1. There is great power in harmony and mutual understanding.
Multi-Tiered System of Supports (MTSS) for Families and Community Members
Welcome to Florida’s brief overview of the problem-solving process and Multi-Tiered Systems of Supports also called Response to Instruction/Intervention- or RtI-framework. You may have also heard of Response to Intervention for Behavior or Positive Behavior Supports (PBS)- which represents a framework for supporting behavior.
MTSS represents the integration of RtI and PBS. It is a change in our way or work, focused on achieving better outcomes for all students. The purpose of this overview is to increase the mutual understanding between families, community members, and schools because we have one thing in common: we all want the students to be successful in school and in life. We, at the Florida Department of Education, believe that families and educators have great power to help students when we are working in harmony with each other toward the same goal…learning!
There is great power in harmony and mutual understanding.

2. Acknowledgements
Developed April, 2010 by FDOE State Transformation Team for RtI
Adapted January, 2012 by the Family and Community Engagement Workgroup of the Florida MTSS Inter-Project Collaboration

3. Video: What is MTSS?

4. Multi-Tiered System of Supports (MTSS)
A term that refers to the organizational framework (the system)
A way to organize academic and behavioral help for all students
Uses students’ response to intervention data to find solutions
Student supports are based on student need; students who need intense supports are given additional help
Multi-Tiered System of Supports (MTSS) is a term recently introduced to describe the integration of academic and behavioral approaches to using data to inform instruction and intervention.
Multi­Tiered System of Supports (MTSS) is a term used to describe an evidence based model of educating students that uses data­based problem-solving to integrate academic and behavioral instruction and intervention. The integrated instruction and intervention is delivered to students at varying levels of intensity (multiple tiers) based on student need. “Need driven”  decision-­making seeks to ensure that educational resources reach the appropriate students (and schools) at the appropriate levels to ensure all students are successful in school.
MTSS is a system where resources and services are organized efficiently on a continuum of intensity based on students’ academic and behavioral needs, whatever those needs might be.

5. Problem-Solving Process
MTSS is primarily a framework to help all students be more successful in school within which student RtI data and the planning/problem-solving process are used to improve the effectiveness of instruction (academic and behavioral) as measured by student learning growth.
The systemic planning and problem-solving process refers to the process or action cycle that teams engage in.

6. Response to Intervention (RtI)
RtI refers to the 4th step of the planning/problem-solving process
The term RtI has been used to refer to the framework of multi-tiered supports
Multi-tiered System of Supports (MTSS) is a more accurate term that refers to one seamless framework that provides varying levels of academic and behavior supports to students based upon their need.
Schools may choose to refer to their system as an RtI framework
RtI refers to the fourth step of the planning/problem-solving process where teams use student response data to make instructional decisions to improve academic and behavioral outcomes.
The use of the term MTSS is a more accurate term that can be used to reflect the integrated framework of multi-tiered supports that address both academics and behavioral domains for students. Florida has transitioned to the use of MTSS, rather than RtI or RtI for Behavior, in order to develop a “common language/common understanding” that more accurately reflects a comprehensive educational system that provides both academic and behavioral supports to students at varying levels of intensity.
Academic success is related to behavior in school, and
Behavioral success is related to academics
The school system should provide integrated supports that address behavior and academics

7. What can I expect?
Frequent updates on your child’s progress (typically 3 times per year)
Early identification of academic or behavioral concerns at the first signs of difficulty.
Help for your child that increases or decreases depending on your child’s needs
Information and involvement in planning and providing interventions to help your child
Information about how your child is responding to the interventions being provided
All parents are entitled to information on their children's progress so they can partner with teachers to help children succeed. Schools implementing MTSS collect data from all students three times per year, called schoolwide screening data. The purpose of these data is to identify any students that may need additional help. The school should be sharing this data with parents frequently so that parents have information about how their child is performing in school. Given this frequent monitoring of student performance levels using student data and comparing it to grade-level expectations, students who are struggling are identified immediately, at the first signs of difficulty.
If your child is identified (through their data) as performing below grade-level expectations in a given subject or skill area, your child is provided additional help in order to ‘catch them up’ to where they should be in order to progress to the next grade. For children who may be struggling academically or behaviorally, your feedback and involvement is even more important and may need to happen more frequently. If your child is having trouble meeting grade-level learning expectations and is enrolled in a Florida public school, you should get information and be invited to participate in meetings about what interventions will be provided to help your child.
These meetings are often called problem-solving meetings or Tier III problem-solving meetings. Tier III indicates a high level of support for your child and problem-solving is the process used to determine what supports are needed to help make your child successful. You will be a part of decision-making when the type of help for your child increases or decreases based on how your child responds to the instruction and interventions that the school provides. Depending on how often your child’s responses are measured, you will get information, often drawn on a graph, about how your child is doing. This will help you understand whether the instruction and interventions are helping or not. If they are helping, the school will continue to check up on how your child is doing. If they are not helping, the teachers and specialists will invite you to work with them as they use the problem-solving process to improve the instruction and the interventions.

