The National Center for Special Education Personnel and Related Service Providers (Personnel Center) works to increase the nation's capacity to successfully recruit and retain special educators, early intervention and related service providers to serve the needs of infants, young children and youth with disabilities and their families. To this end, the Personnel Center is conducting a national recruitment campaign to attract a diverse pool of interested candidates to these professions. Information on careers, personnel preparation programs, state certification requirements, financial aid and employment opportunities is maintained and continually updated on this website.

The Personnel Center is also working to increase the capacity of states, local school districts, early intervention programs and personnel preparation programs to recruit, prepare and retain well-qualified, diverse special educators, early intervention and related service providers. To this end, the Personnel Center provides information on successful recruitment, preparation and retention strategies for increasing the quantity and quality of practicing professionals, paraprofessionals and assistants who serve the needs of infants, young children and youth with disabilities and their families. Focused work in five states per year provides targeted recruitment and retention services directly to those states and their local school districts, early intervention programs and personnel preparation programs that are selected each year. Contact the Personnel Center Project Director, Dr. Phoebe Gillespie, at (703) 519-3800 ext. 337 if you are interested in learning more about the Personnel Center's focused work in states.

The National Coordination and Dissemination Center to Improve Strategies for the Recruitment and Retention of Qualified Personnel for Children with Disabilities is funded by the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) through a Cooperative Agreement (H326P030002) with the National Association of State Directors of Special Education (NASDSE), effective October 1, 2003. Project Officer: Helen Thornton.

The Personnel Center engages in collaborative work with a wide range of other professional and community organizations, national associations, businesses and OSEP-funded projects.

• American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (AACTE)
• American Association for Employment in Education (AAEE)
• American Association of School Personnel Administrators (AASPA)
• American Council for Rural Special Education (ACRES)
• American Federation of Teachers (AFT)
• Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD)
• Council for Exceptional Children (CEC)
• Council of Administrators of Special Education, Inc (CASE)
• Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO)
• Higher Education Consortium for Special Education (HECSE)
• National Association for Alternative Certification (NAAC)
• National Association of State Directors of Teacher Education and Certifications (NASDTEC)
• National Education Association (NEA)
• Teacher Education Division (TED) - Council for Exceptional Children

• Alliance Parent Centers/PACER
• Center for Improving Teacher Quality (CTQ)
• Center on Personnel Studies in Special Education (CoPSSE)
• Federal and Regional Resource Centers (FRC, SERRC, MSRRC, NERRC, GLARRC, MPRRC, WRRC)
• IDEA Partnership
• The Iris Center for Faculty Enhancement
• The National Center for Alternative Certification (NCAC)
• The National Center for Culturally Responsive Educational Systems (NCCRES)
• The National Resource Center for Paraprofessionals
• National Center for Personnel Preparation in Special Education at Minority Institutions of Higher Education (Monarch Center)
• The National Early Childhood Technical Assistance Center (NECTAC)
• Urban Special Education Leadership Collaborative

• American Institutes for Research (AIR)
• Best Buddies
• WestEd

If you are interested in pursuing collaborative work with the Personnel Center, please contact us at 1-866-BECOME1.