EUGENE, Ore. — A new $20 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education is set to expand the University of Oregon’s work helping students with disabilities transition from high school into jobs and independent living.
The grant, announced March 3, 2026, will support researchers in the University of Oregon’s College of Education and colleagues at five other universities as they assist state and local agencies that work directly with students preparing to graduate, enter the workforce and live independently. The work is carried out through the National Technical Assistance Center on Transition: The Collaborative, which serves all 50 states plus 10 other jurisdictions and territories.
“We know that change happens at the state and local level; so this is an efficiency model with states as the true change agents,” said Deanne Unruh, co-director of the College of Education’s Secondary Special Education and Transition Research unit…