Department of Education grant to fund Purdue Special Education students

A $1.2 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education Office for Special Education Programs was awarded to the Purdue College of Education to provide special education doctoral students with full funding throughout their program of study.

This project, named Project Co-LEAD, is a consortium between Purdue University, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and the University of Oregon. Through Co-LEAD, full funding will be provided to 5 full-time Purdue students in the special education doctoral program over the next 4 years.

The federally-funded project, led by Mandy Rispoli, professor of special education and co-director of the Purdue Autism Research Center, aims to address shortages in higher education faculty to lead research involving children and youth with autism and to train others in evidence-based practices.

“There is a national shortage of PhD level special education faculty in higher education. Our goal is to prepare future scholars and researchers to fill this gap and to lead the field forward in three critical areas: autism, evidence-based practice, and diversity,” says Rispoli.

“At Purdue, we have several faculty whose research focuses on these areas,” says Rispoli. “There is [also] a wealth of faculty expertise and research focused on autism at [University of Oregon] and [University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign].”

Doctoral students in special education are still needed and highly encouraged to apply to this competitive program.
Students accepted into the program will receive: full tuition, a stipend, funding for research supplies, health insurance, opportunities to attend professional conferences, research and publication opportunities, mentorship and training with national and international experts in autism intervention research, and the ability to choose from an array of internships in high needs schools.

The application deadline for Purdue University is Dec. 15, 2019 for the August 2020 fall entry and requires recommendations, GRE scores, a personal statement, and a writing sample. Deadlines for University of Oregon and the University of Illinois-Urbana Champaign can be found on their respective websites.

For more information, email mrispoli@purdue.edu (at Purdue), wmachali@uoregon.edu (at UO), or meadan@illinois.edu (at UI-UC).