Counseling and Special Education

Mission

We prepare our graduates as leaders ready to make a positive difference in people’s lives by offering a rigorous, asset-based curriculum that emphasizes applicable learning, incorporates authentic tasks and situations they will face, and promotes evidence-based, culturally responsive practices. We also engage in research, scholarship, and service that transform theory, practice, and policy to help people and communities.

The School of Education’s Department of Counseling and Special Education blends top-tier, accredited programs in counselor education as well as special education and disability policy to create a unique and interdisciplinary academic environment for students and faculty alike.

We work together with faculty, students, university colleagues and community partners to generate knowledge, investigate effective strategies, disseminate evidence-based practices, advocate for those we serve and promote exemplary programs.

Our nationally-recognized faculty provide guidance and support, allowing students to fully explore their areas of interest. We provide the tools that help students examine, refine, and challenge the current methods and scholarship, and to use evidence-based research to develop their own.