In-district Autism Consultants

The current In-district Autism Coach program consists of five workshops that are intended to cover content related to (1) determining eligibility for special education services in the category of autism, (2) learning about the essential features of defensible autism programs, (3) conducting functional behavior assessments, (4) learning some basic autism evidence-based practices, and (5) learning how to be an effictive coach/consultant in your district. You can enroll in these individually or all at once in a bundle.  In either case, we have created an "IDAC Course" which is simply a place to upload the individual course certificates and track your progress.  It is a work at your own pace environment in an asynchronous online format. 

As soon as you have accumulated all five our front office will receive a notification and we will reach out to you about sending you a IDAC badge with some special enamel pins commemorating your achievements. 

You can register for the IDAC Certificate upload container by following this link to IDAC self-enrollment    

The current training regimen for IDACs includes training to meet the following legal mandates and best practices.  

(1) The MoDESE State Plan for Special Education specifies that multidisciplinary teams that are determining eligibility for special education services in the category of autism have at least one member who has special expertise in autism.  IDAC candidates therefore will need to complete Project ACCESS course entitled "Determining Eligibility for Special Education Services in the Category of Autism."  

(2) The federal IDEA requires school teams that manage discipline for students with IEPs to conduct Functional Behavior Assessments in certain situation.  New guidance from the federal Department of Education recommends FBA for many other situations besides discipline.  IDAC candidates will therefore need to complete Project ACCESS course entitled Foundations of Functional Behavior Assessment.

(3) Essential Features of a Defensible Autism Program is a best practices guidelines workshop aimed at training a district staffer to use a research-based review system to assess a district's strengths and challenges in terms of autism programming.  One great outcome of this training is that such a review should clarify professional development topics would be suitable for a particular district. 

(4) Project ACCESS has curated a bundle of five evidence-base practice workshops that provide a foundation to a school-based approach.  This bundle includes Visual Supports, Reinforcement, Functional Communication Training, Discrete Trial Teaching, and Task Analysis.  We expect every IDAC to have some mastery of these EBPs and we have included them in a bundle that is part of the IDAC curriculum. You can sign up for that Evidence-based Practice collection by using this link.  In addition, we want each IDAC to complete five additional choice EBP workshops and upload their certificates to the IDAC Certificates course.  

(5) There will be a capstone workshop that offers instruction about Coaching and Consulting available during the fall of 2027.  This workshop is under contruction. You can add yourself to the IDAC coaching waiting list. 

These five workshops include about 50 total hours of instruction and skill-building practice in a mostly asynchronous format. Zoom coaching is available.  

Any existing IDAC is being "grandfathered" to the new credential and new badge.  A map of schools that have an In-district Autism Consultant is available on our website. Interested IDACs can reach out to Project ACCESS using our Existing IDAC form to get the new badge and pins. Request your new badge and pin by completing this form: IDAC Badge Request Form