Special Education is a Program Area in the School of Teacher Education within the College of Education & Behavioral Sciences. Graduates in the area of Special Education continue the tradition of excellence with their high levels of preparation and dedication to the profession. In recent years, students have held leadership positions at the local, state, and national levels in the professional organization, Welcome to a new program where teacher education candidates will earn dual certification for teaching students with mildmoderate disabilities and for core content in elementary content areas. This new program is called the Learning and Behavior Disorders (LBD: P-12) and Elementary Education (ELED: P-5) dual certificate program (#5003). SPEDELED #5003combines the strong core-content instructional areas taught in elementary education with the strong differentiated-instruction skills for students with mild learning and behavior disabilities (LBD). Both skill areas must be mastered for teachers working with LBD students who receive the majority of their instruction in a general education classroom with the inclusion model at any grade level. Upon successful completion of the requirements for this new teacher program, each candidate will be eligible for job openings in either special education LBD: grades P-12 or elementary education, grades P-5. Elementary faculty and special education faculty will use a number of selected courses to demonstrate “co-teaching” as part of the skills of this new program. Some courses will actually be taught in local schools with fieldwork in the school as part of our TOP PREP program. Education majors will be part ground-breaking new approaches to education training.