Eight representatives of Mongolia’s national Parliament, national ministries, parent advocacy groups, and nongovernmental organizations, along with two consultants from the Open Society Foundation, recently visited Minnesota for a week-long study tour focused on early identification and services for children with disabilities. Funded by the Mongolian Open Society Forum and hosted by Scott McConnell (EPsy and CEED) and Ann Bettenburg (Mounds View Schools), the study tour focused on intervention design, integrated and coordinated services, inclusive education, as well as governance and personnel development capacity needed to support an effective program of early intervention.

This visit was part of a larger effort, funded by George Soros’s Open Society Foundation and the Mongolian Open Society Forum, to assist Mongolia in the design and implementation of expanded services for children and youth with disabilities. McConnell and Bettenburg visited Ulan Bataar Mongolia in November 2013 to meet with ministry officials, educators and program providers, and advocates to better understand the current state and planned development of services in Mongolia, and to identify areas of focus for this year’s Study Tour.

During the week-long course, participants visited inclusive classrooms for children of all ages, met with special education and related service staff to learn about design and provision of coordinated services, talked with advocates about both support to parents and the role of advocacy in system development, and met with UM and other faculty providing both preservice and inservice training. The Study Tour concluded with a focused discussion of next steps in national and local systems development in Mongolia, and may lead to continued interactions between Minnesota and Mongolia as their national system develops.