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The Individuals with Disabilities Education ACT (IDEA)
The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) guarantees that children with disabilities have access to a free, appropriate public education in the least restrictive environment.
Part B of the IDEA provides funds to state and local educational agencies to help them ensure that children with disabilities, including children aged 3 through 5, have access to a free, appropriate public education that meets each child's unique needs and prepares him or her for further education, employment, and independent living.
Part C of the IDEA provides funds to state agencies to implement statewide systems of coordinated, comprehensive, multidisciplinary interagency programs and make early intervention services available to infants and toddlers with disabilities and their families.
How Can I Obtain IDEA Funds?
The US Department of Education provides topic briefs on local and state funding opportunities for IDEA on its Web site. Visit the U.S. Department of Education Web site for further information.
IDEA: Featured Products
Teaching Strategies is proud to offer resources designed specifically to support your work with families and children with disabilities. In many cases, our products align directly with the early learning standards specified in federal funding requirements for IDEA.
Click here to view a PDF that shows how The Creative Curriculum reflects the recommendations of the Division of Early Childhood of the Council for Exceptional Children.
The Creative Curriculum for Preschool, Fourth Edition
The Curriculum is designed using a universal approach that applies multiple strategies to meet the various ways children learn. All children need to be actively engaged. As children talk and play together in the classroom, they become models, supports, friends, and tutors to children with disabilities.
Mathematics: The Creative Curriculum Approach
This resource supports teachers of young children in creating a mathematics-rich environment that promotes exploration and learning. A section on meeting the needs of diverse learners suggests alternate supports for each math activity, including specific approaches, adaptive materials, and communication and recording devices. These evidence-based supports help teachers to meet the intent of IDEA so that children with disabilities benefit from attending the same programs as their peers.
Room Arrangement as a Teaching Strategy Bilingual DVD
The classroom learning environment helps children feel safe and become independent and confident learners. This video depicts ways to make children with disabilities and their families feel valued as members of the classroom, through the use of modified and adapted equipment, furniture, toys, and learning materials that are adapted for ease of use. In English and Spanish.
IDEA and the ARRA
The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) makes available $11.3 billion for IDEA (Part B, Special Education) for grants to states; an additional $400 million for Part B preschool grants; and $500 million for Part C Grants for Infants and Families. Preliminary information about each state's allocation can be found here.
For additional information about ARRA and its impact on IDEA funding, visit the ARRA IDEA Recovery Funds Web site.
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