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• National Center for Special Education Personnel and Related Service Providers: The Personnel Center

Personnel Activities

• Collaborative Work with other national centers & organizations
• Focused Work in States
• National Recruitment Campaign
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Center Overview

This Personnel Center builds state and local capacity for recruiting and retaining highly qualified special education personnel to serve children and youth with disabilities, birth to 21, and their families.

Methods

The work of the Center is carried out by the National Association for State Directors of Special Education (NASDSE) in cooperation with the Federal/Regional Resource Center Network and OSEP-funded technical assistance and dissemination (TA & D) centers. Three expert panels—recruitment, certification/preparation, and retention— provide feedback to the Center on research-based practices that will be disseminated to states through direct onsite technical assistance and Web-based and electronic communications. The services and resources the Center provides directly to states and local districts include: (a) developing a comprehensive plan for collecting and analyzing personnel data to better inform solutions to personnel shortages; (b) developing a strategic plan for workforce development with stakeholder groups; (c) training for recruitment and retention; (d) use of online recruiting to place qualified personnel in classrooms; and (e) distributing print and media materials to recruit persons to the field of special education through the support of a public relations consultant. The Center provides technical assistance in the facilitation of a statewide taskforce. The taskforces are made up of a wide range of stakeholder groups to address personnel needs assessment, resource mapping, and problem-solving activities related to special education workforce development. The taskforces assist in the development of a comprehensive plan that when implemented drill down technical assistance to the local district level.