OSERS-OSEP: Expanding Career Pathways and Workforce Readiness of Special Education Teachers and Early Intervention Personnel Through Registered Apprenticeships, Assistance Listing Number (ALN) 84.325J
Cooperative agreements fund state agencies to create or expand registered apprenticeship programs that prepare and retain special education teachers or early intervention personnel.
RESTRICTED TO: STATE LOCAL GOV
⚑ Eligibility is limited to State educational agencies and other public agencies; if not the SEA or IDEA Part C lead agency, applicant must partner with the SEA or IDEA Part C lead agency. · Institutions of higher education, including public universities, are explicitly ineligible to apply. · Program is for registered apprenticeship-based workforce preparation, not research. · Cooperative agreement instrument.
Unit fits — one characterization, each unit's own rules
| IPPRA | 15 none | university cannot apply directly (ineligible) |
| Physical Sciences & Engineering (demo) | 15 none | university cannot apply directly (ineligible) |
| Tom Love Innovation Hub | 5 none | no commercialization signal |
Description
Program Description: The purposes of the Personnel Development to Improve Services and Results for Children with Disabilities program are to (1) help address State-identified shortages and needs for personnel preparation in special education and early intervention, including infants, toddlers, children, and youth with disabilities; and (2) ensure that those personnel have the necessary skills and knowledge, derived from practices that have been determined through scientifically based research, to be successful in serving those children.
The purpose of the Expanding Career Pathways and Workforce Readiness of Special Education Teachers and Early Intervention Personnel Through Registered Apprenticeships competition is to fund cooperative agreements that support registered apprenticeship1 programs that attract, prepare, and retain special education teachers or early intervention personnel. This priority is particularly relevant for special education and early intervention, where high-quality preparation must be accessible, practice-based, and closely integrated with service delivery systems. Preparing qualified special education teachers and early intervention personnel through registered apprenticeship programs addresses critical workforce shortages, integrating work-based learning, and connecting preparation with local and State labor demands.
1Note: ED encourages applicants to consider the definition of Registered Apprenticeship Program as defined in 5 CFR 362.102 and 29 CFR part 29.
Assistance Listing Number: 84.325J.
Applicants are required to follow the 2025 Common Instructions for Applicants to Department of Education Discretionary Grant Programs , published in the Federal Register on August 29, 2025 (90 FR 42234) and available at ED 2025 Common Instructions .
Note: For new potential grantees unfamiliar with grantmaking at ED, please consult our “ Getting Started with Discretionary Grant Applications ” webpage.
Eligibility
State educational agencies (SEAs) and other public agencies, including IDEA Part C lead agencies and State apprenticeship agencies. Note: To meet the absolute priority, eligible applicants must be a State agency, and if not the SEA or IDEA Part C lead agency, the applicant must partner with the SEA or IDEA Part C lead agency to implement the project. Pursuant to 20 U.S.C. 1461(b)(2), other types of entities such as local educational agencies (LEAs), institutions of higher education (IHEs), and public charter schools, are not eligible to apply.
Apply
View on Grants.gov → CONTACT: Holly Clark Management and Program Analyst <Anna.Macedonia@ed.gov>
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Legacy IPPRA LLM assessment (v2.0, for comparison)
0/100 · gpt-5.4-mini · 2026-07-06
This is a workforce-preparation and apprenticeship program for special education teachers and early intervention personnel, not a research, survey, evaluation, or data-infrastructure opportunity. Public universities are explicitly ineligible to apply as lead applicants, so IPPRA could not directly compete for or anchor the project.
Legacy scoring history
| 2026-07-06 | 0 | gpt-5.4-mini | This is a workforce-preparation and apprenticeship program for special education teachers and early intervention personnel, not a research, survey, evaluation, or data-infrastructure opportunity. Public universities are explicitly ineligible to apply as lead applicants, so IPPRA could not directly compete for or anchor the project. |
| 2026-07-06 | 12 | gpt-5.4-mini | This is a workforce-development and apprenticeship program for special education and early intervention personnel, with a human-services and training focus rather than a research or policy-research agenda. The topic is adjacent to IPPRA’s public health/crisis-response interests only in the broad sense of service delivery and workforce readiness, but public universities are explicitly not eligible to apply, so the score is capped low. |