Lynchburg College aid program targets special ed teachers

By Christa Desrets

Published: August 4, 2008

Lynchburg College is looking for up to 12 Virginia teachers who would receive a more than 90 percent discount while earning an endorsement in Early Childhood Special Education.

The Virginia Consortium for Teacher Preparation is in its second year of offering the assistance to teachers of preschool-aged children with disabilities.

“Students will need to pay only $100 per course, which is about $900 less than they would normally pay,” said Glenn Buck, Professor of Education and Human Development at LC. “That’s quite a deal.”

Funded by the Virginia Department of Education, the program includes four courses and currently is offered only at LC and Radford University.

Two courses will be offered per semester, including Medical and Therapeutic Interventions, Curriculum and Intervention, Family Centered Programming and Assessment in ECSE.

“Special education in general is one of the areas of greatest need in terms of teachers,” Buck said.

The courses will be taught live by LC and Radford faculty, and simultaneously delivered to multiple locations via distance education technology.

Buck said classroom sites will be identified according to student location and need.

Last year, sites were provided in Evington, Farmville, Blacksburg, Roanoke and Palmyra.

“This is a program that’s primarily targeted for teachers who are working on provisional licenses, and they have three years in which to get the coursework completed,” Buck said. “Because many of our teachers who are in that situation live far from a campus, this distance education program is ideal.”