The Heartland Institute - Early Intervention Program Aims to Keep Kids out of Special Ed - by Wendy Cloyd: "
A Colorado Springs, Colorado school district is implementing a pilot program to address one of the greatest challenges classroom teachers face: meeting struggling students' needs as soon as they appear.
Since federal rules and regulations for the revamped Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act have not been sent to the state level yet, Colorado Springs School District 11 is launching a pilot project using a new special education model called Responsiveness to Intervention (RTI).
New Model
Under the RTI model, educators begin giving extra help to struggling students as soon as a potential learning problem is identified, long before a child qualifies for special education. While RTI does not exclude entry into special education at a later date, in many cases special education becomes unnecessary because of early intervention, analysts say.
The National Research Council on Learning Disabilities, a project of the U.S. Department of Education, is currently conducting research on alternative methods of identifying learning disabilities. RTI will be an important part of the evaluation, according to the group's Web site.
Patty Luttrell, special education staffing coordinator at Colorado Springs' Stratton Elementary School, is excited about the RTI pilot program because, she says, it will allow the school to help needy students while providing classroom teachers with much-needed support. Training in the model will be given to all teachers in the school; special education teachers will be used for early intervention and helping regular education teachers identify students' needs.
'We used to have to wait until at least third grade to test them to see if they needed academic or behavioral support,' Luttrell said. 'RTI will allow us to provide research-based interventions before we look at using all the time and money it takes to assess a student for special education services.'
Use the link to read the entire article.
"
