What should schools consider when deciding whether or not to adopt the RTI approach?

Transcript: Dr. Larry Wexler

The thing that’s interesting about this is that every school district in the country has the option of setting aside 15 percent of their special education federal funds to be used for these early intervening services, which means that they can set aside 15 percent of their federal special education dollars for things like scientifically based reading instruction, positive behavior supports, scientifically based math instruction, prior to the children being identified as special education students.

Transcript: Dr. Larry Wexler

First of all, it’s discretionary on the part of the school district, not the state. There’s also the reporting requirement relative to the 15 percent that relates to they actually have to track the kids who receive benefit from the 15 percent and whether or not they get referred to special ed. I mean, Congress has made it very clear in the committee report that the intent here is to reduce the number of kids who have to be evaluated.

Transcript: Kathy Strunk

Tennessee is fortunate to have a governor who places education as a top priority, and this year he included in his budget a significant increase in monies for “at risk” educational purposes. So, then, these funds are appropriate for enhancement and enrichment, but they are certainly aligned with the needs of our struggling learners, making them an appropriate source of funding for our early intervening services. All of our districts are also eligible to receive current year growth funds, and those also could be used to accommodate RTI purposes.

Transcript: Kathy Strunk

Title funds and resources are certainly appropriate to consider. For example, a Title I teacher might be able to provide Tier 2 interventions. Or a special education resource teacher might be able to work in a different capacity than he or she has in the past, such as maybe providing whole-group or small-group instruction in the classroom. We have Reading First resources in some of our schools, and these can be looked at to determine how to maximize the tiered instructional process. As state policymakers continue to look for ways to make Tennessee’s funding formula, the Basic Education Program, more responsive to the needs of at-risk students, our directors of schools would like to see additional funding that could be used for supports that emphasize early intervening services, such as RTI coach positions.

Transcript: Tiffany Brown

How have schools in the Long Beach School District in California funded the RTI initiative?

The schools are primarily using Title I because that’s certainly the majority categorical funding source, a little bit of school improvement funds, which are state funds. Title I has really been the primary source. Sixty percent of our schools in Long Beach receive some Title I support, which brings more resources to the schools, and so for those schools they were able to talk about how they would address the needs of students at Tier 2 and Tier 3 using those funds.

Transcript: Tiffany Brown

How are the schools that do not receive this funding implementing RTI?

Where the issue of funding does occur is in schools that have no categorical funds—and for us it’s very few schools—but nonetheless it’s usually smaller schools that serve a student population with a higher socio-economic level that we’ve had to work a little more creatively with in terms of options that are available for students who might not be proficient in those schools. The good news with that is that it’s not as many students. For us, funds have not been a stopping point. This conversation, related to RTI as I see it, is about efficiently using what we have before we determine that more is necessary.

Transcript: Brian Miller

Our Reading Plus, Title I program is funded less than 40 percent by the federal dollars, and the rest is funded by district dollars. The district has felt that need to say, “You know what, we need the additional reading help; we’re going provide [it] ourselves since we’re not getting the funding.”

Transcript: Brian Miller

We’re seeing as we utilize our people better—and Title I and special ed students will kind of be receiving services by whoever is providing it and makes the most sense—we’re just able to better utilize our time. So instead of two teachers doing the same group with two groups of kids, one teacher will do it with four and the other teacher is free then to do another group of students. Again, I think that cuts down the staffing needs; we can just utilize our people better.