Jerome receives funding for consortium for teacher preparation

Marci Jerome, Severe Disabilities Program Coordinator, Kellar Institute for Human disAbilities, received $500,000 from the U.S. Department of Education for: “The Virginia Consortium for Teacher Preparation in Special Education Adapted Curriculum: Supporting Students w/Disabilities & Autism.”

The Consortium is composed of six universities in Virginia, including: Mason, Norfolk State University, Radford University, Virginia Commonwealth University, James Madison University, and Old Dominion University.

The mission of the Consortium is to develop and implement a statewide program to meet the initial and continuing education needs for teachers of students with severe and multiple disabilities across the Commonwealth of Virginia, including rural and urban areas. Utilizing distance education and a shared program of study and coursework, participating universities will provide coursework and internships for initial endorsement in special education: adapted curriculum K-12; add-on endorsement programs; and continuing education courses to enable teachers to meet the state-required competencies for instruction of students with severe disabilities and, thus, help to reduce the continued, critical low-incidence teacher shortage in the Commonwealth.

This funding began in October 2020 and will end in late September 2022.

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