Overview: Solano SELPA

“Response to Intervention” (RTI) serves as a link between the Elementary–Secondary Education Act (ie No Child Left Behind), and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). The implementation of RTI is an effort to promote a more productive relationship between general education and special education in developing instructional strategies and interventions that will identify students with learning differences and provide specialized instruction before those differences become disabilities.

Our Spring Institute will focus on school site teams, primarily comprised of teachers and support providers. Kevin Feldman is scheduled to provide the keynote on the first day, with Steve Zuieback implementing the mental model process around a school level negative result. David Tilley will serve as our keynote on the second day with Steve Zuieback returning to finish the mental model process with the assistance of the previously trained principals.

Goals in the institute include promoting a positive link between general and special education, building district leadership capacity to become instruments of change, guiding conversations among different stakeholder groups, developing on–going networks of individuals who share the purpose of improving student outcomes. The 2005–06 Institute focused on organizing to support RTI at the district level; the 2006–2007 institute will extend RTI to the individual school site.

The regional institute works to redefine the connections between general education and special education. Leadership teams from exemplar districts will guide participants in exploring intervention practices, developing data systems, evaluating existing practices and identifying gaps in current practices. CalSTAT Leadership sites will be utilized and the statewide institute model will be largely replicated.