Complete RTI Handbook

Learn the basics

Start here

Maryann, your job as RTI lead comes down to three promises: every struggling student gets help quickly, every parent is told in writing, and every step is written down in SuccessEd the week it happens. This handbook shows you how to keep all three.

Read the first four sections once. After that, use the timeline, the cheat sheets and the FAQ as you work.

Three things to know about this handbook

The state rules are sourced. Anything described as a Texas requirement comes from the Texas Education Agency (TEA) or the Texas Education Code, linked in Sources.
District details are marked. The district RTI plan, the 2026-2027 calendar dates and the SuccessEd help pages could not be read while writing this. Wherever you see Confirm locally, the handbook gives common practice, and you need the real Edcouch-Elsa ISD answer. The last section collects all of these into one checklist.
SuccessEd steps are generic. They describe what each task needs, in the usual order. Button and tab names on your screen may differ. Write your screen's wording in the margin the first time you do each task.

A note on names. Texas now calls the whole system MTSS (Multi-Tiered System of Supports). RTI (Response to Intervention) is the part of MTSS that deals with extra help for students. Your campus may use either name. They point to the same work.

Your first week

Log in to SuccessEd and find the RTI/MTSS area
Ask your principal for the district RTI/MTSS plan and the campus RTI committee list
Get the list of students who already have an open RTI record
Fill in the Confirm with the district checklist at the end of this handbook
Put the meeting dates for the year on your calendar

Learn the basics

RTI in plain words

RTI is a way to catch students who are falling behind, give them extra help early, and check often whether the help is working. If it works, the student goes back to regular support. If it does not, the team gives stronger help or asks whether the student needs an evaluation.

Think of it as a loop with four questions:

Who needs help? Screening tests and teacher concerns point to students.
What help will we give? The team picks an intervention and writes a goal.
Is it working? Short, regular checks (progress monitoring) show growth or no growth.
What next? Keep going, change the help, step it up, or step it down.

The three tiers

Tier 3, a few students. Intensive, individual help, added on top.
Tier 2, some students. Targeted small-group help, added on top.
Tier 1, all students. Good daily classroom teaching.

Help comes in three levels. Each level is added on top of the one below it. A student in Tier 3 still gets Tier 1 classroom teaching.

	Tier 1	Tier 2	Tier 3
Who	All students	Students who need more than classroom teaching	Students who are still not growing with Tier 2
What	Good daily teaching and classroom support	Targeted help, usually in a small group	Intensive help, more often, in a smaller group, more individual
Who gives it	Classroom teacher	Teacher or interventionist	Interventionist or specialist
How often we check growth (common practice)	3 times a year, at screening	Every 2 weeks	Every week
Parent notice required by Texas	No	Yes, when it begins	Yes, when it begins
Recorded in SuccessEd	Notes on what was tried	Full record	Full record

The tier descriptions come from TEA. The checking schedule is common practice. Confirm locally: how often Edcouch-Elsa ISD expects progress checks at each tier, and how many minutes and days per week each tier requires.

What RTI is not

It is not special education, and it is not a waiting room for special education.
It is not a label. Students move up and down tiers as their needs change.
It is not only for reading and math. Behavior has tiers too.

Learn the basics

Rules and requirements

Texas asks four things of every campus. These are the rules you must never miss. Everything else in this handbook is good practice built around them.

Rule 1Tell the parent in writing when extra help begins

When a student who is not in special education starts Tier 2 or Tier 3 help, the school must send the parent a notice. It must go out when the help begins for that school year, so a student who continues from last year gets a new notice this year. The notice must be in English or, where practical, the parent's home language. TEA gives a sample form in English and Spanish.

The notice must include five things:

The notice must say	In plain words
A description of the help	What we will do and in which area (reading, math, behavior)
What Tier 1 already showed	The classroom data that told us the student needs more
How long the help is expected to last	For example, 6 weeks
When the parent will get progress reports	For example, every grading period
The parent's rights statement	A parent may ask for a special education or Section 504 evaluation at any time

Rule 2RTI can never delay or deny an evaluation

If anyone suspects a disability, the student must be referred for evaluation, at any point in the process. The team does not wait to finish a tier first. Help and evaluation can happen at the same time, and help already under way should continue.

