Response to Intervention RtI

Response to Intervention (RtI) is a general education initiative designed to address the needs of struggling learners early in their educational experience. The language related to RtI was included in U.S. education law with the 2004 reauthorization of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) and incorporated into New York State Regulation 100.2. It was included as a result of the national trends, which revealed a significant increase in the identification of learning disabled students and the disproportionate representation of minorities and English language learners (ELLs) among those identified as learning disabled.


RtI begins with high quality research-based instruction in the general education setting provided by the general education teacher. Curriculum is aligned to the NY State Common Core Learning Standards and grade level performance indicators. RtI is a mult-tiered process that provides instructional or behavioral support to students by providing additional instruction based on individual weaknesses or skill deficits. Each tier provides instruction with increased intensity such as smaller group size or increased instructional time focused on specific areas. The focus is on targeted interventions directed toward the needs of the individual student rather than broad based instruction. The purpose of RtI is to identify and address at-risk students in order to remediate specific deficits and prevent the need for special education services. National research in early intervention suggests that many struggling early readers can eventually reach grade level expectations and that, currently, too many of these students are prematurely classified with learning disabilities.


Student intervention outcomes drive instructional decision-making at every tier of the process. a systematic, date-based problem-solving method is used to identify appropriate interventions and assess a student's progress toward specific goals. The RtI process combines universal screening, progress monitoring and high quality instruction for all students with targeted interventions for struggling students.


The four essential components of RtI are:

  • A school-wide, multi-level instructional and behavioral system for preventing academic failure,

  • Universal screening,

  • Progress monitoring and

  • Data-based decision-making for instruction, movement within the multi-level system and disability identification (in accordance with state law).

If a student moves through all three tiers and does not make sufficient academic progress, it may be time to consider a referral to the Committee on Special Education (CSE).