**FTS-HHS ACF**

**Moderator: Dawn Williams**

**February 20, 2008**

**1:00 pm CT**

Coordinator: Welcome and thank you for standing by. At this time all
participants are in a listen-only mode. During the question and answer
session, please press Star 1 on your touchtone phone.

Today's conference is being recorded, if anyone has any objections you
may disconnect at this time. I will now turn the call over to Ms. Dawn
Williams, you may begin.

Dawn Williams: Good morning everyone and welcome to the call and good
afternoon to (Lucia). This morning's call is going to on response to
intervention as it relates to early childhood programs. And I just want
to cover a few logistics before we get into the call.

There was a PowerPoint and evaluation form emailed out to you this
morning. If you had any difficulty in receiving or opening that
PowerPoint presentation you can call or email Annelle Bogus, her phone
number is 206-615-3648 and her email is annelle.bogus@acs.hhs.gov. And
you're having difficulty with that you can contact her and she will send
it out to you.

And also, there will be a transcript of the call which will be posted on
the (TNTA) Web site afterwards. And we're going to have a question and
answer period at the end after we go through the PowerPoint, so if you
could hold on to your questions until then that would be perfect.

And now I would like to introduce (Lucia). (Lucia) is the bilingual
research and information specialist at ET, it's the National
Dissemination Center for Children with Disabilities. And she has a
Bachelors Degree in Physiology and a Masters Degree in Education in
Human Development and is also working on her Doctoral in Early Childhood
Special Education.

(Lucia) has extensive training in typical and atypical early childhood
development and early intervention services for children with
disabilities. She's worked with children from birth to five years old at
their homes and it includes a childcare setting and also as an assistant
teacher at a daycare center.

She also worked at as a case manager fro county early intervention
programs and she provides information about (IVA) the special education
laws and to the public at national conferences. So, she comes with a
wealth of experience that's quite relevant to early childhood. I'm very
pleased that she could do this call for us. (Lucia)?

(Lucia): Hi, good morning and thank you for having me. It's my pleasure
to be here today and to be able to do this call. I'm a little soft
spoken, so if people can't hear me, just let me know and I'll speak up.

But as Dawn was saying, you know the topic of this presentation is just
response to intervention and early childhood programs. So, I'm just
basically going to go through the PowerPoint and hopefully you guys will
have it in front of you and you can see it and again if you don't, then
we can always try to email it to you.

But the agenda that I have is just to have a basic history of the law as
an introduction. Then to have the review of what RTI is, response to
intervention, how RTI impacts early childhood programs, and then an
overview of recognition and response, what that is. We're going to have
a few resources for you and again, the questions and answers will be at
the end.

The history of the law, in 1975 (PL94142) was passed. And this was to
provide a free and appropriate public education for school age students
with disabilities who were eligible for special education. And then of
course services were provided under their IEP.

Throughout the years there have been more and more reauthorizations and
these reauthorizations place more emphases on prevention. We wanted to
catch these kids earlier, that's when pre-school programs were
established and (Part C) came into effect. I believe that was in '97.

So, IDEA 2004 now, this is the first time that the law includes language
from No Child Left Behind. No Child Left Behind has been around for a
long time and the last reauthorization the name has changed that's why
many people think it's a new law.

But, now with this new language they hold district, schools,
administrators and teachers accountable for student's proficiency in
reading, writing and math skills. It also talks about creating a system
to decrease the number of students failing and those that are in special
education do to lack of instruction versus an actual disability.

And then a little bit about the discrepancy model versus RTI. A
discrepancy model was used to identify children with learning
disabilities, but it also did not distinguish between students who
actually had deficients do to lack of instruction versus an actual
learning disability. So, this is sort RTI comes in to play.

The next Slide talks about what IDEA 2004 says. And I put in there just
a small section of the new language and the legislation. I'm not going
to read it all to you, but basically this part of the law prompted a
growing movement in the learning disability field to shift the focus
again away from that discrepancy model and towards early intervening
combined with high quality instruction.

And the reauthorized IDEA included the RTI approach as one of the
options that schools can use to identify students with learning
disabilities. (Ideal) also authorizes the LEA to use funds for RTI
services to children beginning at kindergarten.

Now, we hit the second topic on our agenda. A review of what RTI is. So
what is it? Well, we know that that the origin is already, as I had been
saying traced to the field of learning disabilities, we shift away from
that discrepancy model.

