Individualized Education Plans
VS.
Response to Intervention
“one size does not fit all”
EEX 5051 Nelson & Rocha
PRO’S
Creates an opportunity for teachers,
parents, school administrators, related
service personnel, and even students to
work together to improve educational
results for children with disabilities.
EEX 5051 Nelson & Rocha
The Basic Special Education Process
Under IDEA
Step 1. Child is identified as possibly needing special
education and related services.
Step 2. Child is evaluated.
Step 3. Eligibility is decided.
Step 4. Child is found eligible for services.
Step 5. IEP meeting is scheduled.
EEX 5051 Nelson & Rocha
IEP’s measure progress as well as provide services
to students who have learning disabilities
Step 6. IEP meeting is held and the IEP is written.
Step 7. Services are provided.
Step 8. Progress is measured and reported to parents.
Step 9. IEP is reviewed.
Step 10. Child is reevaluated.
EEX 5051 Nelson & Rocha
How teaching and accommodations promote a
child’s growth who has learning disabilities
The child's special education teacher contributes
important information and experience about how to
educate children with disabilities. Because of his or her
training in special education, this teacher can talk
about such issues as:
how to modify the general curriculum to help the child
learn;
the supplementary aids and services that the child may
need to be successful in the regular classroom and
elsewhere;
EEX 5051 Nelson & Rocha
Promote growth cont’d.
how to modify testing so that the student
can show what he or she has learned; and
other aspects of individualizing instruction
to meet the student's unique needs.
Beyond helping to write the IEP, the
special educator has responsibility for
working with the student to carry out the
IEP.
EEX 5051 Nelson & Rocha
He or she may:
work with the student in a resource room or special
class devoted to students receiving special education
services;
team teach with the regular education teacher; and
work with other school staff, particularly the regular
education teacher, to provide expertise about
addressing the child's unique needs.
EEX 5051 Nelson & Rocha
Special Factors To Consider
Depending on the needs of the child, the IEP team needs to
consider what the law calls special factors. These include:
If the child’s behavior interferes with his or her learning or the
learning of others, the IEP team will consider strategies and
supports to address the child’s behavior.
If the child has limited proficiency in English, the IEP team will
consider the child’s language needs as these needs relate to his or
her IEP.
EEX 5051 Nelson & Rocha
OHI Factors cont’d.
If the child is blind or visually impaired, the IEP team must
provide for instruction in Braille or the use of Braille, unless it
determines after an appropriate evaluation that the child does
not need this instruction.
If the child is deaf or hard of hearing, the IEP team will consider
his or her language and communication needs. This includes
the child’s opportunities to communicate directly with
classmates and school staff in his or her usual method of
communication (for example, sign language).
EEX 5051 Nelson & Rocha
Augmentative devices
If the child has communication needs, the IEP team must
consider those needs.
The IEP team must always consider the child’s need for
assistive technology devices or services.
EEX 5051 Nelson & Rocha
IDEA 2004 requires that an IEP must be written
according to the needs of one student
IEP’s must include the following:
the child's present levels of academic and functional
performance
measurable annual goals, including academic and functional
goals
how the child's progress toward meeting the annual goals are
to be measured and reported to the parents
special education services, related services, and
supplementary aids to be provided to the child
EEX 5051 Nelson & Rocha
to include cont’d.
Schedule of services to be provided, including when the
services are to begin, the frequency, duration and location
for the provision of services
Program modifications or supports provided to school
personnel on behalf of the child
Explanation of any time the child will not participate along
with nondisabled children
Accommodations to be provided during state and district
assessments that are necessary to the measuring child's
academic and functional performance
EEX 5051 Nelson & Rocha
to include cont’d.
Additionally, when the student is 16 years old, a
statement of post-secondary goals and a plan for
providing what the student needs to make a successful
transition is required.
(this
transitional plan can be created at an earlier age if
desired.)
IEP's also include other pertinent information found
necessary by the team, such as a health plan or a
behavior plan for some students.
EEX 5051 Nelson & Rocha
Cons of RTI
One criticism of the RTI method suggests that RTI is
really a means for limiting access to Special Education
services. The intervention model puts the focus on
individual teachers to prove that they have done
everything possible in the classroom before the child
can be assessed.
Because the RTI model is often implemented across
years, assessment and classification of a student can be
unreasonably delayed or never provided when each
new year the student has a new teacher and a new RTI
plan.
EEX 5051 Nelson & Rocha
Critics charge that requiring an extensive and lengthy
paper trail prior to evaluation of a child is primarily
used as a bureaucratic means for delaying that
evaluation.
They point to the fact that the cost of special education
services is a powerful incentive for districts to
systematically delay services to as many children as
possible as long as possible.
EEX 5051 Nelson & Rocha
An additional criticism of this program is associated with
the model that it replaces
Because the RTI model only results in evaluation of
the most critical failures in the regular classroom,
students in Special Education classrooms are less likely
to succeed generally.
The previous model which addressed discrepancy cast a
net to students who could be said to possess areas of
relative strength and were more likely to benefit from
services.
EEX 5051 Nelson & Rocha
Emotional Cost
Another con of RTI, if interventions don't work, or
aren't implemented correctly/consistently a lot of time
can be wasted, and the student slips farther behind
peers.
This leads to the student having a lowered self esteem,
feelings of stupidity or worthlessness.
The ramifications reach far into the future!
EEX 5051 Nelson & Rocha
PERSPECTIVE
If there are no accommodations
for
students with learning
disabilities,
then that will lead students into
failure.
EEX 5051 Nelson & Rocha
KEY (or bottom line)
What do we as educators, need to
know in order to shape our students
instructional experiences so they are
able to learn, most effectively and
most efficiently?
EEX 5051 Nelson & Rocha
“On a positive note”
or
“The format of an IEP after the RTI process!”
For certain students, as an ESE team develops an IEP, evidence
from the RTI process may provide greater clarity, more
specific data, and increased focus for developing strengths
and needs, writing measurable present levels of educational
performance and annual goals, and measuring progress
toward goals.
Because the RTI process takes a considerable amount of time
during the students year, the IEP process is working on
guidance that incorporates RTI concepts into the writing of
IEP’s.
EEX 5051 Nelson & Rocha
References
U.S. Department of Education, July 2000, Office of Special
Education and Rehabilitative Services
Part B of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA)
regarding Individualized Education Programs (IEP's) for children
with disabilities, including preschool-aged children.
http://www.ritap.org/rti/about/faq.php
http://www.ed.gov/parents/needs/speced/iepguide/index.html
Response to Intervention (RTI) vs. the Discrepancy Model, 2007,
LDinfo Publishing, http://www.ldinfo.com/rti.htm
EEX 5051 Nelson & Rocha