training and implementation of the state teams' action plans through follow-up technical assistance; (c) establish collaborative relationships with states and other entities to gain support of and participation in leadership institutes and in project leadership replication activities; and (d) facilitate networking and linkages among ICC parents nationally, including those from diverse and traditionally underserved populations, through technology and other supports.

Products: The following outcomes will be achieved: (a) state ICCs will be better able to meet the parent training needs and will be better able to recruit and retain parent leaders from the field; (b) there will be a stronger and more diverse parent voice that will have an effective impact on policy development related to services for young children and their families; (c) there will be an increase in parent participation in leadership roles in other educational and service settings; and (d) a network of trained parent leaders will be available to assist each other and other parents dealing with leadership issues.

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Purpose: The goal of the Louisiana Youth Leadership Forum (LYLF) is to replicate a proven transition model for enhancing the self-determination of youth with disabilities as they make the transition from high school to adult life.

Methods: The LYLF will implement four objectives: (a) sponsor a four-day leadership forum each summer for 35 high-school students with disabilities; (b) identify four outreach components of the model most effective in increasing both self-determination abilities and postschool outcomes; (c) evaluate the impact of the LYLF; and (d) disseminate replication materials and evaluation data nationally. The LYLF will operate as a collaborative effort among the Human Development Center, Families Helping Families, and the Governor's Office of Disability Affairs.

Products: The LYLF will accomplish four outcomes: (a) 35 adolescents with disabilities will participate each project year in the LYLF; (b) 30 adults with disabilities will be identified each project year to serve as role models; (c) the LYLF will be operational in all 64 of Louisiana's parishes (counties); and (d) replication materials, evaluation data, and training opportunities will be disseminated nationally via inservice training to professionals, families, and self-advocates. These outcomes will enable the LYLF both to continue beyond federal funding and to provide measurable evidence of maintenance and growth in participants' self-determination abilities and postschool outcomes.

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Purpose: This project will replicate, implement, and evaluate a proven integrated outreach model of effective behavioral and instructional systems change in rural and urban school districts in Georgia and Alabama who are serving culturally, economically, socially, and academically diverse student populations.

Methods: The CBIS-Outreach continuum emphasizes the use of data and a team-based problem-solving process to guide the careful adoption of research-validated practices and systems. Priority is given in this model to approaches that: (a) focus on explicit, systematic techniques that promote academic and social success, (b) can be integrated into an effective academic and behavioral curriculum, (c) maximize student engagement and achievement, (d) are acceptable to the school and community, (e) are sustainable and durable and demonstrate contextual fit, and (f) are culturally appropriate and respectful of individual differences.

Products: CBIS-Outreach will provide a means of prioritizing, organizing, integrating, and operationalizing current school, district, and state initiatives. The project will provide a framework for: (a) practices that support improvement of student social development and achievement, (b) systems that support the adoption and sustained use of empirically validated practices, and (c) data structures that support decision making related to student performance.

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Purpose: This project will assist agencies in implementing a proven early intervention program (the SKI*HI model) to address the critical needs of infants, toddlers, and preschool-age children who are deaf or hard of hearing and their families, through training and resources that feature the most current and essential information available in the field of early childhood deaf education.

Methods: Project activities will include: (a) promote awareness of services; (b) identify and select SKI*HI replication sites and SKI*HI recertification sites; (c) assist new agencies in implementation of the proven SKI*HI early intervention program model through effective training procedures; (d) assist existing SKI*HI sites in recertifying and updating their current early intervention staff on new materials and information in the field; (e) offer technical assistance and follow up to implementing sites; (f) develop and disseminate high quality resource, training, and awareness products; (g) designate and train six regional coordinators to organize training activities and assist with development of training materials; (h) coordinate with national and local dissemination and service agencies; and (i) evaluate the effectiveness and impact of project strategies and services.

Products: The outcomes and products of this project include: (a) outreach services to six new implementing agencies/states to establish SKI*HI services, (b) recertification training on new program components in the SKI*HI Resource manual to existing SKI*HI trained early interventionists in 40 states, and (c) new training materials developed to coincide with new resource materials.

