What it is
The Beach Center has several projects dedicated to providing technical assistance and training to Kansas families, service providers, and educators. These are collaborative projects which we do in partnership with other divisions at KU and with Kansas state or local agencies. The purpose of each of these is to provide support to help Kansas families and providers access the best and most evidence-based practices available to meet needs of Kansas learners.
What We're Doing
- Kansas Deaf-Blind Project -- This project is funded by a federal grant from the Office of Special Education Programs, to provide services to Kansas families and educators of learners who have dual sensory disabilities. The Deaf-Blind Project maintains a census of children birth to age 21 in the state who are deaf-blind. Services include: technical assistance to early intervention and school teams; professional development; and family support. See the website: http://www.kansasdeafblind.ku.edu/ for more information.
- Distance Mentorship Project -- This project is funded by a federal grant from the Office of Special Education Programs, to develop a technology-based approach to serve technical assistance to school teams serving learners who are deaf-blind. Our Kansas Deaf-Blind Project Team will provide the technical assistance using online and telecommunications strategies. Our partner is the Juniper Gardens Children's Project, which will conduct research to document the effectiveness of the methods to provide the technical assistance. See the website: http://www.jgcp.ku.edu/ for more information about Juniper Gardens Children's Project.
- Project Success -- This project is funded by the Kansas Department of Education, Special Education Services. Its purpose is to provide support to Kansas schools to improve performance in reading and math for students with disabilities, and to develop schools' ability to serve those students in the least restrictive environment. Our partners include the KU Center for Research on Learning. Project Success is a part of the Kansas Technical Assistance Network, which means we collaborate with a network of technical assistance providers to meet the needs of Kansas special education students across a wide range of issues. For more information, please see our website: http://www.kansasprojectsuccess.org/.