Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA)
The stimulus act provides additional funding for the federal government’s main program of support for educating children with special needs. Half of this funding, or about $5.85 billion, was made available in March 2009. As with Title I, these funds are being distributed under existing program formulas.
The federal government encourages school districts to view these funds as a one-time investment, rather than using them for ongoing programs that may have to be terminated when the funding disappears. The government says schools could use these funds for technology-related expenditures such as:
- Obtaining state-of-the-art assistive technology devices and providing training in using them to help students with disabilities access the general curriculum
- Developing or expanding the capacity to collect and use data to improve the learning process for students with disabilities and to enhance processes for teaching these students
Click here to access a fact sheet and departmental guidance documents about this program.