RTI Teams: Potential Pitfalls Jim Wright www.interventioncentral.org

RTI Teams: Potential Pitfalls A teacher who has never referred to the RTI Team before comes to the meeting believing that the team can help her get the student referred for a special education evaluation. ! Baseline Data Collected Teacher Referral Initial Meeting Held Intervention Started & Monitored Follow-Up Meeting Held

RTI Teams: Potential Pitfalls The RTI Team discovers during the initial meeting that they lack crucial background/baseline information about student (e.g., current reading levels, estimates of off-task behavior). ! Baseline Data Collected Teacher Referral Initial Meeting Held Intervention Started & Monitored Follow-Up Meeting Held

RTI Teams: Potential Pitfalls The referring teacher vents and vents and vents about the student during the meeting, leaving very little time to follow the problem-solving steps. ! Baseline Data Collected Teacher Referral Initial Meeting Held Intervention Started & Monitored Follow-Up Meeting Held

RTI Teams: Potential Pitfalls The teacher and team start to talk about the student’s chaotic home situation. All hope is sucked from the room. ! Baseline Data Collected Teacher Referral Initial Meeting Held Intervention Started & Monitored Follow-Up Meeting Held

RTI Teams: Potential Pitfalls The RTI Team selects an intervention that does not logically link to the assessment information that they collected (e.g., deciding to include the student in a self-esteem group when the identified problem is a reading deficit). ! Baseline Data Collected Teacher Referral Initial Meeting Held Intervention Started & Monitored Follow-Up Meeting Held

RTI Teams: Potential Pitfalls The RTI Team signs up to take on so much of the intervention and monitoring that the referring teacher has little to do. ! Baseline Data Collected Teacher Referral Initial Meeting Held Intervention Started & Monitored Follow-Up Meeting Held

RTI Teams: Potential Pitfalls Confidential information about something the referring teacher said at an RTI Team meeting is shared outside of the meeting—and that teacher finds out about it! ! Baseline Data Collected Teacher Referral Initial Meeting Held Intervention Started & Monitored Follow-Up Meeting Held

RTI Teams: Potential Pitfalls The RTI Team comes together for a follow-up meeting and discovers that the teacher was not able to implement the intervention at all. ! Baseline Data Collected Teacher Referral Initial Meeting Held Intervention Started & Monitored Follow-Up Meeting Held