Grants and Funding Sources do not appear to be as available for Post-Secondary Education as in Elementary and Secondary Education. I have attended several Grant Writing Seminars over the past three to four years and the general theme is that Grant Writing for Post-Secondary Education takes time. The first several times that you submit grants most likely will not be approved. I do not find this as a deterrent, but time, is the deterrent. I think also keeping up with the grants that are available. The time frame from when the grant becomes available to the submission date can be quite short. I do hope within the next four to five years that our program will have the ability to write and obtain grants.
Reviewing the resources provided was primarily for K through 12. I went into a majority of the websites to see if anything would apply to Post-Secondary Education. This was very limited. The following resources provided from the reading would be of the greatest benefit for Post-Secondary Education:
1. The National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research (NIDRR) http://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/osers/nidrr/about.html and is one of three components of the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services (OSERS). NIDRR operates in concert with the Rehabilitation Services Administration (RSA) and the Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP).
2. Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Service (OSERS) http://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/osers/index.html is committed to improving results and outcomes for people with disabilities of all ages. OSERS provides a wide array of supports to parents and individuals, school districts and states in three main areas: special education, vocational rehabilitation and research.
3. The Rehabilitation Services Administration (RSA) oversees grant programs that help individuals with physical or mental disabilities to obtain employment and live more independently through the provision of such supports as counseling, medical and psychological services, job training and other individualized services. This cannot be utilized in the Post-Secondary Environment, though this is a significant resource for healthcare professionals. RSA's provides funds to state vocational rehabilitation (VR) agencies to provide employment-related services for individuals with disabilities, giving priority to individuals who are significantly disabled.
The following are additional resources that may pertain to Post-Secondary Education and Healthcare Related Fields of Study:
1. Baccalaureate Degrees in Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics, and Critical Foreign Languages and Master's Degrees in Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics, and Critical Foreign Languages (84.381). This is a program that supports the development of educational programs for the aforementioned degrees. http://www.federalgrantswire.com/baccalaureate-degrees-in-science-technology-engineering-mathematics-and-critical-foreign-languages-and-masters-degrees-in-science-technology-engineering-mathematics-and-critical-foreign-languages.html
2. Preparing Tomorrow's Teachers to Use Technology (84.342) The Objective is to guarantee that future teachers are proficient in the new learning technologies they will find in their twenty-first century schools, teacher preparation programs are encouraged to form partnerships that will insure that teachers have mastered the instructional strategies, learning styles, and content applications enabled by modern learning technologies. http://www.federalgrantswire.com/preparing-tomorrows-teachers-to-use-technology.html
3. The National Institute of Health http://www.nih.gov/ has extensive grants. Please note the specified resource http://grants.nih.gov/grants/oer.htm, though this may not be specific to technology but relates to healthcare.
4. Special pricing from APPLE to purchase technology is noted in the following website: http://www.apple.com/education/how-to-buy/
5. The Bill and Melinda Gates foundation has a specialty area for education: http://www.gatesfoundation.org/postsecondaryeducation/Pages/default.aspx http://www.gatesfoundation.org/college-ready-education/Pages/default.aspx
6. The Clinton Foundation may have opportunities for funding: http://clintonfoundation.org/what-we-do/
I think that the above resources are probably just the tip of the iceberg. I am sure that with additional research that there may be many more opportunities for Post-Secondary Education. During this process, I sent several of the websites to our administration to encourage that we aggressively look at these grants. Not only would this benefit the educational process but also the fiduciary responsibility that we have to our students and community.
