§ 319.3 - What activities may the Secretary fund?

The Secretary funds basic State awards and may fund competitive grant awards and provide technical assistance to States in developing and maintaining their comprehensive systems of personnel development and in recruitment and retention strategies.

(a) Basic State awards. The Secretary makes an award to each State for the purposes described in § 319.1.

(b) Competitive award program. The Secretary may make competitive awards for the purposes described in § 319.1. These awards must address particularly high priority issues in a State that also have high potential for generalizability to needs in other States.

(c) Technical assistance. (1) The Secretary may provide technical assistance to State educational agencies on matters pertaining to the effective implementation of section 613(a)(3) of the IDEA.

(2) This activity includes, but is not limited to, technical assistance to the States relating to the following—

(i) Monitoring personnel needs in the State including identification of alternative approaches for determining current and projected needs;

(ii) Analyzing strategies to determine needs for professional preparation to meet the needs of children with disabilities;

(iii) Identifying, designing, adapting, testing, and disseminating new professional preparation strategies; and

(iv) Providing technical assistance in the personnel development, recruitment, and retention areas.

(3) Operational activities must include, but are not limited to, the following:

(i) Determining national needs and identifying unserved regions and populations.

(ii) Identifying the specific technical assistance needs of individual States related to professional preparation.

(iii) Conducting annual meetings at national and regional levels.

(iv) Dissemination of information through media, newsletters, computers, and written documentation.

(v) Cooperative activities with other personnel development projects and organizations on common goals.

(vi) Evaluation, including impact determination, and evaluation assistance to personnel development projects funded under section 632 of the IDEA as well as evaluation of comprehensive system of personnel development activities.