The most important thing to do is to be in communication with the student's teacher(s). As a parent/teacher team, begin trying a variety of interventions to support the area the child is struggling with. For example, if the student struggles in reading, you may want to try after school tutoring, reading in small group during class, reading with a partner or any other ideas you and the teacher agree upon. These interventions should be done for at least 3 weeks and be sure to document what you are doing and how the student responds.

At this point, we should have an official team meeting.  This meeting should include: teacher, parent, student (if appropriate), special education teacher, and any other person the team thinks would provided valuable input. There are three different outcomes for this meeting.

1. The team can agree that the interventions are working and continue to keep them in place. 
2. The team can discuss new interventions to implement and continue documenting how the student responds for an additional 3 weeks (minimum).
3. The team can complete a special education referral.

If the team chooses to complete a special education referral, the referral will be sent to the special education teacher. At this point, the special education teacher will be in touch with the parent regarding permission to complete assessments and outlining the process from this point forward.