Rule 3A written parent request starts a clock

A parent may ask for an evaluation at any time. When the request is in writing and goes to the principal, the special education director or another administrator, the district must answer within 15 school days. If a parent asks you out loud, help them put it in writing that day and hand it to the principal. Write the date you received it.

Rule 4The state counts these students

Each year the district reports to the state, through PEIMS, how many students received intervention strategies at any time during the year. Students served under Section 504 are counted separately. Your SuccessEd records are the source of that count, so a missing record is a wrong number sent to the state.

District rules sit on top of these. Confirm locally: the district RTI/MTSS plan, the entry and exit scores for each tier, required forms, who signs them, and who sends the PEIMS count.

Privacy. RTI records are student education records. Share them only with staff who work with that student. Never put student names or ID numbers into email subject lines, group chats or any AI tool.

Learn the basics

Your job as RTI lead

You keep the process moving and the records true. You do not teach every intervention or make every decision alone. The committee decides, the teachers deliver, and you make sure it is all scheduled, sent and written down.

Person	What they do	What you need from them
You, the RTI lead	Schedule meetings, send parent notices, keep SuccessEd complete, watch deadlines, run the monthly checkup
Classroom teacher	Raises the concern, delivers Tier 1 and often Tier 2, brings data	Referral form, work samples, classroom data
Interventionist	Delivers Tier 2 and Tier 3 help, runs progress checks	Progress scores on schedule
Principal or assistant principal	Chairs or approves decisions, receives written evaluation requests	Signatures, decisions, backing when deadlines slip
Parent	Is told, is invited, shares what they see at home	Contact details, home language, their concerns
Diagnostician or special education staff	Takes over when a referral for evaluation is made	A clean, complete RTI record
PEIMS clerk	Sends the year-end count to the state	An accurate list of students served

Confirm locally: who sits on the SGE RTI committee, who chairs it, and whether teachers or you enter progress scores in SuccessEd.

Your weekly rhythm

When	What
Monday	Open SuccessEd. Check which progress scores are due this week. Remind the people who owe them.
Midweek	Enter or review new scores. Enter notes from any meeting within 2 school days.
Friday	Check that every new Tier 2 or Tier 3 start this week has a parent notice sent and saved.
Once a month	Run the RTI checkup prompt (in the separate supplement) and fix what it finds.

Do the work

The RTI cycle step by step

Every student's RTI story follows the same seven steps, and each step leaves something in SuccessEd. If a step has no record, treat it as if it did not happen.

RTI cycle: 7 steps, 4 decisions

Read it left to right, then back along the second row. Continue and Change loop back into the cycle. Refer is highlighted because it can be reached from any step, not only the last.

Step	What happens	What you record	Common time frame
1. Spot	A screening score or a teacher concern points to a student	The score, or the teacher's referral with the date	Within a week of the concern
2. Try in class	The teacher tries classroom supports and keeps notes	What was tried, for how long, and what happened	2 to 4 weeks
3. Meet	The RTI committee looks at the data and decides	Meeting date, who attended, the decision	Within 2 weeks of the referral
4. Notify and plan	Parent notice goes home. The team sets the intervention, the goal and the schedule	Date the notice was sent, a copy of it, the plan and the goal	Before or on the day help begins
5. Help and check	The intervention runs. Growth is checked on schedule	Every progress score with its date. Attendance at sessions	6 to 9 weeks per round
6. Review	The committee looks at the growth line and decides what is next	Meeting notes, the decision, the reason	At the end of each round
7. Next move	Exit, continue, change the help, move up a tier, or refer for evaluation	The new status and its date. A new parent notice if the tier changes	Within a week of the review

The time frames are common practice. Confirm locally: the district's own time limits for each step.

