Kansas University researchers have been awarded $3.75 million to study the effects of federal policies on people with disabilities.

The funding, from the U.S. Department of Education, will sustain KU’s Beach Center on Disabilities for five years. The center was established in 1988.

“We’re looking at how policies affect families’ quality of life and their integration and participation in the community,” said Rud Turnbull, who co-directs the center with his wife, Ann.

Specifically, the new grant will examine two federal policies. The first is the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, which allows schools to place students with disabilities into separate schools.

The second is a policy that gives families direct control of Medicaid funds to which their children are entitled. Previously, the money had been funneled to designated Community Developmental Disabilities Organizations, which provided services.

Turnbull said the center would use families from Kansas and North Carolina, where it has conducted projects in the past, for the new grant.

He said the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act part of the project could be related to the No Child Left Behind law, which requires all children — including those with special needs — to be tested for academic progress.

“It’s awfully darn complicated, testing academic performance for all children,” Turnbull said. “It’s important and necessary, but it’s not a sufficient measure for a child with emotional and behavioral disorders. Academic behavior is only a proxy for part of that child’s life.”

The Medicaid changes, he said, involve a gradual shift over the past 10 years toward allowing a more “capitalistic market” for service providers and families.

“It’s part of this theory of privatization of human and education services,” he said. “We regard that as a very important piece of work to do.”

The center is associated with the Schiefelbusch Institute for Life Span Studies at KU.