Original Post: Nov. 26, 2013

The buzz acronym for the last couple of years has been RtI. RtI was developed to help reduce the number of students identified and placed into special education programs and to provide services to those students who do not qualify for services. RtI helps students who may not need special education but require a little more help than their peers.

During your parent/teacher meeting she/he may make the statement “your child is currently on a tier”. Tier refers to the level of presentation your child is on. RtI levels start with high quality instruction to small group/independent instruction.

Every school district implements their RtI model to fit their districts. Generally I’ve found that most schools start their RtI tier as the entire class. As time progress and academic material is presented, your child’s teacher may begin to  notice some difficulty progressing. It is at that time when students begin to move through tiers. NOTE: As your child’s intervention move to being more individualized most school districts will require your permission to do so.