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Purpose: The Mastery Project will improve services and achieve optimal developmental outcomes for children ages two to eight in early intervention and special education programs who have significant disruptive behaviors and are at risk for serious emotional disturbances and developmental delays.

Methods: The model upon which the project rests is the Family-Centered Mastery Intervention Model (FCMIM). The model is based upon empirically supported methods of intervention that have been shown to reduce disruptive behaviors in young children, allow them to participate and succeed in regular classrooms, and prevent them from requiring segregated special education placements and related mental health services. The Mastery Project will provide training and support to early intervention, early childhood special education, Head Start, and elementary school special and regular education administrative, teaching, and related personnel to: 1) work effectively with children with disruptive behaviors in their natural learning environments (home and mainstream classrooms and program environments) and 2) work with the children's families individually and in parent behavior management training sessions on ways to effectively manage their children's behavior and to promote their social, emotional, and cognitive growth and development. The four primary activities for the project include: collaborative planning, product development, replication training and technical assistance, and dissemination activities and awareness training.

Products: Products will include journal and newsletter articles, position papers, a project brochure, one-page information sheets, and the FCMIM manual. The manual will provide empirically supported strategies for intervening with young children with serious disruptive behaviors in their natural learning environments and for their families. In addition, four awareness training workshops and presentations will be made at state, regional, and national conferences. Information about the project will also be disseminated through print, national electronic networks, and the project's listserv. In the third year of the project, an Institute on Serving Children with Serious Disruptive Behavior and Their Families will be conducted and offered to 100 training participants. During the three years of the project, over 255 early intervention and early childhood administrators, staff, and families located in 17 programs in at least four states will receive replication training and technical assistance. In addition, another 1,000 individuals will be reached through the project's products, public awareness, conference presentations, and dissemination activities.

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Purpose: LitTECH will link the effective results of emergent literacy technology research findings to early childhood practice, thereby increasing and improving emergent literacy practices for young children with disabilities and their families.

Methods: LitTECH will implement a variety of awareness and dissemination activities. The LitTECH model was developed for diverse ethnic and cultural groups. Individuals with disabilities and parents of children with disabilities will be part of the planning, implementation, and evaluation process. Project activities will include replication, product development, revision and dissemination, training workshops, and collaboration. Replication sites will be located in multiple regions in Illinois. Five sites with multiple classes serving 1,112 children have requested replication. Classes within those sites will be randomly assigned to either the treatment (replication) or comparison group in Years 1 and 2. Additional sites will be sought for participation in Years 2 and 3. Data will be collected on children, families, staff, and sites. Comparisons within, among, and between classes and sites will be made. Training content will be organized into five modules and tested; effective training procedures will be implemented.

Products: Anticipated outcomes are expected to: (a) improve educational practice by linking tested research results to practice in the replication sites; (b) provide access to the general education curriculum, specifically related to literacy development, to children with disabilities; (c) promote awareness of the positive effects that software and adaptations can have on children's literacy skills; (d) provide effective teaching/learning strategies using an emergent literacy interactive technology curriculum, training modules, related products, and a multi-faceted Web site; and (e) increase local capacity. Products will include print materials, such as training modules and curricular materials; videos; the Web site; and electronic versions of child measures. Both low-tech and high-tech adaptations are incorporated into the curriculum.

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Purpose: This project will develop a statewide network of school districts that are implementing positive behavioral supports (PBS). In Washington State, implementation of PBS began as a recommendation from the Task Force on Behavioral Disabilities Report in 1999 and has been demonstrated as a proven model in four Washington schools. Nationally, the Center on Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports at the University of Oregon has demonstrated the PBS model. This project will make Washington one of the several states focusing on "scaling-up" the PBS model to a statewide network of school districts.

