At Co-Teach, staff work as members of a team which is comprised of: the administration; supervising special education and general education teachers and assistant teachers; family members; paraprofessionals; university students from a variety of disciplines; and volunteers. Furthermore, Co-Teach partners with a variety of individual, local and state entities including the following:
Families are as much a part of Co-Teach as their children and are welcome to participate to whatever extent they desire.
University of Montana Students from a variety of disciplines participate as members of the Co-Teach team as employees, practicum students, or volunteers. UM student participation is essential to maintaining the high quality services Co-Teach provides families and children.
The Missoula Area Education Cooperative (MAEC) provides services to 16 school districts over a 4 county area in Western Montana (Missoula, Lake, Sanders, and Mineral Counties). MAEC contracts with Co-Teach to provide special education services to preschool children and families from those school districts. Specialists from the Missoula Area Education Cooperative provide related services to Co-Teach children with special needs based upon determinations made by Individualized Education Program teams. MAEC team members include: Dr. Linda Maass, Director; Dana Fitz Gale, Speech/Language Pathologist; Kevin Keskeny, Occupational Therapist; Liz Couch, Physical Therapist; and Peggy Cortright, Business Manager/Clerk.
The Montana Behavioral Initiative (MBI), sponsored by the Montana Office of Public Instruction, is a statewide initiative that assists educators and community service personnel to develop the attitudes, skills and systems necessary to help students succeed in school, society, and the workplace. Co-Teach Preschool is one of 12 early childhood sites for the Early Childhood strand of the Office of Public Instruction’s Montana Behavioral Initiative (MBI). MBI has been in operation for K-12 schools across Montana since 1995 and has recently, during the 2005/06 school year, created an Early Childhood strand so that early childhood educators and daycare providers across the state can access important resources to help students become successful academically, socially, emotionally and behaviorally. Key goals of MBI include training, team process, proactive support systems, evaluation process, and community process.
Co-Teach has adopted best practices in positive behavioral supports as outlined by MBI, including the creation of common behavioral expectations and consequences, strategies for teaching behavioral expectations, systematic data collection and analysis, and building team and community support systems.
Co-Teach collaborates with teachers, paraprofessionals, and bus drivers from the
Northern Cheyenne Head Start in Lame Deer, Montana and provides professional development in the areas of early literacy, preschool technology integration, Positive Behavior Supports (PBS), social communication skills, and classroom, playground, and school bus safety.
