Although a number of empirical studies have investigated the nature of school-based referrals, predominant focus has been on referrals for psychoeducational evaluation, and social-emotional and behavioral concerns have typically been too broadly defined to provide insight into the specific problems encountered. This study aimed to identify the…

Response to intervention is meant to be broad-based and preventative. However, as formulated and practiced the approach often is too limited in how it frames what needs to go on to enable learning, engage students, and keep them engaged. In particular, it pays too little attention to the need to strengthen the classroom and schoolwide context in…

The purpose of this quasi-experimental study was to determine the impact of specific prereferral intervention strategies on the reduction of referrals to special education among identified 39 second-grade students from an elementary school in one public school district in New Jersey. A mixed research methodology incorporating quantitative and…

Few research studies have been conducted related to students identified as slow learners who are enrolled in general education classes. In this research study, the definition of a slow learner describes the student as one who has "not" been identified as a student with a learning disability. The purpose of this study was to investigate how…

This study examined elementary school principals' beliefs and practices regarding the types of resources that facilitate collaboration between general and special education staff working on prereferral intervention/Response to Intervention (RtI) teams and serving students with Individualized Education Programs (IEPs). In June 2009, elementary…

As a result of the reauthorization of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA, 2004), Response to Intervention (RTI) became a legal and acceptable basis for determining special education eligibility. While there may be evidence that RTI has had positive effects on the prereferral process for special education in some schools, there…

The purpose of this study was to determine the implementation status of Response to Intervention (RtI) in the elementary schools (N = 35) in one urban school district in Virginia. The relationship between the implementation of the academic components of RtI, collective efficacy, parents' trust in schools, the number of referrals for special…

This qualitative inquiry evaluated the Student Support Team Project and its effects on preservice teachers' knowledge and perceptions of prereferral intervention and student support teams. This investigation is important because prereferral intervention and student support teams have been used increasingly to provide assistance to teachers and to…

Response to intervention (RTI) arose, in part, from the limited success of the pre-referral process, an approach advocated in the 1980s and 1990s, and accurately measuring the discrepancy between aptitude and achievement in young children. Reflecting these concerns, when the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) was reauthorized in…

The purpose of this study was to determine if the actual implementation of Response to Intervention (RtI) was related to school psychologists' knowledge, district opportunities for RtI training within the school district, and school psychologists' attitudes toward RtI. The implementation and use of RtI was predicted to be dependent upon those…

Background: Secondary prevention involves the early detection of disease while it is asymptomatic to prevent its progression. For adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities, secondary prevention is critical as they may not have the ability to recognize the early signs and symptoms of disease or lack accessible information about these.…

The recent IDEA reauthorization calls for what has been dubbed a "Response to Intervention" (RTI) approach. The intent is to use "well-designed and well-implemented early intervention" in the regular classroom as a way to deal with a student's problems and enhance the assessment of whether more intensive and perhaps specialized assistance (and…

The aim of this study was to investigate multiprofessional collaboration as well as collaboration between professionals and challenging students and their parents in which the focus for these collaborations was on handling the challenging students' academic and social behavior. A grounded theory study of collaboration between a prereferral…

The purpose of this research was to understand the relational communication patterns that characterize school-based prereferral intervention teams (PITs). Fifteen PIT meetings were used as the basis for analyses, with each meeting audiotaped, transcribed, and coded using the Family Relational Communication Control Coding System (Heatherington &…

Although public school districts in Southern California are experiencing declining enrollment overall, accompanying this decline is a continuing increase in the percentage of students classified as English language learners (EL). In one Southern California school district with an enrollment of approximately 5,500, EL represented almost 31% of…