Navigating your childs individualized needs within school can be daunting. You want to ensure they receive the help they need while not being intrusive in their school experience. Luckily, there are plans in place that can help make the best of both worlds! Below are several plans for students as well as what they target, how to start the discussion with the school, and what to expect from each.
RTI: Response to Intervention
An RTI is a multi-tiered approach that schools use to help students with difficulty with academics or behavior. Its purpose is to identify struggling students early and support them so they can thrive in school. The goal is to intervene and start helping so that the student doesn’t fall behind. This starts as a screen for all children in general education classrooms. If a student is detected to be struggling, they will be provided with interventions at increasing levels of intensity to accelerate their rate of learning. The service is provided by multiple staff members, including teachers, special educators, and specialists. Each child has an individual plan to systematically guide and monitor the child’s progress and response to intervention. All students who receive an RTI will engage in this within the classroom for ongoing monitoring to collect data and examine what supports or hinders the child’s success. Parents are involved throughout this process ensuring their goals, instruction, and intervention appropriately help the child. The process is divided into three tiers. Parents can request an RTI by writing a formal letter to the school’s coordinator requesting a review with any appropriate documentation (could be from doctors, therapists, etc).
Tier 1:
High-quality classroom instruction, screening, and group interventions. This consists of identifying students, observation, and screening through a curriculum-based measurement for a maximum of 8 weeks. If the child does not progress academically or behaviorally or they need more support at the end of the 8 weeks, they will be moved to tier two.
Tier 2:
Targeted interventions, consist of increasingly intensive instruction, the size of the groups they are in becomes smaller, and the frequency increases, all in conjunction with with their general curriculum. If the student continues to show little progress they move to tier three.
Tier 3:
Intensive interventions and comprehensive evaluation, where the student will receive an individualized intensive intervention that targets the skill deficits. If this does not help, the student becomes eligible for special education under the IDEA utilizing the data collected during each of the tiers. Parents are allowed to request a formal evaluation at any point during this process.
504 Plan
A 504 is a plan to support a child to thrive in school who has a documented disability. This provides students with adjustments to their learning environments. This is supported not by the IDEA (Individuals with Disabilities Education Act) but by Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (the student qualifies for extra services but not specialized instruction). Accommodations to a child’s schedule in terms of classroom environment, recordings of lessons, separate testing environment, and extended time, are all aspects of learning that can be adjusted to best support the child’s needs. To qualify for a 504 plan the child must have a “qualifying disability that substantially limits a major life activity.” For example, a mental or physical impairment makes it much harder for the child to partake in walking, talking, learning, reading, concentrating, thinking and communicating. The difference between a 504 plan and an IEP is that a 504 does not include specialized instruction or services which may include something like a learning specialist, occupational therapist, etc. Parents can be in contact with teachers to communicate their concerns for their students, formal documentation and follow-up will come later.
IEP: Individualized Education Plan
An IEP is an individualized education plan is supported by the IDEA (Individuals with Disabilities Education Act) which guarantees all students the right to learn in schools that have federal funding. An IEP consists typically of individualized accommodations, receiving extra support in or out of the classroom or they can be in a specialized classroom. This is provided to students who have documentation of a disability that requires extended help and more structure to be successful in school. Parents can request an IEP with appropriate documentation following the school’s protocols.
PPT: Planning and Placement Team
A Planning and Placement team is a group of interdisciplinary members comprised of an administrator, special education teacher, regular education teacher, pupil personnel representative, and specialties such as speech, occupational therapy, physical therapy, and school psychology. PPTs review referrals to special education to determine eligibility for special education services and develop or modify any education plans as needed. Evaluations are used by the PPT to determine a child’s strengths and determine what services the child would most benefit from. This group develops a child’s IEP including the student’s levels of educational performance, special education and related services, annual educational goals, short-term objectives, special transportation requirements, the extent the student will participate in the regular school program, modifications to the regular school program, testing accommodations, and determining the progress and effectiveness of the current plan in place. Meetings are held annually and parents are given copies of all documentation. Once a plan is set, the implementation happens in school within 10 days of the meeting.
