Response to intervention (RTI) teams are made up of a number of people. And the exact members may differ from school to school. Learn who's likely to be on the RTI team at your child’s school and how they can help.
Administrator/school principal
- Oversees the administrative details of RTI
- Assigns staff to work with students
- Consults with teachers and attends RTI meetings
RTI coordinator
- Schedules meetings
- Maintains RTI data and tracks student progress
- Keeps in touch with families
Classroom teacher
- Helps with screening all students
- Provides interventions to small groups of students as needed
- Keeps documentation on student progress that helps the RTI team tell how well interventions are working
- Attends RTI meetings and keeps in touch with families
Special education teacher
- Consults with classroom teachers on ways to teach struggling students
- Helps create and put into place RTI plans for struggling students
- Gives more intensive interventions, if needed
Literacy/reading specialists
- Helps choose, use, and interpret student screenings
- Helps select teaching materials and methods
- Helps monitor students’ progress
- Works with families on things to do at home to help
Parents
- May be asked to attend some meetings and to work with their child at home on different skills
- Provide helpful information about their child’s background and developmental history
- Follow their child’s progress through information from the school
- Can request an evaluation for special education services if concerned about their child’s progress
School psychologist
- Administers some student assessments and participates in team meetings
- Trains other RTI team members
- Comes up with behavior intervention plans for students, if needed
Speech-language therapist
- Administers student assessments and participates in team meetings
- Works with students who struggle with language
Learn more about the role of reading specialists on the RTI team. And get to know the different levels of RTI support.
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About the author
About the author
Amanda Morin is the author of “The Everything Parent’s Guide to Special Education” and the former director of thought leadership at Understood. As an expert and writer, she helped build Understood from its earliest days.
Reviewed by
Reviewed by
Elaine M. Niefeld, MA, MBA is a consultant and former associate director of the RTI Action Network.