It is also an approach for school age children, it's used with school
age children. It is based on quality of general education curriculum and
it benefits all students, not just those that have learning
difficulties. It also provides intervention right away instead of having
to wait for an evaluation, seeing if a child is eligible for special
education. Its purpose is to keep children from having to wait and fail
before they receive services.

Woman: (Lucia), does RTI only apply to children with learning
disabilities and not any other disabilities?

(Lucia): No, no its just that's where it, that's the background that,
you know it began with children with learning disabilities. But, it can
be provided to any child. It could be behavior issues, it could be any
difficulties that a teacher or an adult observes, they could try to
provide services right away.

Woman: Okay.

(Lucia): But, with everything you read mostly about learning
disabilities because that's where it originates.

Woman: Okay.

(Lucia): So, again RTI is just a new approach for sorting out whether a
struggling child is really a child with a disability as defined by IDEA
or if he or she just needs more intense regular educational strategies
to succeed in school.

Next it says, we'll look at some of the requirements or some of the
components in this new approach. It's a systematic approach using
research based interventions. We'll go into this a little more. There
should also be collaboration between the general and the special
education teachers.

There have to be goals and expectations throughout the whole approach.
It also provides explicit instruction. So, this could be things to
address a (unintelligible) awareness, fluency, comprehension, things of
that sort. There has to be progress monitoring.

There has to be formal assessments. Some models of this approach also
include a problem solving process in which one, they identify the
problem. Two, the problem is define, an intervention plan is designed,
that plan is implemented and there's a continuous evaluation of that
plan to make changes as needed.

So, in theory the results of all that problem solving process should
solve the problem and should provide the additional support that a child
needs to succeed in school.

RTI is basically a three-tier model. It usually consists of three tiers
or levels of assistance. It is used to serve academics and behavior.
It's also used for service delivery and to assist with decision making
when a student should move from one tier to another.

So, the first tier is what is called the universal or the core tier. And
this includes all research base, it provides quality instruction to all
students. Students should be monitored and screened to make that they're
learning at this level.

The second tier is what's called targeted or the strategic tier. And it
consists of providing more supplemental intervention and it has
additional progress monitoring. So, we want to make that these kids are,
if they're not doing well continuously monitoring their progress. These
are the students that are at risk and the ones that need additional
supports.

The third tier is the intensive tier. And this is, students in this tier
have more intense needs. They're provided with intense instruction.
Their progress is monitored much more frequently and they may also
receive more comprehensive evaluations instead of just screening.

So, when a child is identifies as struggling to learn either through
screening or through teacher observations, RTI may be used to see how
the child responds to deliberate research based interventions or any
other kind of direct support.

If the child still fails to learn adequately in that first level of
help, then he or she is moved to that second level. And if he's failing
to learn in that second level then he would go to that third level.

You know then the supports and the strategies become more intense as he
moves through the tiers. And progress should be closely monitored so
that the school will know if the child is learning or is improving.

And if the student is not responding then there may be a referral for an
evaluation under IDEA to determine if the child is eligible for special
education or related services.

One of the things that I think concerns people about this model is that
there's no clear knowledge about the duration or the intensity of the
intervention that should be provided to the children. And also that
there isn't really what known benchmarks should be used to figure out
when more intervention is needed.

So, I guess one of the negatives is that maybe the teachers will
continue to try different things or will just provide intense
instruction instead of making that referral. But, a referral can always
be made at any point, whether they're using RTI or not if there's a true
concern. I just wanted to clarify that.

So, now that brings us to the third topic on our agenda which is RTI's
impact on early childhood programs. And we know that, we all know, I
mean we all work with early childhood, so we know that early
intervention is effective. And that's why the law has changed its
emphasis on prevention and early intervention throughout the years.

There's a study that (Lion) and others did, which shows that prevention
studies in reading commonly show that 70% to 98% of at risk children,
which is the bottom 20 percentile in Kindergarten through second grade
can learn to read in average range. So, that's huge, I mean that just
really shows that we can make a difference early on for those children
that are at risk.

So, what does RTI mean to early childhood programs? RTI is a really good
match with early childhood because early childhood studies stress the
importance of program quality to all children. We're always hearing
about that. Children have to be in a good quality childcare or daycare
in order for them to learn and succeed.

