Study of the Mount Diablo Unified School District - Mt. Diablo Unified ...

Policies, Procedures, and ComplianceIn the spirit of No Child Left Behind (NCLB), educators are encouraged to look less at thelabel of a child and accommodate instruction for all students. Once the culture ofaccommodating instruction for only students who have an IEP or Section 504 Plan ischanged, referrals should continue to reduce, thus reducing expenses for costlyassessments and the emotional expense of labeling.Considerations for Issue 4‐4:• Formalize the RTI pre‐referral (early intervention) process originating at thebuilding level for all students. Materials that might be considered include:−−−−A helpful link to understanding Response to Intervention can be found athttp://www.rti4success.org.C.R. Greenwood, T. Kratochwill, & M. Clements (Eds.). Schoolwide preventionmodels: Lessons learned in elementary schools (2008), New York: Guilford.William H. Bender, Beyond the RTI Pyramid: Solutions for the First Year ofImplementation (2009), ISBN 978‐1‐934009‐12‐3, ($29.95).Less costly ($12.95) is RTI: Response to Intervention from www.NPRinc.com(National Professional Resources, Inc.), 25 South Regent Street, Port Chester,NY 10573, 1‐800‐453‐7461.• Include a core team that meets on a certain day each week for a specified time toaddress academic and behavioral deficits of students and implement a data‐drivenapproach to alleviating those deficits. This core team should include the referringteacher, a general education teacher, administrator, and support staff, as needed.• Build the capacity for the entire staff to teach the students with diverse learningneeds. Building the capacity for staff to manage remedial and behavioral issues inthe classroom is not only cost effective, it is sound practice.• Realign support systems to feeder schools to provide consistency and professionalassistance, especially for those in Tiers 2 and 3 of the RTI process. This wouldinclude school psychologists, speech therapists, program specialists, etc.• Professional development could be provided on strategies to be employed in theclassroom to remediate reading, language arts, and mathematics; the pre‐referralprocess; and the RTI guidelines in alignment with BP 4131 and 4331 that requireongoing professional development.• Ensure that all staff, including general and special education teachers, recognizethat NCLB expects all students to be competent in grade‐level meaningful material.MGT of America, Inc. Page 4‐9