The four possible decisions at a review

The data shows	Decision	What you do
Goal met and holding	Exit to Tier 1	Record the exit date and reason. Tell the parent. Keep watching at the next screening.
Growing, goal not yet met	Continue	Set a new review date. Tell the parent how it is going.
Little or no growth, and the help was delivered as planned	Change the help or move up a tier	Update the plan. Send a new notice if the tier changes.
Little or no growth after strong help, or any sign of a disability	Refer for evaluation	Hand the full record to the principal and special education staff. Keep the help going.

Before the team says an intervention failed, check two things. Did the student attend the sessions? Was the help given as often as planned? If either answer is no, the help has not been tried yet.

One rule overrides the steps. A suspected disability or a parent's written request sends the student to referral immediately, from any step.

Do the work

Behavior RTI

Behavior RTI uses the same seven steps and the same parent notice. Two things change: what you count, and how you describe it.

The behavior tiers

	Tier 1	Tier 2	Tier 3
What it looks like	School-wide expectations, taught and praised in every room	A daily check-in with an adult, a small social skills group, a simple behavior card	A plan written for one student, based on why the behavior happens
Examples	Class rules, routines, positive rewards	Check-in/check-out, lunch group with the counselor, a mentor	Individual behavior plan, daily tracking, close work with the family
What you count	Office referrals for the whole school	Daily card points, number of incidents each week	The same, every day, for the target behavior

Write behavior so anyone could count it

Too vague to track	Clear enough to track
"He is disrespectful"	"Leaves his seat without permission, about 6 times each morning"
"She has meltdowns"	"Cries and refuses work for 10 minutes or more, 3 days a week"
"Improve behavior"	"Stays in seat during reading block, 4 of 5 days, for 4 weeks"

What to record for behavior

The behavior, in countable words
How often it happened before help began (the starting point)
The plan: who does what, when, and how often
The count, on a set schedule
What the parent was told and when

Three cautions

Mental health services need consent first. TEA's notice form states that mental health care cannot be given without the parent's consent, and a separate consent form is used. A behavior card does not need this. Counseling aimed at mental health does. Confirm locally: which form the district uses.
Discipline is not intervention. A suspension goes in the discipline record. It does not count as Tier 2 help.
Behavior can signal a disability too. The no-delay rule applies to behavior exactly as it does to reading.

Do the work

SuccessEd step-by-step guides

These eight guides cover everything you will enter in SuccessEd, in the order a student's record grows. They are generic: the SuccessEd help pages need a login and could not be read for this handbook, so exact button names are left for you to write in.

Do this first. Sit with a district SuccessEd trainer or an experienced counselor for 30 minutes. Walk through one real student record with these guides open and fill in the right-hand column of each table. After that, these pages match your screen. SuccessEd's own help site has an RTI/MTSS Management section. Ask the trainer how to reach it from your account.

Guide 1Open or start a student's RTI record

Step	What to do	On your screen (write it in)
1	Log in and search for the student by name or ID
2	Check the name, ID, grade and campus against the referral form
3	Look for an existing RTI/MTSS record before making a new one
4	If none exists, start a new RTI/MTSS record for this school year
5	Save, then reopen the student to confirm the record is there

Check before you leave: one student, one open record. Duplicates are the most common mistake.

Guide 2Record the concern and what was tried in class

Step	What to do	On your screen (write it in)
1	Enter the date of the referral and who made it
2	Choose the area: reading, math, writing, behavior or other
3	Enter the screening scores and classroom data
4	Enter the Tier 1 supports tried, the dates and the result
5	Attach the teacher's referral form and work samples

Guide 3Build the intervention plan

Step	What to do	On your screen (write it in)
1	Set the tier (2 or 3) and the start date
2	Pick the intervention from the list. Avoid free text when a list choice fits
3	Enter who delivers it, how many minutes, how many days a week
4	Write the goal with a starting score, a target score and a date
5	Choose the progress check tool and how often it is used
6	Set the review date

A good goal reads like this: "By Feb 12, Ana will read 60 words correctly per minute on a first grade passage, up from 38."

