In Texas, the rate of autism among children (age range 3-22 years) has dramatically increased from 11,940 in 2003 to 19,244 in 2006, with the rate continuing to increase. We need to reach the teachers of these children and make sure that they use evidence-based or best educational practices for maximum effect. This urgency has made it necessary for us to provide distributed learning methods as an option for individuals who do not have access to universities in metropolitan areas. We want to tap current or future educators in rural Texas in order to provide the best education and training to help them serve students with autism and Autism Spectrum Disorders. We will provide the education and training under the auspices of Project DART.

Project DART or Distributed Education for Autism Personnel in Rural Texas has been funded by the U.S. Department of Education for about $800,000 for a four-year period. The program is designed to provide opportunities to educators in rural Texas who do not have access to autism or special education program. The new program extends our current face-to-face (F2F) Master’s degree in special education with a specialization in autism intervention. The main difference will be that the new program will utilize distributed learning methods for instructional delivery (e.g., online courses, videoconferencing and electronic course packages).

This program is housed within the Department of Educational Psychology in the College of Education. However, we also have collaborative partnerships with the Department of Behavior Analysis. The new program will be open to individuals with a four-year degree in any discipline of education (or a related field, e.g., psychology), or individuals who are currently working within a school district. Twenty-five top students from rural Texas will be accepted this Fall (2009) and be provided with a scholarship and a small stipend to complete the program. The first group of students entered the program in Spring 2009.  Applications for Fall 2009 will be available beginning June 1.

We also invite applications from cohorts of students from the same school district or program because our goal is to build capacity within local schools and communities. For program interest please contact Dr. Smita Mehta – Associate Professor – smita.mehta@unt.edu. For questions related to the application process and scholarship details, please contact Ms. Debbie Farr – Program Coordinator – debbie.farr@unt.edu.