The NJDOE requires public school districts to establish I&RS teams to provide support for teachers in meeting the needs of their students who exhibit difficulty in achieving the academic standards of the curriculum.  It is the purpose of the I&RS team to work with teachers to identify appropriate modifications and or accommodations for individual students who are struggling to meet success.  This includes students who may be failing to meet curriculum standards as a result of attendance, specific skill deficits in language arts, math, and/or reading, and other behaviors that interfere with the student’s ability to achieve District standards.  The I&RS team which includes at least a building administrator, guidance counselor, teacher familiar with the child, parent of the child, and a nurse and CST member when appropriate, work to develop strategies to be implemented by the class room teacher and monitored by the team on a regular basis and modified as appropriate to ensure the student's success. 

Introduction:

“The New Jersey State Board of Education has established that the primary mission of schools is to enhance student achievement of high academic standards in safe and disciplined learning environments.  The effectiveness of public education in fulfilling this mission depends largely on the capacity of school systems to respond to the diverse educational needs of students”.

The Franklin Township School District Intervention and Referral Service (I&RS) Teams are building-based multi-disciplinary teams of professionals who meet at regular intervals to develop action plans for students who demonstrate academic, behavioral or health needs within their general education program.  The I&RS process is the primary mechanism in each school building for assisting teachers and expanding their skills and abilities to successfully accommodate the needs of students who are at-risk for failure.

The I&RS team is a resource used throughout the FranklinTownship School district to intervene with student problems, prior to child study team evaluations.  The collaborative team approach follows a structured time frame for a meeting, that includes review of student-work, analysis of student data and brainstorming of ideas that the teacher can select from in order to create individual action plans for each student that include the development of a SMART goal, selected interventions and measurable outcomes.

What is I&RS?

The Intervention and Referral Service process is a primary way in which teachers are supported to increase the achievement in students who demonstrate: the inability to focus on a learning task, are not completing assignments, are not achieving or demonstrating skill levels based on testing data, have declining or failing grades, absenteeism, tardiness, falling asleep, the inability to remain seated or to work in a structured environment or have the potential to drop out of school.

Parents/Guardians are active participants in the development and support of the determined I&RS plans. A case manager is assigned to each student who has an I&RS plan to monitor the implementation of the plan and provide data and feedback to the team at regular intervals to determine if the selected interventions were successful and need to be revised.

Websites
for Intervention and Referral Services:

• New Jersey State Department of Education:

  http://www.state.nj.us/education/students/safety/behavior/irs/#resources

• Resource Manual for Intervention and Referral Services (I&RS) Lucille E. Davy Commissioner of Education, Barbara Gantwerk Assistant Commissioner:

www.state.nj.us/education/students/irs

• Carnegie Melon:  Solving a Teaching Problem

              Step One:  Identify a Problem
              Step Two:  Identify Possible Reasons for a Problem
              Step Three:  Explore Strategies to Address the Problem

www.cmu.edu

•   Intervention Central:  Response to Intervention;  Your Source for RTI Resources

www.interventioncentral.org

• Intervention for Cognitive and Academic Skill Deficits

http://www.graniteschools.org

• Resource Packet:  Specific Learning Disability

www.tn.gov 

• NASP Resources:  Helping Children Achieve their Best.  In School. At Home. In Life.

www.nasponline.org

• This site is a clearinghouse for links to other sites on most topics of interest to School Professionals/School Psychologists. If you need to research a topic or are looking for specific information, this site is the place to start. Contains information on Specific Conditions Disorders or Disabilities such as: anxiety, ADD, autism, mood disorders, etc.

   http://www.schoolpsychology.net/

• SIOP: Making Content Comprehensible for ELL’s:  The Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol (SIOP) was developed to make content material comprehensible to English Language Learners. 

http://www.everythingesl.net/