The other thing is that more and more States are beginning to offer some
type Pre-K program to children around age four that means that these
young children are in school earlier. There's also an emphasis on
helping children to acquire school readiness concepts prior to
Kindergarten to help close that achievement gap. So, early childhood
program now teach early literacy, they need to meet early learning
standards, all of which begin to teach academics, ready, writing, math
skills.

But, that also means that when teachers are working with these young
kids, we can try to detect early on when a child has, of course showing
a learning difficulty.

And the last is that there are, there's a system in place to provide for
free and appropriate public education to pre-school children. Now the
(unintelligible) with that is that they have to be eligible for special
education. Many times the difficulties that we see with children is that
the difficulties that they're showing are pre-cursers to learning
disabilities, but that may not necessarily make them eligible for
special education, but its important to provide services earlier.

And when these children aren't eligible for special education that's
really the only type of service that can be provided at this point. So,
RTI in early childhood programs really does make sense.

Our next Slide basically again it just, it helps to identify learning
disabilities earlier in young children. Because of this, parents can
become aware of their child's difficulties earlier. They can advocate
for their child. They can, you know makes those referrals earlier for
special education under learning disabilities.

And it's also important to know that skills that prevent learning
disabilities can be taught, but these skills must be taught early in
school. Again, we know providing these services early on really makes
sense.

Another thing is that RTI uses sound instructional strategies that means
research based strategies. It helps the kids now, again we just talk
about how usually children are not provided services until later when
they're eligible and for special education. And usually children are not
identified eligible for learning disabilities until their second or
third grade. That's a big gap between early childhood and eight or nine
years old. And the referral to special education can be more
appropriate.

And now, I guess will just bring us to the fourth topic on the agenda,
which is an overview of recognition and response. And this is really,
this is what's known, this is basically like the RTI model, but for
early childhood.

It's an emerging practice, it's based off of the RTI model. It's also
just a new way of thinking about making sure that all children have the
best opportunities to learn.

It helps identify young children at risk for learning disabilities.
Young children being children in between the three and five age group.
It provides strategies to the care takers. It's designed to insure that
these young children in all types of early care and education settings
receive the attention they need to be successful in school.

It also prevents children from failing, from being referred for an
evaluation, for being place in special education when they may not be
eligible again, because of, you know we had talked about before.

But, recognition and response is really meant for all children. And it
helps adults pay attention to the overall quality of the early learning
experiences. And when children show any signs of struggle, then this
approach can be used and it includes steps that should be taken to
modify the program to individualize the instruction and to provide very
specific types of support to help that particular child.

It also makes sure that adults are always monitoring the child's
progress and that's done over time and in different environments. And
all of this information is shared among all of the child's care takers.
That includes teachers or parents, anybody.

So, then how does recognition and response work? Again, it's built on
the RTI approach, we had said that before. And when parents and teachers
recognize that a young child may not be learning in an expected manner,
then they can take the steps to enhance the child's early childhood
success.

It's a systematic process to the child's learning difficulties. And
recognition and response has basic elements that RTI has. Like RTI, it
consists of three tiers of instruction and intervention. It uses
screening and progress monitoring throughout the multiple tiers to make
sure that more intense interventions or instruction can be provided. It
also uses that problem solving process to aid in decision making and
also in providing more intense instruction.

The first tier, I don't think I added that onto the PowerPoint, but I'm
just going to talk a little bit about the tiers. Within that first tier
the most important thing is to make sure that all of the children in the
class are receiving high quality instruction.

To make sure or at least observe whether the children are responding to
the curriculum and that can be done through screenings, through
observations. And those should most likely be at the beginning of the
school year and then throughout the year that way you can have more,
have a better idea of how the child is progressing throughout the school
year.

It will also help to notice any child that appears to be struggling or
who may in fact be at risk for some type of learning difficulty. And
classroom adjustments can be made to try to meet the learning needs of
those children.

In the second tier, the teacher may work with smaller groups of children
who appear to be struggling in the similar types of, or with a similar
type learning difficulties.

In the third tier, some of these children may continue to have
difficulties even after working in a small group or more intensely with
a teacher. They may be, then a teach may consider more special Ed
instruction or if needed, this is where a referral can be made also for
special education.

It's really about individualizing the education for each child,
observing them, assessing them, trying to figure out if something needs
to be change in the curriculum of if any accommodations need to be made.
It's really, really individualized for them.

I think I just spoke through the whole thing. I went so fast. Now I just
have a few resources for you. I was trying to find something about what
or how RTI has implemented in each of the States. There is an
information page that Washington State has and I put that link on there
and it basically provides information about screen, about progress
monitoring, model programs, the policies and procedures.

