Collaboration can improve the quality of services provided to rural students with low-incidence disabilities such as autism. When there are few of these children scattered over a wide geographic area, they cannot be clustered for services. Other rural problems include inadequate funding, lack of qualified staff, need for staff training, inadequate facilities, and transportation problems. Persons with autism have impairments in communication and reciprocal social interaction and a limited repertoire of activities and interests. The potential service needs of such persons are numerous and extend throughout the life cycle. At Bowling Green State University, Project CREST trains preservice and inservice rural teachers from Appalachia to use collaboration skills. CREST participants are taught to implement a six-stage collaborative problem-solving process: goal setting, problem identification, intervention recommendations, implementation, evaluation, and follow-up and redesign. Participants practice their collaboration skills by developing plans of action for actual student cases. A case scenario of an autistic 6-year-old boy is presented along with the plan of action developed to meet one behavioral objective. (SV)