Best Practices Statement Special Education 1

The Merrimack School District uses the Response to Intervention (RtI) model to identify

students at risk for academic or behavioral intervention. According to the National Center on

Response to Intervention (2010), RtI is not an instructional practice, but rather a prevention

based approach that informs educators about how best to teach their students. Each school in

our district approaches RtI differently; however, all schools use data to inform their decisions.

At Reeds Ferry, we begin the school year with a meeting with each teacher called, Meet my

Learner. Each Meet my Learner meeting is attended by our principal, assistant principal,

school counselor, special education coordinator, behavior specialist, the classroom teacher and

myself. My role in these meetings is to create the schedules, display the academic data and to

listen as each teacher talks briefly about each of his or her students. Teachers are provided

guidelines for their discussions, and by the end of the meeting, students are identified as red,

yellow, or no color. A student identified as yellow means that this student will be on a watch; a

student identified as red will be added to the RtI agenda, where we will meet and discuss this

students needs in greater detail. The remaining students will continue in Tier 1 instruction and

supports.

Once all of the Meet my Learner meetings have taken place, and each student has been

identified and discussed, I will then create the RtI agenda. The purpose of these meetings is to

discuss each student identified as red, individually. The RtI team consists of the students

classroom teacher, principal, assistant principal, school counselor, special education

coordinator, behavior specialist, two additional classroom teachers, two special education

teachers, and me. As an RtI team, we brainstorm and identify interventions to be used to

support the student academically and emotionally. The progress of the yellow students is

discussed at grade level PLTs. Sometimes, these students make adequate progress with Tier 1

classroom instruction and no interventions. Other times, these students are moved to red, and

we meet to discuss their progress as an RtI team.

Best Practices Statement Special Education 2

Throughout the school year, all students receiving interventions are progress monitored.

RtI meetings are held every six to eight weeks to review data and modify interventions as

needed. When multiple interventions have proved unsuccessful, the team will refer the student

for special education.

Best Practices Statement Special Education 3

References

Intervention, N. C. (2010). Essential components of rti - a closer look at response to intervention.