Then there's also an electronic learning community that Idaho has, and
it's just to provide a lot of information on RTI. Oregon has another
site which provides assessment to determine whether school districts or
the readiness for RTI as well as other resources.

The (NECHE) has a lot of information on IDEA and we have a training
curriculum and there's a section on RTI and such, but the link for that
is in there as well.

One of the other things that I kept thinking about was how does this all
work in a State? How do administrators put this in place? Where does the
funding come from? Where do, you know there's so many questions. And I
was able to find a resource from the State of Colorado, which looks at
implementation initiatives.

And it's just a document, it was from 2006 and it looks like it may be
something that's not fully, I think they're still working on it, but it
brings up a lot of the points that I was thinking about. So, that may be
a good resource in case any of you are interested in learning a little
bit more about how a State would do this.

And then for recognition and response there are a few resources. There's
a report in the Child Development Institute in North Carolina. And I got
a lot of my information from them. There's also a recognition and
response dot org Web site that provides a lot of information on this
approach. And just one of the documents from that particular Web site.

Again, I think I flew through this whole thing, but I don't if I was
able to provide enough information? If you guys have any sort of
questions?

Dawn Williams: I think so, this is Dawn. And I'm sure there will be some
questions and that. I'm also wondering does recognition or response
apply to children ages 0 to 3?

(Lucia): No, everything that I have seen is from 3 through 5. And I'm
assuming that it's because there's more of that academic. You tend to
look at some of these more academic concepts, pre literacy, even though
you can teach a child all those pre literacy skills from day one, but I
think that that's probably why. And I think the other reason is also
because pre-schools start providing that sort of level of instruction at
that age.

Dawn Williams: Uh-huh.

(Lucia): Yes, so I haven seen anything for 0 to 3 on it.

Dawn Williams: (Unintelligible) response to intervention begins at the
school age level, like at age 6?

(Lucia): Exactly. That is Kindergarten and up. So, Kindergarten, I guess
starts at age 5 and that's really because that's where Pre-K services
begin and that's when the children are actually in schools and they can
provide that level of instruction.

Dawn Williams: Okay, so what our Head Start program is the recognition
and response because they (unintelligible) until 5 years old.

(Lucia): Exactly. Which is, that's a new approach that is, that's what
the new approach for these young children is called. But, it's still
sort of an RTI model. It's based on RTI, but they're using this new name
for the younger children. And it's an approach that came out of a lot of
work through (NAEYC).

And the North Carolina group that I was just telling you about, the
(FPG) Child Development Institute, another organization, oh I forgot
their name, but it's a learning disabilities organization. So, all of
those groups came together, did a lot of research on how this RTI model
could be implemented for younger children.

And they came up with this approach. And again, the resources that I
provide gives a lot of information about that particular approach and
how that all got started.

Dawn Williams: So, what might be some of the things that the staff might
be asked to do for recognition and response?

(Lucia): I'm sorry Dawn, can you say that again, I didn't hear you.

Dawn Williams: Oh, sure. What are some of the things that Head Start
staff might be asked to do for recognition and response?

(Lucia): I think with Head Star, and I'm a little familiar with Head
Start, I've never really worked in a Head Star setting, but I think Head
Start does a lot of these things. You guys already observe, you do
screenings; you know you provide those referrals when needed.

I know a lot of Head Starts work directly with the school districts to
provide services at the Head Start setting. So, I think a lot of that is
already being done. I think at this point it would be to get information
and to train personal on being able to provide some of that more intense
instruction and individualized instruction at the Head Start setting.

And I believe that that's what this other organization that response to
www.recognitionandresponse.org, they provide a lot of information on how
that training can be provided to personal that work with young children
in early childhood settings.

Dawn Williams: Okay.

(Lucia): Its basically just like following an IAP, you know, figuring
out, and again it\'s not through special education, but it\'s that same
sort of concept, observing the child, identifying where that child is
struggling, modifying the curriculum, providing different
accommodations, modifying certain aspects of the classroom, whether
it\'s smaller settings or whether it\'s less ratios, you know for that
one particular child. But, it's really about individualizing everything
so that that child can learn and can prosper in the classroom setting.

Dawn Williams: Well I agree many of the interventions sound like things
that Head Start programs already do.

