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Fall 2026 Original Credit Briefing

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Microphone with MTDA logo on it.

For Counselors, Administrators, and Site Facilitators

Updated 2/23/2026

Notice to students and parents: This information is intended for distribution to schools and districts only and may contain details that do not apply to your local district’s participation in MTDA services. If you are interested in enrolling in courses with Montana Digital Academy, your first contact should be with the counseling department or administration of your local public school to discuss what is available locally.  MTDA does not take enrollments directly from students or their parents.

Cost-Sharing Statement

On June 14, 2021, the MTDA Governing Board exercised its authority granted by MCA 20-7-1202 to begin cost-sharing with districts in fall 2022.  This applies to the MTDA original credit program.  Before enrolling any student for the upcoming term, please review our information page regarding cost-sharing.

Registration

  • Please review our student registration page for information on data collection, entrance counseling, and student registration in the site facilitator handbook.
  • Please be mindful of course requirements and prerequisites.  We rely on local school officials to determine appropriate placement in MTDA programs and services.  If you are in doubt about particular course placements, please contact the MTDA support desk for guidance and advice.
  • As noted in our facilitator handbook, each student account must have an accurate, unique, and functioning email address for each student enrolled in the system.  If your district’s student email system blocks outside emails, please work with your IT department to unblock MTDA email addresses BEFORE enrolling.  Additionally,  Apple iCloud.com addresses do not allow access to many automated email systems; please use an alternative.
  • Registration for Fall courses opens March 4th.  We will again enforce an “Initial Course Request Deadline” on Wednesday, September 3rd, 2026.  MTDA will finalize sections on that day and assign teachers.  We may or may not have additional slots open in any particular course after this day.  If you choose to enroll a student on or after the course start date on September 8, 2026, you must play an active role in helping that student get into the course and catch up to pace.  Students who are enrolled after the course starts have a significantly higher drop rate and ultimately lower success rate.
  • Please use the Enrollment Counseling Form when enrolling students, and give a copy of the form to the student after enrollment.  This form helps decrease confusion on behalf of the student and their parents and opens up communication lines.
  • For Fall 2026, MTDA will continue to allow up to 7 original course enrollments per semester per student.

Program Information

  • Fall 2026 Original Course List
  • 2026-2027 Academic Calendar 
  • 2026-2027 course catalog and course offering lists
  • Significant program changes (please check back here for an up-to-date list):
    • Irish A course enrollments have been put on hold while we wait to hear if this is a course we can continue to offer with our University partners this fall.
    • Courses with a new curriculum this Fall: Microsoft Office Career Technology, Google Workspace Career Tech, World Geography, Psychology, U.S. History, U.S. Government,  and World History
    • Global studies will no longer be offered as we have moved to offering World Geography instead.
    • Indigenous Languages are at zero cost to schools for the 2026-2027 school year. Students will learn basic greetings, introductions, and simple conversational sentences. The successful student in this course has an intrinsic interest in language and culture. They keep an open mind while learning about cultures that may not be their own. Successful language students also have the courage to record themselves pronouncing the language and receive feedback to improve their skills.
  • Course Enrollment Limitations
    • Indigenous Languages courses are limited to ONE section, due to teacher availability.  These slots are available on a first-come, first-served basis.
    • German II, Video Production, Jobs for Montana Graduates, Principals of Agriculture, and Photoshop are limited to ONE section, due to teacher availability.  These slots are available on a first-come, first-served basis.
  • Dual Credit Course Information
  • NCAA: If you are considering MTDA courses for a student who could be a future NCAA athlete, be sure to review our page regarding MTDA and the NCAA.
  • IEPs/504 information: If you have a student who has 504 or IEP accommodations, please review the required procedures for sharing accommodation requests in our site facilitator handbook.

Respondus LockDown Browser

Over the past several semesters, MTDA has been actively implementing the Respondus LockDown Browser, a secure browser solution designed to uphold the integrity of online assessments in many courses.  As AI tools and Chrome extensions continue to evolve and find their way into students’ toolkits, our team recognized the need for a reliable and student-centered approach to ensuring fairness in our assessment environment. 

MTDA is currently working with districts to ensure that this browser is installed on student devices prior to the start of fall courses. If technology directors have questions about this process, please reach out to us at support@montanadigitalacademy.org.

2026–2027 Advanced Placement™ Information

Thank you for entrusting your student with MTDA for an Advanced Placement™ course. We are very proud of our AP™ program, which has experienced growth in the past five years, outpacing the rest of our program. Our exam passage rates exceed the state average, and we continue to refine our delivery and engagement models. We have had positive and constructive feedback from our students and look forward to continuing to enhance and polish the student experience in the program. We, of course, also welcome your feedback!

MTDA will offer our full complement of dual credit and Advanced Placement™ courses for the 2026-2027 school year.  However, AP™ exam administration and registration are completely outside of MTDA.  Schools should keep a close eye on the College Board’s “AP Central” website for updates regarding testing in the Spring.

Resource: AP™ Central Webpage

Test Administration / Ordering Exams

You must plan and take action now for students taking the Advanced Placement™ tests in May of 2027.

As a distance learning provider, MTDA has no role in the administration of Advanced Placement™ exams. We will do our best to assist, but exam administration happens in face-to-face environments and not online.

Please refer to these excellent resources from the CollegeBoard on setup, enrollment, and ordering tests:

Resource: Learning Opportunities for AP Coordinators

FOR SCHOOLS THAT ARE ALREADY REGISTERED TO OFFER AP EXAMS: You need to create “exam only” sections for your MTDA AP students, and then order exams for that particular section. Otherwise, the process is the same for your local students.

FOR SCHOOLS THAT ARE NOT REGISTERED TO OFFER AP EXAMS, your options are to register your school to offer AP exams or work with a neighboring district that offers AP testing. We recommend that you start the process today to determine the best setup for your MTDA AP students.

The best resource to get started is the College Board’s “Start AP” page. The page contains an excellent set of resources on how to get started, including a timeline and contact information for assistance at the College Board itself. The “Getting Approved to Administer Exams” page goes through that process step-by-step. Once that is complete, you will need to order exams, per the directions above.

Course Audits

As you may be aware, all schools and outside course providers must pass a rigorous “Course Audit” to qualify to appear on the College Board’s Advanced Placement Ledger. We are in the process of clearing the annual College Board audits in all courses. We will update this section as soon as we have been cleared, as we have in our past 13 years of offering this option to schools.

Like past years, the College Board has asked all providers like MTDA, to inform you in writing that you must take an additional step locally to have MTDA’s courses appear in the ledger associated with your school. With your local course audit account, you must explicitly choose the course and associate it with MTDA as an external provider. It is our understanding that you must complete this process by January. However, we would advise doing so as soon as possible.

Additional Assistance

We know that the processes involved can be challenging and that instructions aren’t necessarily clear. We suggest contacting the College Board first with questions. If you are not able to get a clear answer or if the answer conflicts with what we are advising above, please contact the support desk.

We sincerely appreciate working with you to help serve students across the state by delivering programs like Advanced Placement™ courses. Do let our staff know if we can be of any assistance!

Fall 2026