Stephanie: I teach students with learning disabilities, and I am a parent af such a child. The state in which I teach has opted to follow the RTI process for determining a need for an evaluation for special education. Is there a faster way to evaluation if a child is extremely low academically and has already been held back? I understand about not over identifying, however it seems like a very long process for a child already two grade levels behind and the thirty year veteran teacher noting a major concern as well. As the special education teacher, I am asked this question often. Usually, it involves a child who has had a medical diagnosis of aspergers, ADHD, or may have speech/language services as well. I do not understand why we need to gather 8 to 10 data points over 16 to 20 weeks in such an instance. Please help clarify. I am in the state of Tennessee if that helps. Thank you in advance!!!
The federal Dept. of Education has made it clear that RTI cannot interfere with a school’s child find responsibility. It may be that the school & state may be misunderstanding the federal position on this. Your state parent training & information center could assist you with info on TN. http://www.parentcenterhub.org/find-your-center
Curious about this- it reads to me (and I could be wrong which is why I am asking here) that the evaluation cannot be delayed due to RTI, but says nothing about services. In my case, the evaluation (psych) was completed within 30 days, but the eligibility meeting was not held for over 80 days so they could gather RTI data. When I asked, school said the law only says eval must be completed within 60 days not IEP.
IDEA regs, 300.323(c)(1) say the IEP must be developed within 30 days of the determination that the child needs special ed. So I am not sure how the school is interpreting this rule.
The psych was done in 30 days but that does not determine the need for sped services. The eligibility meeting (sorry, I wrote IEP before) was held after about 80 days so they could gather RTI data.
TN law says the evaluation must be completed within 60 CALENDAR days of parents consent. That includes the determination meeting. If the child is determined to be eligible for Sped services the IEP must be completed within 30 CALENDAR days from eligibility determination.
https://www.tn.gov/content/dam/tn/education/special-education/IDEA_Required_Timelines.pdf