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In all states, once a student qualifies for special education, the IEP determines the services and accommodations/modifications that each student needs. This is a federal requirement, but many of the details about service delivery are left up states and/or districts to determine. Generally speaking, however, any special education service that is listed on the IEP must be delivered by a special education licensed staff person. So it is possible that the student you describe could be receiving general education intervention services as well as special education services. However, RTI is not a replacement for special education services. A specific concern could be referred to your special education director.

Response from Bob Heimbaugh:

From the information provided in the question, I will try to provide you with an answer. In answering the question, I have to make some assumptions concerning IEP services defined in the IEP and the RtI process in general.

When looking at an established RtI program in a school, there are some basic tenants that are designed into the RtI model that support learning through time and appropriate instruction. In an RtI model that is based on current research, all students, even those with IEP’s, will be exposed to the core curriculum for 60-90 minutes each day. During this core curriculum time, instruction is differentiated for all students and this differentiation allows for exposure to the daily learning targets as defined by the core.

The student who is on an IEP and is receiving 30 minutes of "RtI" instruction is more than likely grouped with students who have similar instructional and academic skill support needs. The instruction and identified skill support for the special education student and the other students in the group is more than likely based on the screening, diagnostic, and classroom assessments that showed that these students needed the same or similar instruction to support specific, identified academic skills. The 30 minutes of support, I assume, occur outside of the core instructional block. The fact that the teacher is not special education certified should not play in to this grouping and is not "breaking major laws," assuming that all students in the school are grouped. In the letter and spirit of IDEA 2004, if all students in the school are grouped based on the assessments used in the school, then the special education student to which you refer to is truly in the "least restrictive environment." The 50 minutes of support you say that is identified in the IEP is outside of the RtI process and must be provided by a special education teacher.