Faculty and professional development providers have an important role in ensuring that local educators, related service providers, and leaders have the necessary knowledge, skills, and resources to develop and implement high-quality educational programs for students with disabilities. To effectively prepare and support pre-service and in-service professionals, faculty and professional development providers must create learning opportunities that incorporate modeling, coaching, feedback, and other active learning techniques. In addition, faculty and professional development providers must support school professionals’ ability to select and use appropriate evidence-based practices within their unique contexts to effectively meet the needs of students with disabilities.

Faculty and professional development providers can draw from freely available resources from the IRIS Center, CEEDAR Center, and National Center on Intensive Intervention (NCII; for faculty and for trainers and coaches), among other OSEP Technical Assistance and Dissemination Centers. In addition, this section provides a sample of resources that faculty and professional development providers can use to support pre-service and in-service educators in developing and implementing high-quality educational programs for students with disabilities.