Methods: The project will organize school districts in five regions of Washington State into a network of schools implementing PBS. In each participating school district, two to three schools will join the project in the first year, and two to three additional schools will join the second year. Leadership teams from the schools will attend trainings sponsored and led by project staff, develop yearly action plans to address project objectives, and implement activities to meet their yearly goals. Each autumn, teachers will complete a school-wide screening to identify students who are encountering difficulties with discipline, and target them for additional support. Student support teams will generate intervention strategies for use with these "at-risk" students. Project staff will conduct outreach activities at the school district to support and maintain implementation of PBS methods. As the project is implemented, staff will work with district leaders to prepare useful training materials for teachers, district administrators, and family members. The project will focus on three primary objectives: (a) develop, implement, and reinforce school-wide expectations for students' prosocial behavior; (b) develop additional social and academic supports for students who are at risk for school failure; and (c) enhance the access of students with emotional or behavioral disabilities (EBD) to the general education curriculum so that they achieve important social and learning outcomes.

Products: Yearly outcomes of the project will be clearly identified in the school's action plan to address school-wide, classroom, and individual student and teacher progress. First, the schools will evaluate the effectiveness of their school-wide PBS program by monitoring the types and frequencies of office discipline referrals (ODR). Academic achievement and social behavior of at-risk students will be monitored monthly to assure that these students receive effective, evidence-based interventions. This group will also be monitored closely to determine the percentages that are referred for multidisciplinary team assessments or identification for special education. School staff will be assessed for their use of evidence-based practices to work effectively with all students in their classrooms, including those students with EBD. Feedback and evaluation from family members will be obtained to assess their perceptions and to evaluate their participation in programs for students with or at-risk of EBD. Training materials developed for teachers, district administrators, and family members will be available for school leaders and families to use with other districts in their region.

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Purpose: This project will establish Self-Determination Technical Assistance Centers (SDTACs) within four local education agencies located in Colorado, Kansas, and New York. Each SDTAC will be based on a set of proven practices for promoting self-determination with students with disabilities.

Methods: SDTAC sites were identified as using exemplary practices in promoting self-determination through a national case sampling process conducted as part of the federally funded Self-Determination Synthesis Project. Once identified as exemplars, each site participated in an intensive case study of specific practices that contributed to self-determination outcomes for their students. The SDTAC sites use a wide range of strategies to promote self-determination for students ages 11 to 21 with mild, moderate, and severe disabilities. The objectives of this project are: (a) increase public awareness about self-determination, (b) conduct SDTAC site development activities to improve the current "exemplary practices" provided by each site, (c) assist SDTAC sites as they provide technical assistance to LEAs from across their states, (d) develop products and disseminate materials related to self-determination, and (e) evaluate the project. The evaluation design will seek to employ randomized experimental designs to evaluate outreach activities.

Products: As a result of the project, each SDTAC will be prepared to provide inservice technical assistance for other local education agencies (LEA) across their state. The project will focus on improving and expanding the "exemplary practices" for promoting self-determination currently provided by each LEA to the point that they can serve as SDTACs for their state.

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Purpose: The Choices-In-Transition Model Program has been implemented with ethnic minority youth with disabilities in the Chicago area for the past seven years. The model has been empirically evaluated with high school students, middle school students, high school graduates, and dropouts with disabilities. This innovative transition model is based on sound research in the field and federal legislation. The goal is to support participants in the process of successful transition to improve academic success and increase self-determination. The model also provides for culturally sensitive family education and support and enhances individual participants' abilities to access the resources they can use to attain successful post-school outcomes. At the center of this model is the idea that youth with disabilities should have Choices-In-Transition planning and receive the support they need to attain success.

