If you are seeking financial assistance for the education of a child with a learning disability (LD), you may find the following resources helpful.
Grants and scholarships
Books
Dollars for College: The Quick Guide to Financial Aid for Students with Disabilities
by Garrett Park Press
This book is one in a series about funding a college education. The focus of this particular guide is on funding students with disabilities. To purchase the book, send $7.95, plus $1.50 for shipping and handling, to Garrett Park Press, P.O. Box 190, Garrett Park, MD 20896; Phone: (301) 946-2553.
Financial Aid for the Disabled and Their Families 2006-2008
by Gail Ann Schlacter & David R. Weber
This book identifies funding and financial aid resources for high school kids and older with disabilities on education, career development, training, assistive technology, etc. It’s available for $40 from Reference Service Press, 5000 Windplay Drive, Suite 4, El Dorado Hills, CA 95762; Phone: (916) 939-9620 Email: info@rspfunding.com.
Foundation Grants to Individuals
This book is the 16th edition of the Foundation Center’s publication that focuses on funding opportunities for individual grant seekers. There is a special section on educational scholarships and student loans. Price is $65.00.
On the Web
Foundation Grants to Individuals
This easy to use database maintained by the Foundation Center describes close to 4,800 foundations and public charities that fund individual grant seekers, such as students. It is available by monthly subscription for $9.95.
The Children’s Scholarship Fund Program
This partial payment tuition program for low-income families awards scholarships children in grades K-8 via a national lottery. Scholarships are awarded to families, not children, so all children in a family entering a K-8 grade at the time of the award are eligible to receive scholarships. There are no academic requirements and grade retention does not affect the status of the scholarship. Phone: (212) 515-7100.
Creating Options: A Resource Guide on Financial Aid for Students with Disabilities (2007)
This annual resource paper is a comprehesive guide to financial aid in the form of grants, loans, work-study, and scholarships. The paper discusses how to go about finding available funding for postsecondary education and covers the technical words or phrases used to describe the various types of funding and the process involved with their disbursement. “Also included is a brief description of Vocational Rehabilitation (VR) Agencies, the services that they may provide, and the interaction between the state VR agency and the financial aid office of a postsecondary institution. Finally, suggestions are offered about additional possibilities for financial assistance.” This guide also is available from the HEATH Resource Center, 2121 K Street, NW Suite 220 Washington, DC 20037, Phone: 800-544-3284, Email: askheath@gwu.edu.
Locate scholarships, loans, internships, and other financial aid programs for college that match your education level, talents, and background. Complete the profile form, including a place to check for learning disability, and Scholarship Search will find potential opportunities from a database of more than 2,000 undergraduate scholarships, internships, and loan programs.
Anne Ford Scholarship Established for College-Bound Students With Learning Disabilities
The scholarship is an annual gift of $10,000 to a promising high school senior with learning disabilities who plans to pursue a university degree.
This comprehensive financial aid website focuses on post-secondary school funding and lists college scholarships for the persons with a learning disability. There’s also some information on ways to pay for private education institutions. One helpful part of this site is their Scam Alert section that lists the most common scholarship scams, including suspicious aid offers. You can also sign up for e-mail lists and discussion groups. All in all, it’s a very useful site that’s easy to navigate and straightforward in its presentation.
The Foundation Center Cooperating Collections
Located in every state, these free funding information centers in libraries and nonprofit resource centers provide a “core collection” of Foundation Center publications and products.
Loans
SLM Financial’s K-12 Family Education LoanSM
SLM Financial, a Sallie Mae company, has created this loan to help families send their children to private K-12 schools. Parents may borrow between $1,000 to the total cost of the child’s education, including tuition, books, room and board. Phone: (877) 834-9853
Bank of America disburses loans to prepGATE-approved private schools on behalf of parents of K-12 students. Phone: (888) 353-4283
This loan is available to parents of students K-12 with special education needs . All education-related expenses, such a, tuition, room and board, books, fees, musical instruments and tutors are covered. Phone: (877) 255-2431
This Citibank loan is provided to parents/cosigners of K-12 students for private schools. Phone: (800) 967-2400
Chase Bank provides this loan to parents of K-12 students with special education needs. Phone (877) 663-3906
