Lynchburg College has teamed up with Radford University to provide free or discounted courses for qualified teachers to work in Virginia’s public schools with children from birth to age 5 who have disabilities.
The program targets teachers who are not fully licensed, but need to complete their provisional licenses within three years. Under Virginia law, students ages 2-5 with disabilities are eligible to receive services through their public school districts.
"The problem is there’s a shortage of fully licensed Early Childhood Special Education teachers," said Dr. Glenn Buck, associate professor of special education at Lynchburg College.
The Virginia Consortium for Teacher Training in Early Childhood Special Education is funded by the Virginia Department of Education. The consortium will pay most of teachers’ in-state tuition for successfully completed endorsement coursework. Buck said the hope is that the program will be funded for at least the next three years.
"This consortium is targeting Central and Southwest Virginia," Buck said. "It was created to meet the needs of provisionally licensed teachers located far from a college or university."
Courses are taught by LC or RU faculty simultaneously via distance education technology to all classroom locations. The courses offered are: medical aspects, curriculum and instruction, family-centered programming, assessment in Early Childhood Special Education (ECSE). The four courses will be offered at a rate of two courses per university spring and fall semester.
Distance classroom sites will be identified according to student location and need, most likely at a high school or community college with the necessary equipment. Some courses will require one or more Saturday face-to-face sessions for which all students are required to travel to the closer of the schools: Lynchburg College or Radford University.
Teachers will enroll as a degree (i.e., M. Ed. in Special Education) or non-degree graduate student at either institution, and must complete the consortium application and the Virginia Teacher’s Tuition Reduction Application.
For more information, contact Dr. Glenn Buck at 434/544-8689 or buck@lynchburg.edu.