8. What are the goals of the system?
For the school to provide effective teaching that fits the needs of each student.
For the school to make sure the classroom environment is the best possible for every student.
To help all students meet grade level standards.
To use student data to identify students who may be struggling.
To “add to” general education instruction, not “replace” with something different.
To provide interventions (“help”) as a natural, ongoing part of education that doesn’t wait until the student is struggling. 
So, a new way of thinking and working is being used by schools throughout Florida and the United States. It has been called RtI but is more recently being called MTSS in order to communicate more effectively. MTSS refers to a set of ideas focused on how to help all children be successful in school. It focuses on student needs/outcomes. This means teachers and other educators are always asking themselves and each other, “How are students doing and how can we improve our instruction and interventions for them?” It is not a program, strategy, or trend. Instead, it is a way of thinking and problem-solving in order to figure out what kind of instruction each student needs in order to be successful. Some students will only need Tier I to be successful, but some will need additional supports (or additional Tiers of support) in order to be successful- the multi-tiered approach allows schools to organize supports for students in order to best respond to and address student needs. If the instruction a student is getting is not helping the student to learn, MTSS allows for ongoing measurement of student progress and the development of strategies to improve the instruction and provide additional supports that will help the student.

9. Multi-tiered System of Supports (MTSS) & the Problem-Solving Process
Although most children do well in school, some children need extra help and support in order to be successful. Even fewer students need intense levels of help and support to be successful. MTSS is a framework that aligns resources to support the learning needs of every child, regardless of the intensity of supports they may need.
The problem-solving process involves four questions that help you, the teachers, and specialists find solutions to both academic and behavioral difficulties. The first question is, “What is the problem, exactly?” This question is important because we must be sure that we are working on the true problem. The second question is, “Why is this happening?” This question is important because we must understand the problem in order to design solutions that are more likely to work. The third question is, “What are we going to do about it?” This question is important because we must plan what needs to be taught and how it will be taught. In this step, we are designing and then doing the intervention. Sometimes the teacher or specialist doing the intervention will need help, such as extra training, new materials, or reinforcement from the child’s home. The fourth question is “How well is it working?” This step is the RtI step, because we must measure how your child responds to the intervention in order to know if it is helping or not. These four questions should guide the meetings you will attend with the school.
The problem-solving process is used while working within three types or levels of instruction or intervention. These levels are often described as “tiers.” The purpose of the tiers is to help the school provide effective teaching and an effective classroom environment so that all of the students are able to meet grade level standards. Thinking about three tiers helps the school provide help to students who are having difficulty in addition to what everyone gets, rather than replacing it with something different and disconnected from what all the other students are getting. Most importantly, a school that is set up to provide help to students that can vary across different levels, or tiers, based on what students really need helps students sooner, as an on-going part of education. 9

10. What are the 3 Tiers of MTSS?
Tier 1 – High quality teaching and behavior support for all students in the school
Tier 2 – Additional interventions for students who need more help on specific skills
Tier 3 – Interventions designed to address the unique needs of an individual student
When we talk about three tiers, we have to be careful to remember that they are not categories of students or stepping stones toward a special education category. There are not fixed rules about each tier, instead there are basic guidelines to help us understand the school’s framework for meeting all the student’s needs. Tier 1 describes the high quality teaching and school support for positive behavior that all students in the school receive. If what the school provides at the tier one level is working, most students in the school will be successful without needing additional help. Tier 2 describes the additional interventions that smaller groups of students might get if they need extra help to learn specific skills. Tier 3 describes interventions that are designed to help individual students who need the most extra help on specific skills. Students who are receiving tier three level help might need this level of help for a short time or for a longer period of time to be able to catch up. Any student in the school may, at some point, need tier two or tier three help in order to learn all the necessary skills of their grade level. The goal of the problem-solving team will always be to provide whatever the student needs and helps them improve their skills, so that they are successful in the general education classroom as much as possible. It is important to remember that the three tiers don’t have rules because they are meant to describe different levels of help that students may get when they need it and that the levels of help will change as the needs of the student change.

