What is Compensatory Education

By Dennise from The Coffee Klatch

What is it?

Compensatory education is generally defined as a remedy owed to children with a disability who have been denied, a Free Appropriate Public Education (FAPE). Compensatory education may include summer services, additional therapy hours, or other measures that make the student whole for past violations of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) by the School District. Compensatory education is intended to be a onetime offer to compensate for past denial of FAPE and doesn’t relieve the School District of providing FAPE on a go forward basis. Thus, compensatory education should be in addition to the necessary services to provide the child FAPE in the current or future Individualized Education Programs (IEP).

Read more HERE.

The Other Achievement Gap: Children With Learning Disabilities

By Nirvi Shah from On Special Education

Just in time for Learning Disabilities Awareness Month, a new report is out that discusses how to help more children with dyslexia become proficient readers.

Without these students—who combined with other students with learning disabilities make up about 5 percent of the school-age population—schools can't overcome the achievement gap, the report notes.

The report, commissioned by the Campaign for Grade-Level Reading and the Emily Hall Tremaine Foundation, offers a number of recommendations for policymakers and educators. They include: high expectations for all learners with accountability measures that indicate how individual students are doing; early-childhood programs that prepare children for reading and identify young children at risk of having reading problems; curricula, instructional practices and tools, and assessments that are science-based and accessible to all students; and teacher training and ongoing professional development that incorporate findings from neuroscience as well as best practices for how to teach reading.

Read more HERE.

Questions Parents Should Ask about RTI

By Candace Cortiella, Director - The Advocacy Institute

* Is the school using Response to Intervention (RTI) to provide extra help to struggling students?

* How does the school determine that all students are receiving high-quality instruction?(If large numbers of students are not making acceptable progress, the instructional program should be examined.)

* How will the school provide parents with information about the specific RTI process being used?

* What information about RTI has the school, school district or state provided for parents?

* Will all parents be notified of their child's screening results?

* What screening procedures are used to identify students in need of intervention?

* What are the interventions and instructional programs being used?

* What research supports their effectiveness?

* What process is used to determine the intervention that will be provided?

* Will parents receive information on how to help their child at home?

* Will students receiving interventions miss important instruction?

* How will interventions be delivered so the student isn't made to feel different?

* What length of time is allowed for an intervention before determining if the student is making adequate progress?

* What progress monitoring is being used?

* What are the types of data that will be collected and how will student progress be shared with parents?

* Is a written intervention plan provided to parents as part of the RTI process? At what point?

* Is the teacher or other person responsible for providing the interventions trained in using them?

* When and how will information about a student's performance and progress be provided?

* At what point in the RTI process are students who are suspected of having a learning disability referred for a formal evaluation?

* How will the information gathered during RTI, such as progress monitoring data, be used to determine the student's need for special education?

* What is the difference between RTI and special education?

* Are special education services more helpful than RTI?

* If my child is already receiving special education services how can RTI help?

Article HERE.

Response to Intervention (RTI) in determining a Specific Learning Disability (SLD)

By Doug Goldberg from Special Education Advisor Blog

In the 2004 reauthorization of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) the process for determining which children have a specific learning disability (SLD) was altered to include response to intervention (RTI). This change stemmed from criticism of how children were tested for an SLD, which was primarily looking at the discrepancy between a child’s intellect (IQ) and ability. If a severe discrepancy was evident the child was determined to have an SLD. Since an SLD may manifest itself in the imper fect ability to listen, think, speak, read, write, spell, or do mathematical calculations using only the discrepancy model can’t accurately identify all children with an SLD. This is where RTI can be used to fill in the gap where the discrepancy model isn’t working.

There is no one definition of RTI but it’s most commonly used as, 1) an early predictor of at-risk students, 2) in tervention for general education students with academic or behavioral difficulties, and 3) as a component of SLD determi nation. Usually, RTI incorporates a tiered system of support that increases the amount and intensity of intervention as you move to a higher tier. Most children in RTI will stay in the lowest tier and after a period of intervention will be back on track. For those children that need more intensive and longer support they will be moved to higher tiers. If a child isn’t showing any progress in RTI, this can be used as evidence that the child has an SLD. Thus, a child whose testing didn’t show a severe discrepancy between intellect and ability can still be determined to be a child with an SLD.

RTI can be a very useful tool in the SLD determination process but it should not be used as a stall tactic by the school district to delay assessments for special education. Some School Districts, after receiving written requests from parents to assess their child for special education, have used RTI as an excuse to stop the process. While IDEA does require general education interventions to be tried prior to special education there is nothing in the law that allows the school to stop assessment timelines after a parent requests an assessment. When a parent requests a special education assessment for their child make sure:

1) It’s in writing,

2) The request includes assessing in all areas of suspected disability, and

3) The request specifically requires any general education interventions, such as RTI, to be started during the assessment period and that the intervention doesn’t affect the legally required assessment timelines required by IDEA.

The general rule of thumb is there will be approximately 90 days between a parent’s request for assessment and the first IEP meeting. These 90 days include 15 days for the School to put together an assessment plan, at least 15 days for the parents to approve the assessment plan, and 60 days for the assessments. This is plenty of time for the School to try RTI and see how the results are working prior to the first IEP meeting.

If used properly, RTI is a powerful general education intervention tool and SLD determination method. It is a positive step forward in fixing the current education system and I look forward to seeing it implemented, in the proper manner, by all School Districts.

The general rule of thumb is there will be approximately 90 days between a parent’s request for assessment and the first IEP meeting. These 90 days include 15 days for the School to put together an assessment plan, at least 15 days for the parents to approve the assessment plan, and 60 days for the assessments. This is plenty of time for the School to try RTI and see how the results are working prior to the first IEP meeting.

January 21, 2011 Update: The United States Department of Education Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services issued a memo reminding School Distircts that Repsonse to Intervention can not be used to delay-deny an evaluation for eligibility under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. You can dowload the memo here: OSERS Memo on RTI

Article HERE.