Response to Intervention

I wish I could go back in time and tell myself some of the things I now know.  The process of getting my son evaluated for special education was long and drawn out.  When I mentioned my concerns in kindergarten, I was told to give it time.  So much of kindergarten is socialization and academics would come later.  That seemed reasonable and I told myself to relax, he was a smart kid and he was going to be just fine.

 In first grade I voiced concerns about his reading, and I was told we couldn't get him tested because we hadn't tried enough interventions.  For the non-educator parents, 'interventions' are supports put in place to try to catch kids up.  The idea is that we need to try less intensive options before jumping straight to special education - the child's 'response to intervention' would determine what the school does next.  At the time this seemed reasonable to me.  Of course, we should try other things first.  After several months of intervention services, I asked for testing again.  This time I was told we needed to try a more intensive intervention first to determine if my child would respond to that.  I was beginning to get frustrated, and my child was not making progress.  However, I put my faith in the system, and they tried yet another intervention.  Finally, after over a year of 'interventions' my child was finally formally assessed for special education.

I have since learned that delaying testing in order to try a Response to Intervention - RTI - program is against federal law.   Schools can use the data collected through the RTI process as part of the eligibility determination, but they cannot delay testing to do so.  I have no doubt that my son's teachers meant well.  They had been trained that the RTI process had to be followed before a child could be referred for special education.  The fact is that this is simply the practice in many schools, but it is not a legal policy.  

My son cannot get back the time that was spent trying different 'interventions'.  He lost over a year of prime learning time just to see what might help.  In reality, he had dyslexia and none of the classroom interventions they provided were going to move the needle for him.  I know that RTI is a well-intentioned process.  The goal is to get to kids quickly when the gap is small so that they can catch up.  Unfortunately, there is a lot of misinformation about the process. This is yet another reason it is so vital to have someone that can guide you through the process and make sure your child's needs are getting met in a timely manner.