Method: The project will work with the Illinois State Board of Education to conduct statewide dissemination and recruitment efforts and select sites that are representative of four major areas: Chicago, suburban Chicago, central Illinois, and southern Illinois. Once identified, sites will be randomly assigned as participants in one of three conditions. There will be four schools in each condition, one from each identified area, for a total of 12 schools. The three conditions will be: Condition #1-Teacher and Parent In-service training; Condition #2-Teacher and Parent In-Service training and follow-up implementation support; Condition #3-Active Treatment Control. For Condition #1, local education agencies (LEAs) will receive staff development for their teachers, transition coordinators, administrators, and related service personnel. This inservice component will be conducted on-site during two-day workshops and will include training on implementation, evaluation, and sustainability of the model. All participants will learn how to teach the model curriculum and evaluate its effectiveness through the use of pre-post measures, goal attainment scaling, and the collection of field notes. Participants will also learn how to recruit mentors, train mentors, and support their role within a school-based setting. Parents will also be educated about the transition process, focusing on what to expect and how to become more involved. Data will be collected on 10 students at each school in this group to assess the transition services and student outcomes. In Condition #2, LEAs will receive the same training as those in option 1 and will also become model implementation sites. Schools in this group will receive monthly site visitations to monitor and support progress, including meetings with teachers and students to identify needs, provide support, and ensure that the model implementation is achieving the desired effects. Each school in this group will have at least one teacher that will implement the program with at least ten students (40 students across all sites). In Condition #3, LEAs will participate as the control and will receive only data collection. These four schools will serve as the comparison group to evaluate the effectiveness of outreach and dissemination strategies. Ten students per school will be selected to participate in data collection and complete measures of transition progress. Schools in this group will be able to access the inservice staff development during the last quarter of the third year. Random assignment to one of the three conditions will allow the project to evaluate the effectiveness of two types of outreach and dissemination strategies for a proven model to support an underserved group.

Products: The project will disseminate this comprehensive and interactive model throughout the state of Illinois within a number of diverse school districts using an experimental design, to enhance opportunities for ethnic minority youth with disabilities.

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Purpose: This project, Caring for Infants and Toddlers with Disabilities: New Roles for Physicians (CFIT), aims to replicate a model that addresses an almost universal challenge in early intervention: the involvement of physicians in community early intervention systems.

Methods: CFIT will increase physician participation in the early intervention system through replication of a proven model of training that provides pediatricians and family physicians with the information and skills they need to be full participants on community-based early intervention teams. The CFIT model includes three replicable components: (a) state planning, (b) introductory seminars, and (c) independent study. The state planning component involves the development of state leadership planning groups composed of Part C personnel, physicians representing state chapters of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP), and other key personnel to replicate the CFIT model. Leadership planning groups in six states will work with project staff to plan the replication process in their own state. The introductory seminar will introduce physicians to the concepts of: (a) a community-based, interdisciplinary, interagency early intervention approach; (b) family-centered services; and (c) the Independent Study process. Training methodology is designed to be as individualized, self-directed, and self-paced as possible and to acknowledge the special difficulties physicians may have in finding time for inservice training. CFIT training has been approved for continuing medical education credits.

Products: This project plans to accomplish the following: (a) collaborate with Part C, state chapters of the AAP and AAFP, families, and others to plan CFIT model replication; (b) implement the CFIT model of training in 30 communities in six states; and (c) disseminate information about the CFIT model and its products.

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Purpose: This project will provide outreach to educators in multiple regions of Georgia who are seeking to improve educational outcomes for students with severe social, emotional, or behavioral disabilities (SEBD) by implementing research-based practices of the Developmental Therapy-Teaching model (DTT).

Methods: Project objectives are to: (a) implement inservice training in DTT practices with Web-based instruction and on-site follow-up; (b) prepare three interactive learning modules for the Web training; (c) disseminate information about project findings and procedures; (d) measure progress of students using a repeated measures experimental design; and (e) evaluate school-wide changes in disruptive incidents, regulatory violations, and academic achievement.

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Purpose: The Efficacy in Literacy Instruction (ELI) Project will provide intensive staff development in proven models for enhancing skills of paraprofessional-teacher teams who teach beginning reading skills to students at risk and with reading disabilities, grades K-3.

