Impacts of State Response to Intervention (RTI) on Identifications of Students with Disabilities and Special Education Placements

• In Event: Promising Scholarship in Education Research: Dissertation Fellows and Their Research

Abstract

This study examines the effects of states’ Response to Intervention (RTI) adoption on state-level disability outcomes, including the proportions of students with disabilities, students with specific learning disabilities (SLD), and special education placements, occurring between 2004 and 2018. Using a difference in difference framework incorporated with the latest development of this method, I found that states that mandated the use of RTI in public schools had higher proportions of students identified with SLD, but lower proportions of students with disabilities who were placed in a separate school setting. These findings suggest that state RTI improved the process of students being identified with disabilities, and that a state’s adoption of RTI introduction promoted the inclusion of students with disabilities. I also observed that state RTI adoption differentially increased the likelihood of non-White students being identified with a disability compared with White students. This finding suggests that RTI may be a policy lever to reduce racial disproportionalities in special education identification.

Author

• Lynneah C. Brown, State Higher Education Executive Officers Association