When Is Supplemental Support Needed? 

Using Data to Make Tier 1 → Tier 2 Decisions

Moving from universal Tier 1 support to supplemental Tier 2 intervention should not be based on a single score, behavior, referral, diagnosis, student characteristic, or educator concern.

Tier 2 should be considered when multiple sources of data identify a specific need and indicate that a student requires supplemental support beyond what can reasonably be provided through differentiated and responsive Tier 1 practices.

Before adding Tier 2 support, teams should examine the student's strengths and needs, access to high-quality Tier 1 instruction and supports, relevant contextual factors, implementation fidelity, and the student's response to previous instructional or environmental adjustments.

Tier 2 is not a place a student goes—it is additional support matched to an identified need. 

What Should Prompt a Closer Look?

Certain patterns may signal that additional problem-solving or assessment is needed. These indicators should initiate inquiry—not automatically determine a tier.

Academic Patterns

• Persistent difficulty with specific grade-level skills or concepts across multiple measures

• Limited response to well-implemented Tier 1 differentiation, scaffolding, re-teaching, or instructional adjustment

• Significant or increasing gaps between current performance and grade-level expectations

• Patterns of course failure, credit accumulation concerns, or declining academic performance

• A need for more diagnostic information to precisely define the skill or instructional need

Attendance & Engagement Patterns

• Increasing frequency or duration of absences

• Patterns of tardiness, early departure, or missed instructional time

• Declining participation or engagement

• Difficulty reconnecting following absences

• Attendance patterns that may indicate an emerging barrier

Behavioral & SEL Patterns

• Persistent patterns of behavior that interfere with the student's or others' access to learning

• Repeated difficulty meeting expectations despite explicit teaching and responsive Tier 1 support

• Patterns of dysregulation, withdrawal, conflict, avoidance, or disengagement requiring additional problem-solving

• Difficulty generalizing taught skills across settings or contexts

Patterns Across Domains

• Concerns occurring across multiple settings, classes, or domains

• Increasing frequency, duration, or intensity of difficulty

• Multiple indicators occurring together—for example, changes in attendance + behavior + academic performance

• A pattern that persists despite purposeful Tier 1 adjustments

Individual Concern or Tier 1 Pattern?

Before referring multiple students for supplemental intervention, examine whether the data reveal a broader Tier 1 pattern.

If many students within the same classroom, grade level, course, subgroup, skill area, time period, or setting demonstrate a similar concern, teams should examine curriculum, instruction, environment, expectations, access, relationships, opportunity to learn, and implementation before concluding that each student independently requires Tier 2.

When many students need the same intervention, ask what the pattern may be telling you about Tier 1. 

What Makes Support Tier 2?

Tier 2 is supplemental, targeted support provided in addition to universal Tier 1. It is matched to an identified need and delivered with greater specificity, dosage, or intensity than can reasonably be provided through Tier 1 alone.

Tier 2 should include:

• A clearly defined need

• An evidence-based or evidence-informed intervention matched to that need

• A measurable goal

• Defined frequency, duration, and intensity

• A plan for implementation

• Progress monitoring

• Fidelity information

• Predetermined criteria for reviewing student response

• Decisions to continue, adjust, intensify, fade, or discontinue support

• Continued access to strong Tier 1

Small group ≠ Tier 2

Flexible grouping, re-teaching, additional modeling, scaffolding, check-ins, and differentiated support may all occur within Tier 1. The tier is determined by the purpose, specificity, intensity, dosage, and use of data—not simply by group size or location.