Methods: The first model practice to be disseminated is research-based Sound Partners tutoring, an explicit phonics-based early reading program, which has been used in about 20 schools in the Seattle School District and is designed for paraprofessional tutors to supplement reading instruction for the lowest 25% of first-grade students. The project will target: (a) other schools in the greater Seattle region in which reading scores on state tests are below average; (b) schools that serve large numbers of students at risk for reading problems; and (c) districts that have not had previous access to Sound Partners training. The project will support more widespread dissemination and training in Sound Partners in the greater Seattle metropolitan area and other parts of Washington State. The second part of the project will disseminate model practices for teacher preparation in effective reading instruction. Main topics will include: the language structure of English, methods of explicit instruction in phonological, phonics, word reading and spelling skills, and assessment strategies to identify students at risk for or who have reading difficulties, including students from non-English speaking backgrounds. Staff development will consist of: (a) training in Sound Partners tutoring for paraprofessional tutors who work with students at risk for or with reading disabilities; and (b) training for certificated teachers in language essentials, informal reading assessments, scientifically-based instruction, and methods of adapting classroom reading materials to teach struggling readers. Teacher staff development will be intensive and long-term, and will target six new schools each year. Sound Partners paraprofessional staff development will be provided to the school sites targeted for teacher inservice, as well as to other schools in the region who request training.

Products: Staff development for both paraprofessionals and teachers will be interactive and collaborative. Sound Partners paraprofessional training approaches and training materials have been refined and extensively field tested under a series of federal grants 1993-2002. Training activities for K-3 teachers will be drawn from exemplary staff development models, and will include: (a) an initial one-day seminar addressing research on literacy and the language-literacy connection; (b) follow-up bimonthly meetings with teachers (including videos of teaching strategies, modeling by trainees and trainers), and (c) bimonthly on-site consultation/mentoring to help teachers incorporate information into their classroom instruction for at-risk readers. Teachers will also access e-mail consultation and a project Web site with links to supplementary information and resources. Each teacher will have a project mentor to consult on classroom instruction strategies and adaptations. Teachers will receive continuing education/clock hours for their involvement and limited stipends will be provided. Project outcomes that will be measured include: (a) level of teacher/paraprofessional knowledge about teaching reading to students with reading disabilities, (b) implementation of instructional activities, and (c) staff satisfaction/self-perceived level of preparation for working with at-risk readers.

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Purpose: This project will develop, test, evaluate, and disseminate a framework and companion toolbox to support early childhood and early intervention faculty and preservice programs in preparing students to work effectively with culturally and linguistically diverse children and families.

Methods: The services offered through Crosswalks will include: (a) providing 90 preservice leaders with resources, training, technical assistance, and evaluation services and supports to meet identified diversity needs and priorities; (b) developing and testing, using a randomized experimental design, a framework and companion toolbox for using proven strategies to support the cultural transformation of preservice programs in ways that are also consistent with national standards; and (c) providing an intense three-day institute and follow-up support for replication to a national audience of 100-150 higher education, family, and community partners. The model will be piloted and tested in nine North Carolina higher education communities that include public and private colleges/universities, Historically Black Colleges and Universities, and community colleges. Evaluation data, based on faculty, program and student change, will guide revisions and scaling up of all project materials for national distribution/ replication. Use of evidence-based practices and a randomized experimental design will assure the integrity and validity of project findings.

Products: Anticipated outcomes include: (a) increased knowledge and skills of faculty across the nation on the values, content, and pedagogy necessary to prepare students to work effectively with culturally and linguistically diverse young children and families; (b) increased emphasis on cultural and linguistic diversity in early childhood and early intervention coursework, practica, and programs; (c) increased comfort and capability of early childhood and early intervention graduates to work effectively with culturally and linguistically diverse children and families; and (d) stronger linkages among early childhood and early intervention preservice programs, family members, and community partners.

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Purpose: This project will incorporate technology to replicate a proven model of technical assistance to public school programs in rural environments, by using technology to supplement on-site technical assistance training and service delivery to improve services for children with disabilities and their families living in rural areas of Minnesota.

Methods: The project will work in rural districts in Minnesota to train 20 technical assistance teams during a three-year period, where over 55% of Minnesota's young children with disabilities and their families live and where opportunities for training and technical assistance are few. Additionally, the project will prepare four higher education mentors (each associated with a distinct rural region of the state) to sustain technical assistance teams created. The project will focus on training educators and family members to conduct functional behavioral assessments and implement positive behavioral support, which includes linking assessment results to proactive interventions; designing effective instructional environments; facilitating social interaction; teaching functional communication skills; and including family members in the design of interventions for the home, school, and community environment.

