The University was awarded two federal grants totalling more than $2 million for programs for students with disabilities.
Congressman Martin Olav Sabo, D-Minn., announced the awarding of the grants Monday.
The University will receive a $1.9 million grant for the next five years to join a collaborative effort to create the National Secondary Education and Transition Technical Assistance Center. The grant is from the U.S. Department of Education’s Technical Assistance for Secondary Education for Students with Disabilities program.
The new center will provide and distribute technical assistance, training and consultation to students with disabilities, and their parents or educators, as they prepare for secondary education.
Two University centers — the Institute on Community Integration’s National Transition Network and the National Center on Education Outcomes — will work on the project with another Minneapolis institute, the Parent Advocacy Coalition for Educational Rights Center.
In addition to the $1.9 million grant, the University was also awarded a $149,949 grant from the Education Department to develop, implement, evaluate and disseminate information for new or improved approaches to providing education and related services to students with disabilities. Schools may then adopt one of those approaches.
The federal funding for this program will be available to the University for four years.
“These federal funds will allow the University of Minnesota to develop innovative policies and practices that will ease the transition for disabled children across the nation as they enter secondary school,” Sabo said in a statement.

Erin Ghere welcomes comments at [email protected].