Special Education Programs
Sally Drew, PhD
Director of Special Education Programs
Phone: 203 396-8351
Email: drews2@sacredheart.edu
Special Education Tracks Offered:
- MAT Elementary with Special Education Cross Endorsement
- MAT Initial License in Special Education
- Master of Education in Special Education
- Sixth-Year Degree in Special Education
Special Education Programs Overview:
The Special Education programs at Sacred Heart University equip graduates with the knowledge, skills, and dispositions to plan, deliver, and assess instruction for students with exceptionalities in accordance with special education law and evidence-based practices. The programs are flexible to meet the needs of diverse professionals at various stages looking to develop skills to advance to the next level of their career. Program design includes carefully sequenced courses merging high leverage practices for special educators with evidence-based instructional approaches for learners with exceptionalities. Courses and practice-based experiences focus on:
- learner's exceptionalities;
- evidence-based curricular and instructional supports across tiered instructional models (MTSS) for social, emotional, behavioral, and academic domains;
- assessment of strengths and needs and the use of data to develop and implement individualized educational plans providing access to the general education curriculum to the greatest extent possible;
- knowledge and skills aligned to the sciences of reading and writing and the unique needs of students with dyslexia and other language-based exceptionalities;
- progress monitoring tools aligned to IEP Quality and data systems and data-based individualization;
- instructional and adaptive technologies aligned to Universal Design for Learning principles.
With a critical teacher shortage in special education, there are significant job opportunities in this area. Sacred Heart University's Special Education programs offer pathways to initial license or cross endorsement in special education (Connecticut Endorsement Code 165, Comprehensive Special Education, PK-12). Cross endorsement in special education not only empowers program graduates to become effective educators with all students; it also increases the types of teaching opportunities graduates can pursue, whether in general education, special education, or both.
The Graduate Special Education programs are fully online, with a mix of both synchronous and asynchronous coursework. Practicums/Clinical experience is completed within the candidates' school setting with populations of students with high and low incidence exceptionalities.