Products: The project will teach a course via a Web site and use other up-to-date distance learning technologies, such as interactive television, online Web support, and videoconferencing. This blending of technology and technical assistance will be replicable and sustainable and allow the project to disseminate information to help others work effectively with families and educators in rural areas to meet their unique needs.

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Purpose: The PLUS Project (Promoting Literacy in Urban Schools) will examine the efficacy of a school-wide model of early reading intervention for English learners (ELs) from urban, high-poverty backgrounds who are likely to be identified as having learning disabilities due to reading difficulty.

Methods: This study builds on previous work in which the PLUS model was developed and field tested with ELs in six urban schools. The PLUS model has four basic components: collaboration, progress monitoring assessment, supplementary intervention, and professional development. This study will use a randomized experimental design to empirically test the PLUS model in grades 1-2. Four experimental and two control schools in participating districts with over 50% ELs and low socioeconomic status will be randomly selected and assigned. An estimated 64 teachers and 1,280 students will participate in the study over two years. The study will examine school, teacher, and student effects over two years from first through second grade. Outcome variables include reading assessment and other student outcome measures, archival school data regarding referral and prereferral, teacher surveys, and interviews. General and special education teachers will receive professional development to assist them in implementing intensive reading intervention to prevent unnecessary referral to special education. Project personnel will visit school sites twice monthly to assist in implementation. Teachers, administrators and support personnel will receive additional support through the PLUS Project Web site.

Products: This study addresses critical issues related to early reading and prevention of reading failure for ELs, a topic not well documented in the literature. The study will yield important information about the feasibility of implementing supplemental and preventive reading intervention in urban schools and the processes and level of support needed to do so. Results of this project will provide critical information for policy and instructional practice at the national, state, and local levels through broad dissemination of papers and products. This information will be directly linked to two key national initiatives: Reading First and No Child Left Behind.

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Purpose: The CASCADES Project (Creating and Sustaining Change Across Diverse Early Intervention Systems) is a multisite, multistate outreach project that will use information generated from a proven model of exemplary practices previously funded by the EEPCD Model Demonstration Program, to support systems-level change in the delivery of services to young children with disabilities and their families.

Methods: The project will address three components: (a) provide outreach and technical assistance using a Train-the-Trainer model to identified sites ready to implement systems-level change in one or more target training areas (i.e., screening, assessment/evaluation, naturalistic intervention); (b) develop and disseminate high quality materials (e.g., training manuals, videotapes); and (c) conduct a comprehensive evaluation of the impact of the outreach and technical assistance delivered. Outreach and technical assistance will be developed in conjunction with Part C and B coordinators and/or regional early intervention/early childhood special education coordinators to assure that regional/state needs are addressed and met. Sites will identify family members and disability advocates to be involved in the development of needs statements that will guide and direct the outreach and technical assistance provided. Sites can choose from outreach content topics and delivery options (e.g., technical assistance, consultation, information workshop). Evaluation will include a randomized assignment of sites into experimental (i.e., receive outreach services) and controls. Systemic effects will be measured. In addition, participation, satisfaction, and product development and dissemination will be addressed.

Products: Through adoption of the Train-The-Trainer model in the Outreach Service Component, the project's direct impact will be transferred to a variety of other personnel and sites. The distribution of support materials in the Materials Development/Dissemination Component will provide Site Trainers with the structure and support they need to create and sustain change at their sites. In addition, evaluation findings will be shared with states/sites as well as with other interested parties through a range of strategies (e.g., presentations, journal articles).

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Purpose: The Outreach to Empower project is a collaborative effort between the University of Minnesota's Institute on Community Integration (ICI), The National Youth Leadership Council (NYLC), and the four American Indian education programs in Minnesota. The project is based on proven models that focus on instructional, curricular, youth development, and leadership programs and strategies that promote the academic achievement, school retention, and postsecondary access of American Indian youth with disabilities.

