Approximately 623, or 8.8% of the students, who attend Stow-Munroe Falls City Schools, ages three through 22 years of age, have been identified as a student with a disability and are provided with a free appropriate public education in accordance with federal and state regulations.
Students with disabilities have unique characteristics and needs, many of which are best met by the classroom teacher who differentiates instruction within the regular classroom with the support of special education and related service providers. The team of professionals works collaboratively to assure that all students with disabilities have access to the same curriculum as typical students.
Stow-Munroe Falls City Schools uses a Multi-Tiered System of Support (MTSS) to provide prevention and intervention services aimed at providing high quality instruction to all students to ensure that they are making progress in the curriculum. This tiered intervention model reviews student intervention data to determine intervention effectiveness. At all stages of this process, progress data is taken and analyzed to make decisions. MTSS allows for early intervention by providing academic supports as soon as a student begins to struggle in the curriculum. When a teacher or school-based team identifies a student that needs to improve a skill, an intervention is put into place addressing that specific skill.
Students who fail to respond to intensive, empirically-based research interventions may be referred to determine if the student is suspected of having a disability. All decisions of whether or not a student is responding to intervention are based on data. It is at this time that the team may determine the need for a Evaluation Team Report (ETR) to be completed to determine two things: ( 1) Does the student meet one of the 13 federally defined disability categories for special education; and, ( 2 ) If the student is determined eligible for special education, what specifically designed instruction, services and supports are needed to meet the individual needs of the student.
There is no set amount of time for the intervention process within MTSS. The goal is to provide a student with intervention when needed in order to help that student meet state approved grade level standards. The process aims to help us to identify children needing interventions in reading, math, and/or writing to prevent the development of serious learning difficulties.