A lot of one-time special education funding will be on the way to Vicksburg schools if two grant applications signed last week by Vicksburg Warren School District trustees are approved.

Special education director Dr. Susan Bentley said each grant seeks more than $1 million.

And because Vicksburg Warren schools are allowed to spend some of the funds on general education, they’ll offer benefits beyond the district’s 785 special education students.

“We are really making an effort to put the money where it is most effective and helps the highest number of students in the district,” Bentley said Wednesday. From those with the mildest to those with the most severe disabilities, “we want them to know they are supported by the program so they are able to be successful and leave the system with the skills they need to go on to college or go to work.”

The district applies for two types of federal funds each year, Bentley said — special education funds made available through IDEA — the Individuals with Disabilities Act — and those provided through Title I of the 1965 Elementary and Secondary Act, updated in 2001 with the No Child Left Behind act.

This year federal stimulus money was available in both categories, too.

Two of the applications approved July 30 are for funds through the ARRA. That money could begin flowing in to the district in as little as 30 days, Bentley said, because the federal allocation has already been received by the state for distribution.

A third grant application the board signed, along with another approved earlier in the year, is for money annually allocated for special education based on the number of students in the district who fall into certain family-income guidelines. Bentley said those grants probably won’t get the state go-ahead until October or later, with the money not received locally until November at the earliest.

“We can’t use the money for things the state pays for,” she said. “It is supposed to supplement, not supplant (normal school expenditures).”

According to Title I regulations, a district is allowed to spend 15 percent of special education allotments on general instruction because the district meets certain poverty-level guidelines.

Most district SPED spending is targeted at the elementary and intermediate schools.

“We do have programs at the junior high and high school, but we try to focus on the early years as a prevention measure,” Bentley said. The earlier students get intervention, the better their success later on, she said. In addition, only those who truly need special education get identified and helped.

In the last five years, Vicksburg’s special ed population, ranging in age from 3 to 21 years old, has decreased from about 1,400 to 785. The decline is partly due to revised federal guidelines for identification and partly to the earlier targeting of students who need an extra push but not a full-fledged special education plan.

“We are intervening earlier for those students,” Bentley said. “The push is for all students to make progress in the general education process.”

Some of the expenses associated with the district’s intercession periods — sessions of two to four days which run after each of the first three nine-week terms which target students who need extra help, a program initiated in the last school year — can be funded with the grants. Intercession classes are optional for students, but can be shown to boost test scores and other measures of student achievement.

Bentley said last year’s intercessions were successful and well-attended.

Advanced technology products are also on the list, items Bentley said VWSD would never be able to afford without the one-time grants.

The district hopes this year to purchase 49 SMART Boards, which utilize interactive technologies with large whiteboards for group instruction. Each costs about $5,000.

Computer “talkers” for blind or reduced-vision students, speak-and-type writers, specialized laptops, support chairs that help certain students stand and other types of assisted technology products are on the list of items to purchase.

“These are items that help students walk, talk and write,” said Bentley. They improve the quality of education for these students as well as their quality of life.”

Less than 1 percent of the district’s special education students has severe physical disabilities, she said.

Other uses for SPED and Title I money include salaries and benefits for some tutors and teacher mentors, assistant teachers, and even additional teachers in some cases, if it can be shown that the consequent reduction in class size helped students achieve academically and improve test scores. Materials such as intervention kits — packed with flash cards, computer software, reading, phonics or math materials — supplemental workbooks, computers, projectors and other equipment also qualifies.

“All of these have research to back them up,” Bentley said.

The district will spend about $8.6 million on special education this year, not including the stimulus money. Those funds come from a number of different sources, Bentley said, including district contributions to special ed as well as federal and state allocations.

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Contact Pamela Hitchins at phitchins@vicksburgpost.com