$1.3 Million Grant Will Aid Deaf-Blind Population

The Center for Assistive Technology and Inclusive Education Studies (CATIES) at The College of New Jersey was awarded a $1,340,430 grant from the US Department of Education for Technical Assistance and Dissemination to Improve Services and Results for Children with Disabilities—Projects for Children and Young Adults Who are Deaf-Blind.

Words by TCNJ's editorial staff

The Center for Assistive Technology and Inclusive Education Studies (CATIES) at The College of New Jersey was awarded a $1,340,430 grant from the US Department of Education for Technical Assistance and Dissemination to Improve Services and Results for Children with Disabilities—Projects for Children and Young Adults Who are Deaf-Blind.

For this grant, the College will implement the activities of the New Jersey Consortium on Deaf-Blindness project (NJCDB), in partnership with the New Jersey School for the Deaf and the New Jersey Commission for the Blind and Visually Impaired.

“We are extremely excited about implementing a coordinated set of activities that will support those students that represent the lowest incidence of disabilities, deaf-blindness,” said project director Jerry Petroff ’75, associate professor of special education, language, and literacy. “It is our intention to provide a vehicle for school staff and families to be supported in their efforts to educate their students with deaf-blindness.”

The NJCDB is designed to advance the capacity of state, local, and family systems to better educate New Jersey’s children and youth with deaf-blindness. In addition, the NJCDB works in partnership with the National Consortium for Deaf-Blindness, which provides technical assistance, information, and personnel training to various agencies and families.

The NJCDB project will facilitate the development and ongoing implementation of the best practices for the education of children who are deaf-blind. It will also develop a well-coordinated and responsive system for professional development for teachers of deaf-blind students. Lastly, the project will develop a statewide program for early detection of deaf-blindness in infants, students, and youth.

Angela Sgroi, director of grant operations for the Department of Grants and Sponsored Research at the College, stated that through this project, “TCNJ takes a national leadership role in developing a model for programming and services for deaf-blindness.”

The CATIES program is a research and service initiative at TCNJ’s School of Education. It is dedicated to improving the educational experiences of children with disabilities by linking faculty and staff expertise with the needs of New Jersey’s educational community.