Guide 4Send and save the parent notice

Step	What to do	On your screen (write it in)
1	Create the Notice of Interventions from the plan
2	Check the five required parts are filled in
3	Choose English or the parent's home language
4	Print or send it on or before the day help begins
5	Record the date sent and how it was sent
6	Upload the signed copy when it comes back, if a signature is used

Guide 5Enter progress scores

Step	What to do	On your screen (write it in)
1	Open the student's plan and find the goal
2	Add a new score with the date the check was given, not today's date
3	Note if the student was absent or the session was missed
4	Save and look at the graph. The new point should appear

Guide 6Record a meeting and its decision

Step	What to do	On your screen (write it in)
1	Add the meeting with its date and type (first meeting or review)
2	Enter who attended, including the parent if present
3	Enter the data the team looked at
4	Enter the decision and the reason in one or two plain sentences
5	Set the next review date
6	Finish within 2 school days of the meeting

Guide 7Change a tier, exit a student, or hand off a referral

Step	What to do	On your screen (write it in)
1	Record the review meeting first (Guide 6)
2	End the current intervention with an end date and a reason
3	For a tier change: add the new plan (Guide 3) and send a new notice (Guide 4)
4	For an exit: set the status to exited with the date and reason
5	For a referral: record the referral date and who received the record

Never delete an old plan to make room for a new one. End it and add the next. The history is the record.

Guide 8Run reports

Step	What to do	On your screen (write it in)
1	Open the reports area and find the RTI/MTSS reports
2	Run the RTI/MTSS Progress Monitoring Report for your campus
3	Run a list of all students with an open record, with tier and start date
4	Save or export the list for your monthly checkup

If SuccessEd will not let you do something, stop and ask. Do not work around it with a paper note. Write down the student, the screen and the message, and send it to your district SuccessEd contact.

Stay on track

Year at a glance

The RTI year has three screening seasons and a review at the end of every grading period. The 2026-2027 district calendar could not be read for this handbook, so the date column is blank. Fill it in from the district calendar and the district RTI plan before you print.

Deadlines that repeat

How often	What is due	EE ISD date or rule (write it in)
The day help begins	Parent notice sent and saved
Within 2 school days of a meeting	Meeting notes entered in SuccessEd
Every week	Tier 3 progress scores entered
Every 2 weeks	Tier 2 progress scores entered
End of each grading period	Review meeting for every Tier 2 and Tier 3 student. Progress report to parents
Within 15 school days	District's written answer to a parent's written evaluation request	Set by the state

The year, month by month

When	What happens	Your part
August	Staff return. Last year's records roll over	List students who ended last year in Tier 2 or 3. Train teachers on the referral form
Late August to September	Beginning-of-year screening	Collect scores. Flag students below the cut score
September	First committee meetings	Meet, plan, send notices. Send a new notice to every continuing student
End of grading period 1	First review	Review meetings. Progress reports home
November to December	Second round of help	Monthly checkup. Chase missing scores before the break
January	Middle-of-year screening	Compare to the fall. Add new students, exit students who met goals
February to March	Third round of help	Review meetings. Check every student has had a decision this semester
April	State testing season	Keep interventions running around testing days where you can
May	End-of-year screening and final reviews	Record a final decision for every student: exit, continue next year, or refer
Late May to June	Year-end close	Run the full checkup. Confirm the list of students served with the PEIMS clerk

Confirm locally: grading period length (six or nine weeks), screening windows, the screening tools used at SGE, the PEIMS due date, and state-required early reading and dyslexia screening dates for kindergarten and first grade.

Starting mid-year. You are beginning in November, so do these first:

Run a list of every open RTI record at SGE
For each student, check for this year's parent notice. Send any that are missing now and record today's date honestly
Check that every student has a plan, a goal and at least one progress score in the last month
Schedule a review meeting for anyone who has not had one this school year

Stay on track

Keeping records clean

A clean record lets a stranger open it and understand, in two minutes, what the student needed, what was done, and whether it worked. Eight habits get you there.

The eight habits

Enter it the week it happens. Records written from memory a month later are the ones that go wrong.
Use real dates. Enter the date the thing happened. If you are entering it late, say so in a note. Never backdate.
One student, one open record. Search before you create.
Pick from the list. Use the built-in choices for interventions and areas so reports can count them.
Write goals with numbers. A starting score, a target score and a date.
Never delete history. End a plan and add a new one. Fix a wrong entry with a correction note if the system allows it.
Attach the proof. The notice, the referral form, the meeting sign-in sheet.
Write facts, not opinions. "Scored 12 of 20" belongs in the record. "Lazy" does not. Parents can ask to see these records.

