School psychologists are well served to stay up to date on trends in special education law, particularly with respect to determinations when school teams' decisions are challenged. This allows them to focus on proactive best practices that foster accurate specific learning disability (SLD) identification and active collaboration with parents. This…

After dropping steadily from 2000-2001 to 2013-2014, the percentage of students identified under the IDEA classification of specific learning disabilities (SLD) levelled off and increased slightly until the latest data available (2017-2018; NCES, 2019). Despite the recognition in the IDEA amendments of 2004 of response to intervention (RTI) as…

Specific learning disability (SLD), although moderately declining in recent years, continues to account for the highest enrollment among the eligibility classifications under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA; Zirkel, 2013b). The recognition of response to intervention (RTI) in the 2004 amendments of the IDEA as an approach for…

This article explains a process for improving specific learning disabilities (SLD) eligibility guidelines in a special education cooperative in Nebraska. The Central Nebraska Support Services Program (CNSSP) is a special education cooperative that serves four public school districts and seven parochial schools in central Nebraska. Children birth…

With the reauthorization of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act (IDEA), focus has shifted as more states have begun to use a process of identifying learning disabilities based on a child's response to scientific, research-based interventions (i.e., RTI). The decision-making process has been converted into a series of…

Response to intervention (RTI) remains a major issue in both the professional literature and school practice. A series of previous "snapshot" studies traced the development of RTI in state laws concerning identification of students with specific learning disability (SLD). In the last article in this series, Zirkel and Thomas (2010) reported that…

Response to intervention (RTI) is a major current issue at the intersection of general and special education, with the school psychologists in their usual central position. The literature is replete with scholarly and practical sources on RTI, but the legal sources are limited. A few articles provide systematic coverage of the relevant provisions…