A response-to-intervention process cannot delay the initial evaluation for special education services of a child suspected of having a disability, federal officials have reminded states.
Federal regulations require that states allow RTI to be part of the criteria for determining if students have a specific learning disability. However, a memo from the U.S. Department of Education’s office of special education programs, posted last week on the website of the National Center on Response to Intervention, reiterates that RTI cannot be the entire process.
Response to intervention is an educational framework based on a screening of all students, followed by increasingly targeted and intensive lessons, or interventions, for students showing academic weaknesses. Those students are monitored closely for their response to that help.
