RTI Tackles the LD Explosion : A Good IDEA Becomes Law

This production provides insights on how an apparently minor change in IDEA, 2004 became a powerful catalyst to fundamentally change the relationship between special education and general education under the Response to Intervention (RTI) mandate. It exposes the risks of delaying the introduction of a process that scrutinizes the reading programs students receive in general education as a prerequisite for special education referrals; emphasis is on the learning disabled (LD) population. Karen Norlander presents a comprehensive legal overview of the changes in IDEA and their implications. In addition, she reviews the research that sparked these changes and discusses Congress' mandate to address the disproportionality of minority groups within certain categories of disabilities. Karen Kemp, national educational consultant, shares her experiences of redefining the relationship between special education and general education, and the roadblocks that loom in moving forward to build and effective collaborative model.