Information about the OPI Montana Autism Education Project
The Montana Autism Education Project is part of the Special Education Professional Development Unit.
The OPI created the Montana Autism Education Project (MAEP) in 2010 in response to a growing number of technical assistance and training requests by schools educating students with autism spectrum disorder.
The Statewide Coordinator for the MAEP is Katie Mattingley (katie.mattingley@mt.gov).
The OPI Montana Autism Education Project provides the following services to Montana public schools:
Consultation services for any student with an Individual Education Plan (consultations are not limited to students with autism.)
Trainings in Autism Spectrum Disorder, Applied Behavior Analysis, and related topics.
A web site (blog) which provides information on autism and behavior management trainings in Montana, current research news, archived webinars and resources for educating students with ASD, their teachers and their peers.
Consultation Services
Student consultations are available for any student with an IEP. Public school staff can contact Katie Mattingley at katie.mattingley@mt.gov to request a consultation visit. Please include a brief description of why you would like a consultation. We will then assign an OPI Autism or Behavior Consultant to visit.
Post-visit the district is given a written report of suggestions. Follow-up visits are available.
Post-consultation survey results show that 99% of respondents rated the consultation visit as useful or very useful.
Trainings
The OPI Montana Autism Education Project provides numerous types of in-person and virtual trainings:
District PIR Trainings: At the request of a district, MAEP staff will provide a district in-service on topics related to autism or behavior management.
Regional Trainings/Conferences: MAEP staff provide in-person trainings across Montana. We also present at conferences including the CEC special education conference and the MEA and MCEL conferences.
Sponsored Trainings: The MAEP provides autism and applied behavior analysis (ABA) trainings across Montana. We also provide virtual trainings. Information on upcoming trainings can be found on our blog or by subscribing to our newsletter.
Training Scholarships: We provide a limited number of registration scholarships for educators and pre-service education, psychology and speech-language pathology students to attend the CEC conference, the Montana Speech Hearing Association conference and the Montana Association of School Psychologists conference (when the latter two have autism-related topics.)