ICI (MA UCEDD/LEND) Receives New Grant for Transition Leadership

June 20, 2016

The Office of Special Education Programs has awarded the Institute for Community Inclusion's Education and Transition Team a new grant for $250,000 per year for the next five years. The grant will fund and prepare four cohorts of highly trained Transition Specialists with a focus on Intellectual Disability (ID) and other low incidence disabilities (LID) to address the critical shortage of transition personnel in MA. Training includes a 21-credit online personnel preparation program, including five fully online courses and a practicum. Scholars are supported with field supervisors and state and national mentors. This new grant allows ICI project staff Maria Paiewonsky, Nancy Hurley, and Molly Boyle to continue the UMass Boston Transition Leadership program, which is a Massachusetts DESE approved course of study that prepares eligible candidates for the Transition Specialist endorsement.

The three priorities of this grant include:

 

• Recruiting, retaining, and graduating 75 scholars who teach students with low incidence/intellectual disabilities culminating in receipt of a state Transition Endorsement.
•  Providing scholars with exemplar mentors & field supervision through graduation. 
• Enhancing the existing online Transition Specialist program of study for teachers and rehabilitation professionals of students with intellectual & other low incidence disabilities. 

It is anticipated that the impact of having highly qualified Transition Specialists, leaders in an essential field of growth, will have a tremendous impact on positive, post-secondary outcomes and promote more inclusive adult lives of students with disabilities.