CARBONDALE - Southern Illinois University has received $1.9 million for a center that helps schools focus specifically on the educational needs of at-risk and disabled students in the southern part of the state.

The Southern Illinois Regional Professional Development Center, funded through a U.S. Education Department grant administered by the Illinois State Board of Education, operates through university offices in Carbondale and Edwardsville, as well as through the state Family Matters Project, headquartered in Effingham, to bring "professional development and educational assistance" to school districts in the Southern 41 counties of Illinois. Along the way, officials hope to incorporate state academic goals and federal No Child Left Behind standards into the program.

The center was one of four Illinois school projects to be approved for federal funding, said state school Superintendent Randy Dunn.

Dunn and SIU President Glenn Poshard announced the grant Tuesday.

Poshard said the grant represents a success for two of the university's goals.

"Two of the goals we're trying to accomplish are collaboration and unity within our system and outreach throughout the area," he said.

The center incorporates the ideas of university faculty and administrators, regional offices of education, parent organizations, school districts and special-education cooperatives.

"It goes across a spectrum of education in Southern Illinois that is just unbelievable," Poshard said.

The center will be co-directed by SIU at Edwardsville professors Melissa Bergstrom, a principal writer of the grant that is funding the initiative, and Michael McCollum. SIU professors Nancy Mundschenk and Regina Foley are regional coordinators on the Carbondale campus.

Foley said the center is already running.

"As of next week, we are going to be providing training material," she said.

During the center's first year, officials said they will identify four "demonstration" schools, chosen by application for specific assistance in areas such as standards alignment in classrooms. Foley said the center hopes to add demonstration sites in the following year. The project is set to run five years, officials said.

Caleb Hale can be reached at caleb.hale@;thesouthern.com or (618) 529-5454, ext. 15090.