It’s the Law: Response to Intervention: The Legal Dimension

By Perry A. Zirkel Principal, March/April 2012 Response to intervention (RTI) is a legal response mechanism in special education; yet, its primary context for implementation is in general education. More specifically, the 2004 amendments and the 2006 regulations of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) introduced RTI as an alternative to severe discrepancy for identifying students under the specific learning disability (SLD) classification.