Intervention & Referral Services
As per N.J.A.C. 6A:16-7, district boards of educations are required to:
"… establish and implement a coordinated system in each school building for the planning and delivery of intervention and referral services that are designed to assist students who are experiencing learning, behavior, or health difficulties and to assist staff who have difficulties in addressing students' learning, behavior or health needs."
The Intervention and Referral Services (I & RS) is an adult-centered, multi-disciplinary team in each school that is composed of building administrators, school counselors, classroom teachers, and support staff. They welcome requests for assistance from school staff or parents that are experiencing educational difficulties with their student(s), in which traditional attempts to ameliorate the situation have not met with success.
The multi-disciplinary team divides the roles and responsibilities of the teams activities into four separate and distinct areas. These include:
Team
Leader
Schedules cases for review, prepares agenda for and convenes meetings, and maintains all I & RS documents.
Case
Coordinator
Assigned for each case brought to the team who acts as the primary contact for the staff and parent. Also responsible for collecting and reporting data to the team.
Time
Keeper
Primary responsibility is to keep the team on-task and to all time limits.
Record
Keeper
Takes notes on all I & RS meetings and assists in finalizing all Action Plans.
The steps in the I & RS process are as follows:
- Request for Assistance is completed and delivered to the team
- Information is collected about the student
- The parent/guardian is notified that their child is being referred to the I & RS team
- The team meets to problem solve
- An I & RS Action Plan is developed
- The plan is supported and evaluated on a regular basis