View FilePOLICY LETTER: July 27, 2007 to individual (personally identifiable information redacted) MS Word
Dated July 27, 2007This letter is in response to your letter of April 27, 2007, in which you request clarification of an issue addressed in the technical assistance document "Questions and Answers on Response to Intervention (RTI) and Early Intervening Services (EIS), released in January 2007 by the Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) to clarify the final Part B regulations implementing the reauthorized Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) of 2004.You ask whether, in the event a local educational agency (LEA) (in a State that leaves the use of an RTI model for purposes of eligibility for specific learning disabilities (SLD) to each LEA) decides it will use an RTI model, as opposed to a severe discrepancy model, to determine whether a child is eligible for special education as a child with a SLD, must every school in the LEA (K-12) use the RTI model for SLD eligibility determinations before any school in the LEA is permitted to do so? You also ask if every school in an LEA must implement RTI for eligibility purposes, are there provisions in the IDEA that would allow a State and/or an LEA to pilot, or otherwise allow the use of an RTI model for eligibility determinations, only in selected schools in the State or LEA?If the use of a process based on the child's response to scientific, research-based interventions, in identifying children with SLD is required, then all children suspected of having a SLD, in all schools in the LEA, would be required to be involved in the process. However, research indicates that implementation of any process, across any system, is most effective when accomplished systematically, in an incremental manner, over time. If an LEA chose to scale up the implementaPatricia J. GuardActing DirectorOffice of Special Education ProgramsPage PAGE 2