Success Story: Securing a Fund for Improvement of Education Grant to Address Personnel Shortages…and What it Grew
Nancy Kuhles, MS, CCC-SLP, Christine Verre, MS, CCC- SLP, and Kimberly Smerkers, EdD
Nevada Coalition to Address Personnel Shortages in Special Education and Related Services
What we have done since being awarded a seed grant from ASHA and a Fund for the Improvement of Education, (FIE) grant from the U.S. Department of Education:
The Nevada Speech-Language Hearing Association's (NSHA) coalition work that began with an ASHA seed grant and a U.S. Department of Education FIE grant opened the door to annual IDEA Special Projects grant awards from the Nevada Department of Education’s (NDE) Office of Inclusive Education. Since 2009, the annual NDE grants expanded and implemented the NSHA/NV Coalition’s goals targeting recruitment, selection, training, and retention of special education and related service providers. What started as three projects under the FIE grant, expanded into the NSHA Coalition’s current six projects and includes: related service professional learning; technical assistance supporting special education related service personnel collaborations and partnerships; “Get the Word Out” campaign; Nevada’s “Teacher Shortage Area” designation; Nevada Medicaid’s School Health Services; and general consulting.
Our challenges created opportunities:
Our success in garnering support for the FIE grant, and the honing of our grant writing and implementation skills, gave us the confidence to say yes when offered an opportunity to pursue a grant with our NDE’s Office of Inclusive Education. The ongoing grant with NDE has seen what started with 50 stakeholders expand to the inclusion of school districts, parent information networks, state associations, organizations, institutions of higher education, state agencies, and entities, private practitioners, and various departments within NDE.
Our NSHA Coalition facilitates quarterly stakeholder meetings and monthly Coalition leadership meetings, and utilizes an Objective Dashboard System to communicate with stakeholders in a concise and timely manner. Our grant management has seen continuous improvement and the development of procedures that meet state and federal requirements.
Updated outcomes of our efforts:
Since the closeout of our FIE grant in 2011, and annually awarded IDEA Special Project grants since 2009, the NDE and NSHA Coalition’s collaborative efforts continue to impact policy work at the federal and state level and strengthen professional networks and resources that change educational practice at the local level.
A few of our outcomes include the creation and implementation of a statewide performance evaluation system developed by school-based audiologists and speech-language pathologists; collaboration on NDE’s ongoing collection of statewide shortage data; a redesigned website to streamline the content to focus on resources for recruitment and retention, that includes our “Get the Word Out” campaign; and the establishment of a second CSD master’s program in Nevada.
Updated advice we would like to give to others:
- Expand on positive conversations and ask who else should know about issues impacting the recruitment and retention of special education and related service personnel, who else should be asked to support your work. Reach out and engage them in conversations.
- Collaboratively look for ways to support initiatives. Support can come through financially, or through the combining of initiatives, and/or through the sharing of the work.
- Reach out to others who have done the work you are thinking about or wanting to do. Ask for their guidance, ask for their help. Support and success can come with a simple ask.
