Program Announcement: Related Services CFDA 84.324A

Program Officer:
Dr. Jacquelyn Buckley
Jacquelyn.Buckley@ed.gov
(202) 219-2130

Purpose

The purpose of the Related Services (Related Services) research program is to contribute to the improvement of reading, writing, language, mathematics, science, social, or behavioral outcomes, as well as functional skills that improve educational and transitional results of students with disabilities by: (1) exploring malleable factors¹ (e.g., related services practices and delivery systems) that are associated with better child outcomes for children with disabilities, as well as mediators or moderators of the relations between these factors and child outcomes, for the purpose of identifying potential targets of intervention; (2) developing innovative related services interventions — practices, programs, and delivery systems — that are intended to improve outcomes for students with disabilities; (3) determining the efficacy of related services practices, programs, and delivery systems for students with disabilities; (4) providing evidence on the effectiveness of related services practices, programs, and delivery systems for students with disabilities when implemented at scale; and (5) developing assessments that can be used to evaluate the performance of related service providers and validating these or existing assessments against child outcomes.

The long-term outcome of this program will be an array of tools and strategies (e.g., assessments, services, curricula, programs, practices, interventions) that have been documented to be effective for improving the reading, writing, mathematics, science, social and behavioral outcomes, as well as functional skills that improve educational and transitional outcomes of students with disabilities who receive related services from kindergarten through Grade 12.

Background

The provision of related services is an integral part of a free and appropriate public education for students served under Part B of IDEA. In the most recent wave of data from the Special Education Elementary Longitudinal Study (U.S. Department of Education, n.d.), 31 percent of elementary special education students received speech or language therapy; 8 percent received occupational therapy; 4 percent received social work services; and 2 percent received audiology services.²

Relatively little rigorous research has been conducted to determine the impact of related services for improving student outcomes. Under the Related Services topic, the Institute supports research on related services interventions for students with high- or low-incidence disabilities. For example, an applicant could propose to evaluate the efficacy of interpreter services for students with hearing impairments by comparing the effects of interpreter services on student learning to other methods of language input, such as closed captioning. Alternatively, a study could be designed to examine the separate and combined effects of elements of interpreter practice to determine which elements are most important for improving learning for students with hearing impairments.

Through the Related Services program, the Institute encourages research on strategies, practices, or programs delivered by related services providers as well as research on school-level procedures and processes that may directly affect the delivery of related services and indirectly affect student outcomes. For example, an applicant could propose to develop a comprehensive model of coordinated service delivery that is intended to streamline communication between teachers and related service providers. Intervention components might include professional development, co-teaching, problem-solving approaches, and management strategies.

The Institute is also interested in proposals to develop innovative or evaluate promising professional development programs for related services providers. As an illustration, an applicant might propose to evaluate a professional development program intended to improve instructional practices of occupational therapists targeting fine motor skills and writing outcomes. The occupational therapists could be randomly assigned to receive the intervention program or to a business-as-usual (e.g., whatever professional development training is typically provided by the district) control condition. In this design, the researcher would evaluate whether the practices of the occupational therapists changed as well as whether the intervention directly improved students' fine motor skills and indirectly, writing outcomes.

Finally, through this program, the Institute welcomes applications to develop assessments of the practices of related service providers (i.e., a measure of the quality of the services provided) and validate such assessments against student outcomes. For example, measures of "interpreter quality" might be developed and validated against the amount of academic content learned by students with hearing impairments.

The types of projects that are appropriate for this program are illustrated by, but not limited to, the examples provided above.