VIDALIA — Special needs students in the Concordia Parish School District will receive extra help this year as they work toward graduation with a grant from the Louisiana Department of Education.

Concordia schools received a $51,050 grant earlier this month as part of LDE’s Building Pathways to High School Diplomas for Students with Disabilities Opportunity Grants.

The overall purpose of the grant is to help student outcomes improve and graduation rates increase, Supervisor for Special Populations Mary Huhn said.

“It increases the likelihood of them getting the diploma,” Huhn said, referring to how the grant money could be spent.

The grant is meant to provide districts with the funds to help provide students with special needs, both physical and learning, with services such as access to career preparation experiences and a research-based curriculum.

The Concordia district currently has 362 special needs students, aged 3 to 21. Transition Facilitator Ruth Powers said this includes students who are being served by speech therapists as well as students with educational difficulties.

The CPSD was one of the 55 districts, 10 charter schools and the Louisiana Schools for the Deaf and Visually Impaired who were awarded grant money.

The money for the grant, Powers said, is meant to be used in two ways to help students graduate. One is to assist students who are academically able but have difficulty with the high stakes testing.

“Same goals and objectives, same types of materials covered, just covered using slightly different techniques and methods,” Powers said.

The other is to help students with more significant challenges develop work habits and skills.

“This gives them success and the ability to actually do something productive, and will hopefully equip them with some skills they can take with them after they leave school,” Powers said.

Powers, Huhn and Director of Secondary Education Rhonda Wilson worked together to apply for the grant.

Huhn said the district plans to use a portion of the grant money to purchase materials that use lower readability levels for core content classes.

The district also plans on using the funds to provide training and funding for personnel as well as a work simulation program. Using the program, students can learn tasks including clocking in, finding a work assignment and interacting with supervisors.

The objective of the program is improved outcomes for students and, eventually, a diploma, Huhn said.

“That is the big goal of this,” she said.