The complete-record check

Every open Tier 2 or Tier 3 record should have all nine of these.

Referral date and area of concern
Tier 1 data and what was tried in class
First meeting, with date, attendees and decision
Parent notice for this school year, with the date sent, on or before the start date
Intervention, with who, how long and how often
Goal with numbers and a date
Progress scores on schedule, with no long gaps
Review meeting at the end of each round, with a decision
Next review date in the future

The most common mistakes

Mistake	Why it matters	Fix
Help started, no notice sent	Breaks the state rule	Send it now. Record the true date. Tell your principal
Notice sent last year only	A notice is needed each school year	Send this year's notice
Scores missing for a month or more	The team cannot tell if the help works	Ask the interventionist. Note missed sessions
Student moved up a tier, old plan left open	Reports show two tiers at once	End the old plan with a date
Review date passed, no meeting	The student is stuck without a decision	Schedule it this week
Student withdrew, record still open	The count is wrong	Close it with the withdrawal date
Parent's evaluation request noted only in an RTI comment	The 15-school-day clock may be missed	Hand it to the principal the same day

Privacy rules for daily work

Lock your screen when you step away. Log out of SuccessEd at the end of the day.
Keep printed lists in a locked drawer and shred them when replaced.
Use initials or a made-up code in emails and on wall charts, never full names with tiers.
Do not share your login. If a teacher needs access, ask the district for it.

Quick reference

Cheat sheets and handy cards

Six cards cover the moments when you will not have time to open this handbook. Print-ready versions are on the companion page, RTI Quick Cards and FAQ. The text of each card is below so you can edit it.

Card	Keep it	Use it when
1. The four rules	Taped inside your planner	Anyone asks "do we have to?"
2. Tiers at a glance	On your desk	Explaining RTI to a teacher or parent
3. Seven steps	By your monitor	Opening any student record
4. Complete-record check	Clipped to your meeting folder	Before and after every meeting
5. Parent talk card	In your meeting folder	A parent call or conference
6. Stop and call	On your badge lanyard	Something feels urgent

Card 1The four rules

Notice goes home when Tier 2 or 3 begins. Every school year.
RTI never delays an evaluation.
A written parent request goes to the principal the same day. 15 school days to answer.
If it is not in SuccessEd, it did not happen.

Card 2Tiers at a glance

Tier 1: everyone. Classroom teaching.
Tier 2: some. Small group, added on top. Check every 2 weeks.
Tier 3: few. Intensive and individual, added on top. Check every week.

Card 3Seven steps

Spot. Try in class. Meet. Notify and plan. Help and check. Review. Next move.

Card 4Complete-record check

Referral. Tier 1 data. First meeting. Notice this year. Intervention. Goal with numbers. Scores on schedule. Review with decision. Next review date.

Card 5Parent talk card

Say: "Your child is getting extra help in ___. It is added to regular class, not instead of it."
Say: "We check progress every ___ and will send you a report every ___."
Say: "You can ask for a special education or 504 evaluation at any time. I can show you how to put it in writing."
Avoid: tier numbers without explaining them, test names without explaining them, and the word "failing."
Offer the notice in the home language.

Card 6Stop and call

Call your principal the same day when:

A parent asks for testing or an evaluation, in any words
A teacher says "I think there is a disability"
You find help that started with no notice sent
A student may be a danger to self or others. Follow the campus crisis steps first.

More ideas if these work well

A one-page teacher referral guide: what to bring to the first meeting
A meeting agenda card with a 15-minute script per student
A goal-writing strip with three fill-in sentence frames
A bilingual one-page parent flyer, "What is RTI?"
A wall calendar strip with screening windows and review weeks

Quick reference

FAQ

The full FAQ has 55 questions and lives on the searchable page, RTI Quick Cards and FAQ. Type a word such as "notice" or "exit" and it filters as you type. The 20 questions you will meet most often are below for printing.

