Federal grant programs / Department of Education

Special Education - State Personnel Development (84.323)

• Awarded, FY 2021 to 2025$189 million
• Grant awards66
• Typical award$2.1 million
• Awarded in FY 2025$37.2 million
• Size rank621 of 1,823
• Type of assistanceProject grants

Key findings

• Annual funding was roughly flat, $38.6 million in fiscal 2021 and $37.2 million in fiscal 2025.
• It is the 621st largest of 1,823 federal grant programs by five-year awards.
• The 20 largest recipients received 70% of the money.
• Awards went to recipients in 44 states and territories.

What the program funds

To assist State educational agencies in reforming and improving their systems for personnel preparation and professional development in early intervention, educational and transition services, to improve results for children with disabilities. As used in this program, "personnel" means special education teachers, regular education teachers, principals, administrators, related services personnel, paraprofessionals, and early intervention personnel serving infants, toddlers, preschoolers, or children with disabilities, except where a particular category of personnel, such as related services personnel, is identified.

From the federal Assistance Listing. Read the full listing on SAM.gov.

Open opportunities

No opportunity under this program is open or forecast on Grants.gov right now. Programs often post once a year, so the funding history below shows what to expect.

Rules from the program listing

Who can apply

State Educational Agencies. A State educational agency of one of the 50 States, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, and the outlying areas (U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa, and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands) may apply.

What the money can and cannot pay for

The uses of funds under the State Personnel Development Grants progam are described in section 654 of the IDEA (20 U.S.C. 1454). Not less than 90 percent of the grant funds for any fiscal year must be used for spent on professional development activities described in section 654(a) of IDEA (20 U.S.C. 1454(a)), including improving results for children with disabilities through the delivery of high-quality instruction and the recruitment, hiring and retention of highly qualified special education teachers. Not more than 10 percent of grant funds for any fiscal year must can be spent on the other activities described in section 654(b) of IDEA (20 U.S.C. 1454(b)), such as reforming special education and regular education teacher certification (including recertification) or licensing requirements and carrying out programs that establish, expand, or improve alternative routes for State certification of special education teachers.

Matching requirements

This program has no statutory formula. Matching requirements are not applicable to this assistance listing. MOE requirements are not applicable to this assistance listing.

Deadlines

Oct 01, 2026 to Sep 30, 2027

Award range and average, in the agency's words

For 2024, new awards ranged between $500,000 and $2,099,998; the average award was about $951,500.

Quoted from the program's federal Assistance Listing. The notice of funding opportunity is the official source for each competition's rules.

Who usually wins

State and local governments received 96% of the money, colleges and universities 3.6%.

By state

41 states have a page for this program: those that received at least $1 million or 10 awards.

Award amounts are federal obligations reported to USAspending.gov for fiscal 2021 to 2025; see how our data works.