Program Mission
Mission Statement
The Special Education program is housed in the Department of Educational Psychology, Counseling, and Special Education in the College of Education at Penn State. Our goal, shared with our colleagues in the Department, is an educational system in which families, communities, and educators share responsibility and commitment for preparing future citizens to live independent, responsible, productive, and personally satisfying lives to the fullest extent of their capabilities in our evolving society.
In the Special Education program we have operationalized our pursuit of this goal in four mission statements:
to have a positive influence on the inclusion of persons who are culturally, physically or intellectually diverse in the mainstream of American life;
to provide national leadership in the development and sharing of new knowledge in special education;
to develop the next generation of college and university faculty in special education; and
to develop teachers who can apply the current knowledge of effective practices in special education.