Basics

Question	Answer
Is RTI the same as MTSS?	Almost. MTSS is the whole system. RTI is the part about giving and checking extra help.
Is RTI special education?	No. It is general education help that any student can receive.
Who decides what help a student gets?	The campus RTI committee, using data. You organize and record.
Does a Tier 2 or 3 student miss regular teaching?	No. Each tier is added on top of classroom teaching.

Parents and notices

Question	Answer
When must a parent be told?	In writing, when Tier 2 or Tier 3 help begins.
The student was in Tier 2 last year. New notice?	Yes. One is required each school year.
Does the parent have to agree first?	The state requires notice, not permission, for academic and behavior help. Mental health services need consent.
We forgot the notice and help has started.	Send it now, record the true date, tell your principal.
A parent does not want their child in RTI.	Listen, explain, tell your principal, and write down the conversation. Follow district policy.

Tiers and decisions

Question	Answer
How long does a student stay in a tier?	A round commonly runs 6 to 9 weeks before review. No student should sit for round after round with no decision.
Can a student skip Tier 2?	Yes, when the gap is large. Tiers are levels of strength, not a ladder.
When can a student exit?	When the goal is met and holds. Record the date and reason and tell the parent.
How do we know the intervention failed?	First confirm the student attended and the help was given as planned.

Evaluations and referrals

Question	Answer
A parent asks me for testing.	Help them write it down that day and hand it to the principal. A written request starts a 15-school-day clock.
Must RTI finish before an evaluation?	No. RTI can never delay or deny an evaluation.
Does help stop during an evaluation?	No. Keep it going.

Behavior, records and deadlines

Question	Answer
Is a suspension an intervention?	No. Discipline is recorded as discipline.
I made a mistake in SuccessEd.	Correct it and add a note. Do not delete history.
I am entering something late. Which date?	The real date, with a note that it was entered late.
What can I never miss?	The parent notice, and passing a written evaluation request to the principal the same day.

Quick reference

Plain-word glossary

Term	What it means
RTI	Response to Intervention. Extra help, plus regular checks to see if it works
MTSS	Multi-Tiered System of Supports. The state's name for the whole system, covering academics, behavior and wellness
Tier	A level of help. 1 is for everyone, 2 is targeted, 3 is intensive
Intervention	A specific kind of extra help, given on a schedule
Intervention strategies	The state's term for help above what all students get. In practice, Tier 2 and Tier 3
Universal screener	A short test given to all students to find who may need help
Progress monitoring	Short, regular checks that show whether a student is growing
Baseline	The starting score, before help begins
Goal	The target score and the date to reach it
Fidelity	Whether the help was given the way and as often as planned
Notice of Interventions	The written notice sent to a parent when Tier 2 or 3 begins
Referral	Sending a student's case on for a special education or 504 evaluation
Evaluation	Formal testing to see whether a student has a disability and needs services
Section 504	A federal law that gives supports to students with disabilities in general education
PEIMS	The state's data system. The district reports its yearly count of students served through it
TEA	Texas Education Agency
PBIS	Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports. The behavior side of the tiers
Check-in/check-out	A Tier 2 behavior support where a student meets an adult at the start and end of each day

Wrap up

Sources

State rules in this handbook come from these pages, read on November 10, 2026.

TEA: Multi-Tiered System of Supports (MTSS). Tier descriptions, the parent notice rule, the no-delay rule, the PEIMS count.
TEA: sample Notice of Interventions form. Notice contents, the 15-school-day response, the mental health consent note.
Texas Education Code 26.0081. The five required parts of the notice and its timing.
Texas Education Code 48.009. The yearly PEIMS count of students who received intervention strategies.

Not sourced. The Edcouch-Elsa ISD RTI plan, the 2026-2027 district calendar and the SuccessEd help pages could not be read. Time frames labeled common practice, the SuccessEd steps and the month-by-month calendar are general guidance until the district checklist is filled in.

This handbook explains the process in plain words. It is not legal advice. For questions about a specific student's rights, ask the principal or the special education office.

RTI Handbook for SGE Counselors