Methods: The outreach program will take place at four high schools in Minnesota with significant American Indian student enrollment. These schools represent the following characteristics: a rural school district bordering a large Ojibwe reservation, an inner city school, a suburban school, and an American Indian charter school bordering a Dakota community in southern Minnesota. The project will integrate research and dissemination findings of two tested strategies: (a) a nationally evaluated curriculum called "Expanding the Circle: Respecting the Past; Preparing for the Future," that focuses on American Indian students' academic development, school retention, social behavior and development, career goal orientation, and access to postsecondary education; and (b) collaborative service learning and youth leadership interventions through NYLC, including service learning to promote student achievement, leadership skills, school engagement, and retention. A quasi-experimental design using experimental and control groups in each of the sites will be used. The project includes an extensive research component to evaluate the utility and effectiveness of the technical assistance, training, and consultation strategies. This essential component will provide opportunities for broad replication of these practices in educational settings on a national level.

Products: The overall outcome of the project is to research and evaluate the effectiveness of these strategies and interventions, including specific outreach strategies and their positive impact on student outcomes, results across several critical dimensions, and teacher, parents, family, and community perceptions regarding the overall importance/significance of the strategies used and results achieved. A report/guide, as well as several briefs, will be produced documenting: (a) the research results and efficacy of the strategies and interventions used and tested; and (b) specific strategies needed for broader adoption and replication by other schools, school districts, and Bureau of Indian Affairs schools serving American Indian youth with disabilities.

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Purpose: Communication and cognitive skills are fundamental to lifelong learning: they are skills needed to negotiate the social and physical environments. Yet many nonverbal children with severe or multiple disabilities do not learn how to interact effectively with either environment. Many of the educational materials and approaches that are currently available represent unrelated efforts that address only one area of skill development. This outreach project will disseminate an instructional model that promotes basic skill development in a systematic way that is flexible enough to mobilize the preferences of the individual child toward the pursuit of lifelong learning. The model targets the fundamental skills necessary to understand and master the social environment (social interaction, presymbolic communication, and symbolic communication) as well as the physical environment (manipulating objects; negotiating obstacles that arise at home, in class, and in the community; and using objects for representational and social purposes).

Methods: The instructional approach has a number of features: (a) the instructional content consists of the communicative and cognitive skills needed to interact with the social and physical environments; (b) the outcome for the learner is the understanding and mastery of the social and physical environments, allowing the child to take in new information, respond to it, and act on it appropriately; (c) the approach is individualized so that intervention harnesses the intrinsic motivations of each child in the pursuit of learning; (d) the instructional approach is systematic so that families and professionals understand how learning unfolds and how the intervention relates to the child's current skills and supports the development of new skills; and (e) instruction emphasizes not only child's skill development but also the creation of environments that provide natural opportunities for learning.

Products: This project will result in training content that will address both communication and cognitive skill instruction. The project will develop online classes based on this training so that the training will become widely and permanently available without the support of grant funding. The project will target professional and family members involved in the education of nonspeaking children, ages 3-21, who experience severe and multiple disabilities.

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Purpose: The Beach Center on Disability at the University of Kansas will conduct a multidistrict replication of a multistage, multiple component model, "Beyond High School," which focuses on increasing student involvement in transition planning and implementation.

Methods: The project will replicate a proven model to achieve student involvement in transition planning and increased self-determination through student-directed learning, goal setting, monitoring, and attainment. Project activities include replicating this model with students ages 18-21 who have cognitive and developmental disabilities, and widely disseminating information to educators and families, regionally and nationally, about innovative procedures to promote student-directed learning, self-determination, and student involvement. The model links the use of the student-directed curriculum, "Whose Future Is It Anyway?" with the teacher's use of the instructional model, the "Self-Determined Learning Model of Instruction," in conjunction with informal student-directed planning meetings. The project will work directly with students, educators, and parents in six to ten districts in northeast and northwest Texas, including the Dallas/Ft. Worth metropolitan area.

Products: In disseminating information on this model regionally and nationally, the project will provide a broad informational component regarding the benefits of self-determination and student-directed strategies to achieve desired transition outcomes in students' lives.

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