On July 26, 2019, Carole L. Clancy, Director of PDE’s Bureau of Special Education, disseminated a memo via Penn*Link to all LEAs titled Special Education Plan Requirements – Identification of Students with Specific Learning Disabilities using the Response to Intervention. The memo reminds school districts and charter schools that would like to apply to use Response to Intervention (RtI) methodologies to identify students with a Specific Learning Disability (SLD) are required to submit their intent to apply for the 2019-2020 school year by October 30, 2019 to their regional Pennsylvania Training and Technical Assistance Network (PaTTAN) consultant.

The previous application process required individual applications for individual buildings within a local educational agency (LEA). The current application process will no longer require individual building applications but an application for educational levels (i.e., elementary, middle and/or high school). For example, the LEA only will be required to submit one application for all elementary buildings within the LEA.

 Additional information and the RtI/SLD application are available on the PaTTAN website by clicking here.

Completed applications must be submitted to PaTTAN Multi-Tiered Systems of Support regional lead consultants no later than February 15, 2020. Upon review of all documentation, the Bureau of Special Education will issue a letter indicating whether the renewal will be approved, disapproved, or if more clarification is necessary.  Questions related to this message may be directed to Jessica Keener Haas at 610.678.6059 or [email protected].