The Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act (2004) allows alternate pathways for school districts to identify and classify students with a specific learning disability (SLD). Response to Intervention (RtI) is one of the frameworks schools can use when eliminating the use of the discrepancy model. The premise of RtI posits that…

The implementation of prereferral models was being discussed in educational literature as early as 1979. Over the past decade, schools in the United States have begun to adopt prereferral models to meet multiple goals, such as reducing inappropriate referrals to special education, supporting students who face academic and behavioral challenges,…

The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act allows three methods of determining whether a student qualifies for special education as a student with a specific learning disability (SLD). The first and most controversial is the Discrepancy model, which requires a significant discrepancy between the student's intellectual ability and academic…

California Association of School Psychologists (CASP) adopted a Position Paper in March, 2014 intended to support school psychologists in California in electing to use a process known as Patterns of Strengths and Weaknesses (PSW) as one of three methods specified in IDEA 2014 and California Code of Regulations, Title 5, to identify students being…

Presented in this article are the rationale and construct of a new consultative teaching model for the inclusive instruction of students with learning disabilities in secondary schools. The inclusive consultation model (ICM) is a proposed alternative to traditional co-teaching models as described in the extant literature. In recognition of the…

Unlike ability-achievement discrepancy and response-to-intervention approaches, the processing strengths and weaknesses (PSW) approach is the only empirically based approach that attempts to identify the pattern of deficit in the basic psychological processes that interferes with academic achievement for children with specific learning…

Response to intervention (RTI) emerged from the 2004 reauthorization of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, but the roots of RTI are found embedded within the history of the field of learning disabilities (LD) as well as other sources of influence. In what follows, we provide a brief history of LD and highlight the connection between…

The change in allowing school districts to use the more prevalent discrepancy model or the new addition of response to intervention to determine whether a disability is present has sparked discussion among educators. As districts decide which method to use, it is important to base decisions on factual and researched information. The authors hope…

While special education law has been amended several times since the statutory definition of a Specific Learning Disability (SLD) was created in 1968, there continues to be ambiguity within the field regarding the definition as well as the diagnostic criteria. This inevitably leads to a lack of consistency in diagnosis within states and among…

The present study examines school professionals' self-reported perceptions of readiness in relation to the implementation of Response to Intervention (RTI) following a mandated deadline across the state of Illinois, as well their beliefs about the framework. A survey was developed to measure variables in the model related to school professionals'…

The Individuals With Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) of 2004 encourages schools to use interventions to ensure that students' literacy difficulties are not instructional problems before assuming a learning disability. The law frames these interventions in two ways: as a strategy for identifying students with learning disabilities--a measurement…

Educators today are challenged with the task of designing curricula and standards for students of varying abilities. While technology and innovation steadily improve classroom learning, teachers and administrators continue to struggle in developing the best methodologies and practices for students with disabilities. "Models for Effective…

The identification of children who are twice-exceptional--those who are gifted and have concomitant learning disabilities (LDs)--has historically posed a number of challenges for school psychologists and other school personnel. With the reauthorization of the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act and the shift to the use of a…

Two recent changes in federal law have made an impact on reading instruction in the United States, particularly for students for whom learning to read is difficult. The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), signed into law in 2002, requires that all students meet an achievement standard in reading by the year 2014. NCLB also recognizes that reading…

The response to intervention model (RTI) represents a promising framework for the early identification and prevention of learning and behavior problems for students struggling in school. If RTI is properly implemented, it should reduce unnecessary referrals and placements into special education, and increase the accuracy of special education…