Entering the conference room, I noticed I was holding my breath. “Please bring the appropriate data and documentation; Please bring the appropriate data and documentation”, was the line repeating in my head as I glanced at the empty chairs around the table. I believe I said a couple of prayers prior to the next person entering the room, as our Tier 3 Problem-Solving Team Meeting was about to begin.
I was the RtI Coordinator who also happened to be the School Counselor, the 504 Coordinator, and the PBIS Coordinator. This long awaited meeting was finally about to take place and it was the first time all year that the parent had agreed to attend. I was so excited, because all of the right people were going to be around the same table at the same time to problem-solve for this little girl who was struggling so much.
The girl’s classroom teacher walked in 10 minutes late and threw a folder on the table. I opened that folder up to see only 1 piece of paper with a hand written score in the upper right hand corner, and it was in that moment that I knew. There was not going to be anything we were going to be able to do for this little girl, because we didn’t have the right data and documentation to make any data-based decisions. It was late March at this point, so my frustration turned into anger, and then quickly to this feeling of urgency, as I realized that it was too late to help that little girl, and there went another year. I had failed her!
On my drive home from work that Thursday in late March, I made a promise to myself, I was not going to fail another child. Not on my watch. If there was not an effective way to manage the data and documentation needed to help children grow and succeed through implementation of the RtI Process – process that I believe so much in – then it was up to me to create one.
It was out of my profound determination to keep that promise to myself, that RtI: Stored! was created!
My goal was to eliminate confusion regarding the ‘what’ behind the role of the teacher when it came to data and documentation, while giving teachers back the time to do what they do best – time to TEACH! If RtI: Stored! could accomplish that goal, then we could finally have authentic problem-solving conversations about children through effective PLCs.
It is time to never let another child slip through the cracks and truly build that systematic and sustainable process for implementing for the RtI Process with fidelity!