(Lucia): Uh-huh, yes. And that's why I found that one article from the
State of Colorado and it brought up a lot of interesting issues. And I
don't know about funding, I don't know that sort of administrative level
information, but it really makes you wonder, you know if these programs,
Head Start program for instance, if you start providing some of those
RTIs and recognition and response, you know is there funding available?

Will there be funding available to provide additional support and
additional training? Right now IDEA says that LEA can provide or can use
some of that special education funds to provide RTI to children who are
not eligible for special education yet. But, yet you know they can get
some money from there to provide these services. But, they're only
saying that for children Kindergarten and up.

Dawn Williams: Oh, I see.

(Lucia): So, you know what can States do? I don't know that financial
aspect of it, but I think they are very good question. And it would be
interesting to find out how, if any States are implementing this and how
they've done it.

Dawn Williams: Uh-huh. I think one concern has risen in the Head Start
programs, is that this may slow down or prevent the referral process.

(Lucia): Well, and I think that's why its very important to know that at
any point if a person has a concern that, that referral can still be
made. And you don't have to go through this, its one of the options, its
something that is suggested and that has come out as again, the whole
learning disability world because so many children had waited and waited
and waited to go through the evaluation process, to go through the
eligibility process when they could have been receiving services right
away.

Dawn Williams: Right.

(Lucia): Or some sort of support. So, that's why it came to be, so that
if there's some obvious, if there's a child that has some obvious
struggles and that a teacher has observed that there are just certain
things that can be change to help that child.

You know this is the way to start providing the service right away
instead of having to refer a child to go through the whole process of
evaluation and eligibility and all of that and finally become eligible
and receive services. And with young children, pre-school settings, you
know they don't provide a whole lot, so again, you know its just to try
to promote some proactive and to be more proactive and provide some of
these strategies earlier on.

Then if we look at learning disabilities, to identify and to evaluate a
child to be able to determine if a child has a learning disability, and
again this whole approach is not only for learning disabilities, it can
be used with anything.

But, just looking at that, a lot of the tools that are used to evaluate
children for a learning disability, they're going to have to be able to
read, they have to be able to write, to do some sort of math, some basic
level academic skills to see where they're at, to see if they're behind.
And the young children 3 through 5, they're not at that level. That
doesn't mean that they're not showing some of these signs.

You know, its just, overall I think it's a really good system, I'm not
sure, again financially, administratively how all of this is being
implemented. But, it is, it really seems like it could be something that
can be very proactive for these kids.

Dawn Williams: Thank you for being so clear and concise. I think this
would be a good time to open up for questions.

(Lucia): Sure.

Dawn Williams: So, (Vicky).

Coordinator: Thank you, we will now begin the question and answer
session. If you would like to ask a question please press Star 1. To
withdraw your request, press Star 2. Once again to ask a question,
please press Star 1. One moment.

At this time we have no questions.

Dawn Williams: Okay. I think we can just hold on for a couple of minutes
and give people a chance to get their questions in.

(Lucia): Sure. They have to think about it.

Coordinator: (Debra Bruno), you may ask your question.

(Debra Bruno): Hello Dawn and everyone, this is (Rural Cap). (Deb) and
bunch of wonderful coordinators around the table.

Dawn Williams: Hi (Deb).

(Debra Bruno): Hi. I just, I mean we're still really our heads are still
spinning as far as the new Head Star requirement of we're going to have
to have all of our 10% children, with a disabilities, diagnosed prior to
entry into the program and that's going to be an extreme challenge for
some of our communities.

I'm interested, this has, I guess almost no, there's no connection that
I can think of right now between RTI and that because that new
requirement for Head Star programs is going to, its like we have to get,
somehow get a system in place for children are diagnosed prior to
entering Head Start.

And the RTI is just children that we pick up once they're in the program
that we happen to notice, but is there any other connection that we're
just not thinking of?

(Lucia): That's a very good point. I think RTI would be most useful for
the children that are already in the program that you are identifying,
but like you said that doesn't help you with the 10% that have to have
before they begin any Head Start programs.

The only thing that I can think of, and again I don't know if there are
States that are implementing, have implemented this approach, but I'm
thinking that maybe if some of those universal pre-K programs that
aren't necessarily Head Start program that may use, you know this RTI
approach, maybe make those referrals earlier with some of the kids.

And because Head Start does have the capabilities of providing services
to a certain percentage of children with disabilities that some of those
referrals may come to you from those private daycares or from some of
those other early childhood programs.

