Teaming & Data-Based Decision Making

Item 21.   Individual problem solving occurs after unsuccessful group interventions. Includes all problem solving steps and data in all domains (e.g. Instruction, Curriculum, Environment, Learner)

Individual Problem Solving

Recommendations

Some children do not progress as expected, even though they have participated in high-quality curriculum and received small and large group support. These children may need intensive, individualized approaches.  District decision rules indicate when the Individual Problem Solving Team should collect data, review hypotheses, and determine the final, individualized intervention prior to referring the student for a special education evaluation.

Parental input is an important part of this process.  Parent/Guardians should be notified of the meeting date and time.  Their input as well as a developmental history should be obtained prior to the meeting.  Districts that use RTI as a method of determining Special Education Eligibility should also provide parents with an RTI brochure at this time.  This document explains the RTI process and informs parents that if their child continues to make limited progress despite several interventions they may be asked to sign consent for a special education evaluation to determine whether their child has a learning disability.

The following information is needed to make a decision about the individualized intervention:

  • Thorough File Review
  • The Individual Problem Solving Form
  • Developmental history through an interview with the student’s parents
  • Progress-monitoring data
  • Student Intervention Profile

Once the data is collected, the Individual Problem Solving Team meets to determine the most likely reason the student is not making progress and to develop an intervention plan that is calculated to increase the student’s rate of progress.

Resources