The University of Kansas has received a $10 million federal grant to create a new national education center that focuses on improving conditions for students with disabilities.

KU will use the five-year grant from the U.S. Department of Education to create the National Center on Inclusion Toward Rightful Presence. The KU center will be part of the Life Span Institute and the SWIFT Education Center at KU.

“For too long, students with disabilities have been treated like guests in their schools, asking to be included,” Amy McCart, research professor and co-director of SWIFT, said in a press release.

The new center will work with schools and education agencies across the country to adopt policies that do more than adapt schools to serve students with disabilities, but rather create an environment of “rightful presence,” where students with disabilities have true belonging in the schools, KU said in a release.

The SWIFT Education Center also received a separate $3 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education to study how schools make complex decisions for students who have disabilities or are at risk for disabilities. The study particularly will look at how the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted those decisions.