Whether they're State funded or private centers. I'm not sure how this
program is being implemented in other States, but that's one of the
possibilities that I would say. If there are, for instance, what is it
South Carolina, I think has the universal pre-K program that receives
money from the State and they have agreements with a lot of different
private daycares, with Head Start programs, with different resources
around.

And so that would be one of the lengths that I would say. That some of
those State programs may be able to go through this process whether they
can provide that instruction or not, you know some of them may not feel
qualified and make those referrals to Head Start programs or directly to
special education.

I don't know if that makes a lot of sense, but I mean that's just one of
the ways that I'm thinking there could be a connection between Head
Start and RTI.

Dawn Williams: This is Dawn, I think that your 10% requirement they also
lead to programs having even more then 10% similar disabilities in their
programs as they do recognition and response and refer more children. I
think that there are going to be even higher numbers (unintelligible)
disabilities in the classroom.

(Lucia): Yes, that's a very good point because I've worked with a lot
of, I used to work in Florida and I worked with a lot of children that
were in the early intervention system that we would try to get into the
early Head Start programs or the Head Star programs and of course those
children were already identified, they were already eligible because
they're in early intervention.

And I always found it difficult because those Head Start programs
weren't meeting their 10%. And some of them also did not feel, I guess
that they had a lot of expertise with some of the more severe
disabilities.

But, that's a very good point, I mean that this could just bring the
numbers up as well if more children are identified when they're already
in the Head Start program. And it may just be children that have some
learning difficulties that need more instruction, that need more on one,
that need more sort of that intense level of help. But, may not
necessarily qualify for special education services.

Dawn Williams: Does that answer your question?

Coordinator: Your line is still open.

(Debra Bruno): Hello, this is (Deb Bruno) again, can you hear me?

Dawn Williams: (Deb) we can.

(Debra Bruno): Okay, great. I have one more question. And it seems like
now there's no extra support for teachers, extra consultations or
anything for teachers until they get down to tier three for special Ed
staff. And even then it's if they can do an evaluation or a referral for
evaluation.

Is there any additional support being talked about for regular classroom
staff as far as consulting with special ed teachers about strategies to
try things to do before they get to the evaluation, referral evaluation
level?

(Lucia): Yes. I wish. I don't know of any talk of any additional
support. You know all of these approaches, they're and that's why I
think I love IDEA because it is an idea, you know it makes sense, but
practices something completely different, reality is different. And it
is very hard to provide all this individualized support and small groups
when you're under staffed and you have a lot of children in your
classroom.

So, I don't know. And again, I'm not that familiar with the funding end
of this or more of that administrative side, so I don't know when States
are implementing this approach, how they're doing that, how they're
managing the financial aspect of it. It would make sense to provide
additional support so that you can have more of that individualized
instruction for all of the children, but I don't know.

I don't know if there is any sort of funding or if there's anything that
can be provided to States to assist with that.

Dawn Williams: Do you have any other questions?

Coordinator: Once again, if you would like to ask a question, please
press Star 1.

Dawn Williams: I think what's been happening across the region is that,
(or) some programs have been asked to do response intervention and some
programs haven't at all, it's been very different in each State.

(Lucia): Yes, and that's what I've been seeing when I look through a lot
of the different pages to try to find information and some States have
it down pack and have been doing it for years, even before the law was
passed. And other States have been asked to do, but have not bee
provided any sort of support. It's just like, oh yes now figure it out.

You know and the other thing is, there are insufficient funds as it is
for special education and now some of this money can be used to provide
early intervention services to children that are not eligible for
special education yet. So, I think that the money was just sort of
shifted around, but they didn't really look at what the true needs are.

And that unfortunately, you know those are financial needs that every
State has in order to provide all this help to the children. So, maybe
it will change next year.

Coordinator: We do have some more questions, would you like to take
them?

(Lucia): Yes, sure.

Coordinator: (Holly Porter), you may ask your question.

(Holly Porter): I was wondering if you could address English language
learners and how this affects working with them.

(Lucia): A lot of the models from other States that I have seen do
address English language learners. And again, it's just, I think there's
a fine line to be drawn whether a child should be referred for services
because of (writing) difficulties, because of language issues or because
of lack of instruction. But, the system, and again from the models that
I've seen has been used with specifically with ELL students.

