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Intervention & Special Education

Intervention and Referral Services (I&RS) for general education students is intended as a primary way in which general education teachers or specialists can assist a student who is at risk for learning, behavior, or health difficulties. An I&RS Team is one of the many resources used by schools to intervene prior to Child Study Team (CST) evaluation.

The primary purposes of a school’s I&RS Team

  • To identify students in need, and to develop an action plan to provide appropriate intervention within general education;
  • To review and assess the effectiveness of the intervention;
  • To provide professional development to general education staff members who refer students to I&RS or who assist in providing intervention and referral services
  • To actively involve parents/guardians in development and implementation of I&RS plans
     

The I&RS Process
The I&RS process is a collaborative approach to addressing student difficulties using available resources within general education. The process includes review of available student data to assess the area of need and development of an action plan to address the need. Once the action plan is implemented, student progress with the intervention is monitored through data collection, and adjustments to the intervention are determined based on the student’s progress.

I&RS is a process within a continuum of tiered supports. If the I&RS process exhausts available school-based regular education interventions with minimal success, the student is referred to the Child Study Team (CST) to determine if the child is eligible for special education and related services. The recommendation for a CST evaluation could come directly from the school I&RS Team, or from the parent, at any time during the process.
The process progresses in steps:

  1. Request for Assistance
  2. Information Collection
  3. Develop I&RS Action Plan/Intervention
  4. Progress Monitoring
  5. Change in Intervention or CST Referral

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