Since the introduction of the specific learning disability (SLD) classification in federal special education legislation, there has been considerable ambiguity and controversy about the criteria that should be used in the determination of SLD (Kavale & Flanagan, 2007; Zumeta et al., 2014). Various models have been introduced to identify…

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…

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…

School psychologists' training provides a variety of skills from which its practitioners may draw, including consultation, intervention, counseling, staff development, and assessment. Despite these broad skills, school psychologists' primary roles involve assessment and assessment-related tasks, generally as related to eligibility determination…

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 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…

As many schools move toward a three-tier model that incorporates a Response to Intervention (RtI) service delivery model in the social, emotional, and behavioral domains, school psychologists may provide leadership. The decision-making process for filtering students through multiple tiers of support and intervention and examining change is an area…

This study examines whether the Comer (1996) placement model process reduces the overrepresentation of certain student groups into high-incidence disabilities programs. High-incidence disabilities are those disabilities which require an extensive degree of "professional judgment" by the teacher in determining whether or not a disability exists…

As a practicing school psychologist and administrator at Brown International Academy, an inner city elementary school in Denver Public Schools, the author believes that if the RTI model is put into practice, it will greatly impact educational outcomes for all students. Putting RTI into practice is not easy. It requires individuals to think…

To investigate the influence of an innovative math fluency intervention, 36 middle-school students were randomly assigned to either an experimental (the Detect, Practice, Repair [DPR]) or control condition (reading intervention). After covarying pretest scores, the DPR treatment produced a significantly higher (p = 0.016) adjusted mean (M) math…

The 2004 authorization of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act affords an opportunity to shift the classification of Learning Disabilities (LD) from a "refer-test-place" to a Response-to-Intervention (RtI) service delivery model. As a result, there are implications for the professional activities of school…

Surveyed 83 Montana school psychologists concerning use of computer-based regression discrepancy model for learning disability identification. Of respondents, 89 percent used model; 62 percent used model regularly. Nonuse was related to less agreement with model assumptions, lower perception of model's value, difficulty in locating input data,…

An alternative to the IQ-achievement discrepancy model for identifying students with learning disabilities is the response to intervention (RTI) model. There is a growing literature base in support of the RTI model, and within the reauthorization of IDEA there is an allowance for an RTI approach whereby RTI "may" be used by school…

Children who have specific learning problems in spite of intact intelligence and sense organs require a type of instruction that is adapted to their particular learning assets and liabilities. The "systems model" that is described consists of two input-output cycles which involve the teacher and the school psychologist. The teacher makes…

This paper proposes a model of a process group conducted with elementary learning disabled students. The school psychologist is proposed as leader of the group. Five goals are identified and the process of the group is discussed. Specific procedures are mentioned to enable the school psychologist to conduct a process group. (Author)