ICASE Presidential Scholarship 2026 - Indiana Special Ed

An award from the Indiana Council of Administrators of Special Education, a body that has represented special education administrators in Indiana for more than fifty years. ICASE gives two $1,000 scholarships a year to people who want to move into special education administration, as part of its goal of building leadership capacity in the state. The award goes to candidates already training for a Director of Exceptional Needs licence rather than to undergraduates or general education students.

$1,000 each, with two awarded annually. It is a grant with nothing to repay, and it is not renewable. Set against the cost of a director licensing programme it is a contribution rather than full funding, so treat it as one piece of a plan that also includes employer support, district professional development funds and any institutional aid your programme offers.

Anyone accepted into or currently enrolled in a Director of Exceptional Needs licensing program in the state of Indiana, who has been nominated by a current special education director. Both parts are required. The programme has to be in Indiana, and self-nomination is not an option, which means the practical first step is a conversation with a serving director rather than a form.

The application period opens on 1 October 2026 and the deadline for submission is 30 December 2026. Both ends are fixed, so there is nothing to file before October and nothing accepted after the December date. Because the deadline falls during the winter break, the useful working deadline is mid-December, when your recommenders are still reachable at school.

Yes. ICASE states that applicants must be nominated by a current special education director, and that requirement sits alongside enrolment in a special education licensing program. It changes the shape of the application: before you write anything, you need a director who knows your work well enough to put your name forward and, in most cases, to write one of your two letters.

The Indiana school administrator licence required to lead special education programmes, earned through a state-approved licensing programme usually taken at graduate level and often alongside a master's in special education or school administration. Recent ICASE scholarship recipients have been working teachers completing dual master's degrees at institutions such as Ball State, Indiana State and Indiana Wesleyan while continuing in the classroom.

ICASE sets one question: what contributions do I intend on making as an administrator in the field of special education. The strongest answers are concrete about the Indiana context, naming the work you want to take on, whether that is early intervention, Article 7 compliance, behaviour supports, transition planning or family partnership, and evidencing it with what you already do. ICASE publishes the scoring rubric, so read it first and write to it.

Two. The 2026 recipients were Rebecca Dodd, a behaviour support teacher in Danville completing degrees at Indiana State and Ball State, and Mikah Leigh, a developmental preschool special education teacher pursuing dual master's degrees at Indiana Wesleyan. Both were working full time in Indiana schools while finishing administrative credentials, which is a fair picture of the standard.

The published eligibility criteria do not list ICASE membership as a requirement. What they do require is enrolment or acceptance in an Indiana Director of Exceptional Needs licensing program and a nomination from a serving special education director. In practice recent recipients have been active ICASE members alongside other professional bodies, so membership is worth having on its own terms even though nothing says you must hold it to apply.