Effectiveness of special education personnel in the intervention assistance team model

The effectiveness of including special education professionals in the intervention assistance team (IAT) process was examined. The author surveyed 25 public elementary schools to determine if they used special education personnel as part of their IAT model. The schools were grouped according to their inclusion or noninclusion of those professionals. The 2 groups were then compared for rate of student retentions and referrals to special education. Results suggest that students who attended schools with special IAT educators had a significantly smaller chance of being retained or referred to special education than did those who attended schools without this model.