(If you are unfamiliar with RTI, take a moment and read What is RTI? on CEC’s RTI blog then download CEC’s formal position on RTI.)

Oregon’s Growing Special Needs

The Oregonian reported that 72,800 Oregon students qualified for special education services this year, an increase of 800 from last year.  Educating students with disabilities costs roughly $6,000 a year, twice that of typically developing students, creating a need for an additional $4,800,000 to meet the needs of those students.

Can RTI help? 

Yes it can.

RTI can help ease the financial strain by reducing inappropriate referrals to special education.  Recent amendments to IDEA have designated RTI as an additional option for districts to identify students with learning disabilities.  “School districts are no longer required to adhere to the traditional ability-achievement discrepancy to determine whether a student has a specific learning disability.  Rather, school districts can now opt to implement Response to Intervention (”RTI”), where students receive early intensive intervention and frequent progress monitoring, as part of the process for eligibility determination.” With nearly 28,000 students in Oregon with learning disabilities, even a 5 percent reduction in referrals would save the state nearly $1 million.

Has your school/district implemented RTI?  Have referrals to special education decreased?  What has worked well and what are some of the challenges?  Please respond in the comments.