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AEP Online |
Feds Renew Commitment to Response to InterventionIn the 2004 reauthorization of the IDEA law an important change was made to how students are evaluated for special education services. RTI or Response to Intervention is a part of an overall strategy called Early Intervening Services. RTI was included in the law as a way to help students who may have been behind before they came to school and who would respond to instructional interventions rather then giving them a special education determination along with an individualized education plan (IEP). AEP was able to secure language that specifically states supplemental instructional materials are appropriate for use with RTI, which is paid for by a 15 percent set-aside out of the IDEA funding stream. During the past year, the U.S. Department of Education has been working to make sure that RTI is being employed at the state level. At the recent Office of Special Education Programs conference, USED went into detail about how important the program is and how states can implement the program into their larger efforts at improving student achievement. Several states have adopted RTI, including Illinois and Delaware, and RTI is mandatory for states that have engaged in a pattern of over-identification. The goal is to reduce the number of students improperly served (because the cost can be 50 percent higher than regular education) and to meet the requirement of mainstreaming all students with disabilities. The push is not without controversy. Some believe that the process is being used to deny special education services to students who need them. The Washington Post reported several cases of students who were put into RTI even though they were likely candidates for an IDEA certification. One student had just been released from a psychiatric ward at a local hospital, and the other was not being served because the school did not have an adequate RTI monitoring program in place. Supporters of RTI include Vanderbilt University, where the program research is being conducted. Professor Daniel Reschly was quoted by the Post stating, "It’s both more humane and more cost effective to screen for problems early and intervene at younger ages than it is to attempt to treat problems after they are firmly established." Look for additional states such as Tennessee, Florida and California to begin implementing their formal RTI strategies. The timeline and amounts of funding available for the set-aside is not clear beyond the 15 percent that the law allows. Some states may have all of their funds tied up in their current IDEA programs so they don't currently have the set-aside to implement the program. Contact individual states for more information. Questions, ideas, or in need of more information? Please contact Stacey Pusey at 856-241-7772. |
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