I haven't read up that much on it, so I wont be able to give you that
much more information, but if you want, I can try to find the resources
because I've bookmarked everything that I was looking through. And I can
also send you some of those links if you want.

(Holly Porter): That would be very helpful. I think because the school
districts we work with often don't have somebody who speaks (foreign)
language of the children that we're referring.

(Lucia): Yes.

(Holly Porter): It becomes a little problematic of when to do a referral
and what happens with the school districts once that referral is done.

(Lucia): Of course, of course. Yes, I mean its just screening and
monitoring is one thing and even just being able to communicate with the
parents is a completely different thing. Again, no, I did find a lot of
resources. I can send that to you and I don't know, I can send that to
Dawn or if you want you can just give me your email I can send it
directly to you or.

Dawn Williams: I'll be happy to send that on to you (Holly).

(Holly Porter): Okay, great. Thanks Dawn.

Coordinator: (Phyllis Fernan), you may ask your question.

(Phyllis Fernan): I really didn't have a question, I just had kind of a
comment to go with the school districts that we work with here in Idaho.
And that is that when we refer a child to be evaluated, they've been
really gracious and wanting to provide us with intervention.

And they have also been gracious as to wanting to do some training with
our staff to be able to provide intervention in our Head Start
classrooms.

So, I think that is a real positive note in building those relationships
with your school district in order to be able to have them come in and
provide you intervention and help with the RTI and whatever else that a
child may need in order to be successful once they go to Kindergarten.

(Lucia): I think that's a great point. I mean every district is
different. Every (unintelligible).

(Phyllis Fernan): Exactly.

(Lucia): Unfortunately, I think we all have to learn as we work. I moved
to DC from Florida and the State of Florida itself, I think is doing
horrible, but the particular county that I worked for had great
inter-agency relationships.

There was constant training back and forth, you know not only Head Star,
early Head Start, the pre-school settings, early intervention, but so
many other community agencies and it was absolutely amazing and it had a
lot to do with the personal and administrative staff. But, you're right,
it so much varies from county to county. But, I'm glad to hear that
about Idaho.

Coordinator: (Sarah Kinsley) you may ask your question.

(Sarah Kinsley): Hi, yes this is (Sarah). I'm not sure that I have a
question either, but a couple of thoughts that's wondering around in my
head. And I think the first one is that at least here in Alaska, you
know a Head Start teachers often also are family services providers and
follow up on health and really are doing a lot of the work of Head Start
with individual families and kids.

And I guess I'm a little bit, we have also done an excellent job of
building relationships in this instance with school to support providing
both interventions to identify kids, and sharing resources back and
forth.

And I see that, I'm worried that this new method, which I understand,
from what you're talking about, what I've read about it is it sounds
really great, but I'm worried that Head Start is going to be the end all
and be all more then it has been before.

And so I'm worried about how that's going to reflect with staff and
their training. Who's going to provide that training? Is it reasonable
for them to be the interventionist, which seems to me, is going beyond
just individualization.

It's getting into an area, a specialty area that I don't think a lot of
Head Start \-- I\'m not aware of \-- that Head Start staff have that
expertise. I'm also thinking that program and their agreements that they
have with school districts you know, some help with knowing how to
negotiate that collaborative relationship as well as whatever the
agreements are in states around special Ed and early childhood are going
to be needing to be discussed.

(Lucia): Very good points, very good points. I used to be a family
service coordinator myself and the paper work almost killed me. So, I
can just imagine being the Head Start teacher, doing all that paper
work, providing some of these interventions, being an advocate for the
family. Yes it's a lot, it's a lot.

And the whole system with negotiation too, I mean that's, you know
everybody will have to be trained on that as well, because like we were
saying before, this isn't it. You know if someone wants to try this
approach it doesn't mean that a child cannot be referred for more
intensive evaluations or for special education.

And I want to make sure that that doesn't get lost in how people are
thinking of this approach. Because I think that it will. And many times
I think that maybe the people that are providing these services are
going kind of get stuck. But, it is very important for you to know that
those evaluations can still take place as needed.

And that its still go back to the school district responsibility and
having them evaluated and go through the whole process. But, your point
is very well taken. It is going to be a lot of work. I think if these
systems are put into place and this approach is implemented especially
from what you say teachers are doing in Alaska.

(Sarah Kinsley): And, I guess I'm thinking that it's sure true that
everybody can be referred, but whether that referral is accepted or
they're saying, no I need to see the interventions that you have done in
the classroom over the next three to four months.