11. Show your support, ask key questions
Is my child successful? How do I know? If not, why and what can we do differently?
If needed, how is additional help going to be provided? By whom? How often? For how long?
What can I do to participate in problem-solving about my child?
What can I do to help with the interventions for my child at home?
How will I know if interventions are working?
As a parent who supports your child’s education, you are encouraged to attend and be an active member of teams that include teachers and specialists who are finding solutions by answering the four questions (the 4 questions that guide the problem-solving process) that we discussed earlier. Teachers and specialists value and rely on your input because you are your child’s most knowledgeable expert. You have more knowledge and experience with your child than anyone else, which means you have important information and insight to contribute to the solution-finding process. One way you can contribute is by asking key questions to help guide the conversations and keep the focus on improving your child’s learning. Some key questions are, “Is my child successful? How do I know? If not, why and what can we do differently? If needed, how is additional help going to be provided? By whom? How often? For how long? What can I do to help with interventions for my child? and How will I know if interventions are working?” The answers to these questions will need to be discussed and worked out by using the problem-solving process.

12. What do I do if I believe my child is struggling?
Talk with your child’s teacher
Ask for regular progress reports in the areas of difficulty
Ask for help to understand what your child’s data mean
Celebrate when progress is made; ask questions when there is little or no progress
Make a list of specific questions to ask about your child’s progress.
If your child is struggling (such as a child falling behind because he reads more slowly than his peers), has trouble staying focused, or uses his hands on peers, or at any time you wonder how things are going at school, you are encouraged to: talk with your child’s teacher asking the problem-solving questions; ask for progress reports on how your child is responding to the instruction that he or she is getting in the area of difficulty; suggest strategies that are working at home or elsewhere to further engage the partnership; celebrate when it is working and ask more questions when it is not working as well as you expected; and make a list of specific questions to ask about your child’s progress when you meet with the teachers and specialists.

13. Does MTSS have anything to do with Special Education?
Every student in the school, from Kindergarten to graduation, is involved in MTSS, including students with disabilities.
Interventions are provided through a variety of resources so that all students can be successful.
For students who need ongoing intensive or individualized help to maintain progress, special education resources may be accessed by the school.
Some people think that MTSS is something for students with disabilities. The truth is, MTSS is a way of thinking and working for schools that benefits every student in the school. For some students who need the most intensive and individualized help to maintain progress, special education resources may be accessed by the school. Whether the special education resources are accessed by the school or not, every child will continue to benefit from the problem-solving that happens in a school’s MTSS system.

14. Does MTSS have anything to do with Special Education (cont’d)?
Information gained through on-going problem-solving about what your child needs helps the school make a decision about your child’s need for special education resources.
Special education services are part of the MTSS continuum of services; within MTSS, the problem-solving process continues even if your child receives help through special education resources.
So, problem-solving and MTSS exists and continues for all students from kindergarten through graduation whether the school accesses special education resources or not. This is good news because it means that help for your child does not depend only on whether special education is an option.
However, if information about your child is being evaluated in order to determine if special education resources can be accessed by the school, the information that is gained through on-going problem-solving and MTSS about what your child really needs to be successful will help the school make a good decision about special education resources. It is most desirable to be able to meet your child’s individual needs so that he or she can be successful, without unnecessarily labeling him or her as a student with a disability.
It is also important to understand that the same process of problem-solving and MTSS is continued, even if your child receives help through special education resources.

15. Myths and Truths of MTSS

16. How can families learn more about MTSS, the problem-solving process, and measuring their child’s response to instruction and intervention?
Visit website:
Access Parent Brochure:
Contact the school principal