You know, through our screening assessment process and observations
we've identified that we need some special ed further evaluation and
assistance with this child, but so we try to do more interventions and
then make the referral and the school district may have up to six months
before they evaluate that child, that's a whole year that's elapsed,
which seems to be, it doesn't mean that its lost, we'd still be working
with and trying to work with the (unintelligible) the best that we
could.

(Lucia): Yes.

(Sarah Kinsley): But, I still think that it's a void there that is
irresponsible.

(Lucia): Yes, you know what though, the law is also very clear, it says
that its an option, it doesn't say that RTI must be done and of course
this is for school age children, but and we here (NECHO) is tell parents
or people that call and have concerns about this is we always tell you
to put things in writing.

Because when a person tells you, you know when a person request an
evaluation and the district says, oh no we can wait, we can wait, that's
going to be something completely different when a written referral is
provided to them and they have to respond. If they don't believe that a
child should be evaluated, they have to respond in writing and they have
to provide information about why they believe that that child would not
be eligible.

So, knowing the process is also going to be very important and as the
school districts just can't say, no you have to do this, you have to try
it, we want to see in writing what interventions you've tried before
referrals. Whenever there is a concern a referral should be made and
it's the school districts responsibility to provide (out) services as
needed.

But, I can see a lot of school districts, saying no, no , no, we need to
look at what sort of intervention have you done before that referral. I
can see them doing that. It's very important to know the process and
tell parents to put it in writing as well.

(Sarah Kinsley): Great, thank you.

(Lucia): Sure.

Coordinator: (Jan Thompson-Obergas), you may ask your question.

(Jan Thompson-Obergas): Hi, I'm calling from Oregon, I'm an early
childhood specialist provider. And I'm interested in knowing more about
whether or not there are particular assessment tools or curriculum that
are identified as meeting the evidence based standard related to the
question of RTI?

(Lucia): As far as RTI is concerned within the law itself, within IDEA,
it doesn't specify any particular tools. The State may choose specific
evidence based research based assessments or screening tools. I think
that that would be more at a State level

As far as recognition and response, because that's a very new approach
that's through the University of North Carolina or at least they're the
ones that spearheaded it. I don't know if they recommend any specific
screenings or evaluation tools. I didn't look that much into it.

But, again that may just be, that may depend on the State that's
implementing it and what they choose or what they feel meets the
criteria for evidence based and research based, you know what tool they
think that would be the most appropriate to use.

(Jan Thompson-Obergas): Thank you.

(Lucia): Sure.

Coordinator: At this time we have no further questions.

Dawn Williams: This is Dawn I also would like to, I would think that
inter-agency agreements between LEA and Head start programs would also
be a place(unintelligible) recognition and response could be clarified
and maybe training supports could also be identified within those
agreements. So, perhaps that could provide some type of support to Head
Start teachers that maybe asked to do some of the recognition and
response.

(Lucia): Yes.

Dawn Williams: Well, if there are no further questions I think we'll end
the call. (Lucia), thank you so much. I can't thank you enough for doing
this call and providing this information (unintelligible).

(Lucia): Of course, of course. I'm sorry I kind of rushed through it
all.

Dawn Williams: That's okay, we had plenty of questions and (Nancy) has
been wonderful and supporting our region and providing these conference
calls for us, so thank you, thank you very much.

(Lucia): Sure, sure. And I will email you the resources for ELL. And
I'll also try to find any information about the specific assessments,
but I really believe that that's going to be more State specific. But,
if I can find anything I will definitely email it to Dawn and Dawn you
can pass it on.

Dawn Williams: I will do that. (Lucia), did also like an evaluation form
filled out, it was also attached to the emails sent out this morning
along with the PowerPoint and on the bottom of that form is fax or an
email where you can send it back to (Nancy) for the evaluation.

(Lucia): And that's just for me, that's just so that I can know if I'm
ever asked to do this again, you know whether, how to prepare, obviously
make it a little bit longer, not talk as fast. And that would just help
me out a lot. I would appreciate it.

Dawn Williams: Well, thank you so much. I appreciate everyone's
participation and thanks for the call.

(Lucia): Sure. Thank you and thank you for all of you listening.
Bye-bye, thank you.

Dawn Williams: Bye, thank you.

Coordinator: This concludes today's conference call, thank you for
participating. You may disconnect at this time.

Woman: (Vicky)?

END