Paltz’s new deputy superintendent of schools, Michelle Martoni, opened the presentation on the “response to intervention” at the school board meeting on December 15 by warning that it was going to be “long.” As most of the presentations given to administrators are a length of time and include multiple speakers with slide presentations, the fact that Martoni made this comment signaled something more. The deputy superintendent was right; this presentation lasted a full 90 minutes and included parts of each building manager as well as a number of counselors, social workers and reading teachers.

While the presentation was opened with a detailed discussion of how to define “RTI”, the fact that this acronym stands for “response to intervention” was only mentioned after the end of this section. of the report, reinforcing the idea that while members of the public are invited to attend meetings, the primary audience are elected officials who are expected to understand the dense jargon used by directors. It seems that the phrase “response to intervention” is meant to help children make up for what has been lost during long months of learning only through a computer screen. There are difficulties with reading, difficulties with math, and difficulties with behavior. In all of the schools, these gaps have been broken down into three broad categories to help determine the extra help a student needs in any of these areas. The problems are widespread, as many educators and parents expected; teachers in regular classes largely manage the first level of intervention in recognition that almost all children are lagging behind in their learning due to this period of forced distance learning.

It is clear that these educators have deepened their research in their efforts to understand what is going on and how to get these kids back on track. Additional help and guidance is being extended throughout the district, and the teachers who reported expressed both competence and compassion when discussing the approaches used. Classroom instruction lags when three in five students need more attention, which is apparently not uncommon these days. Part of the presentation was devoted solely to the technical differences that arise in children who have difficulty reading, how they are diagnosed and how they are treated. Similar approaches are used in mathematics. The fact that most children use technology in the classroom means that some of this extra help can be provided in a way that avoids any potential stigma. Behavioral issues that are likely to arise from isolation and lack of socialization are also addressed largely at the classroom level. For all these questions, the other two levels imply more and more intense types of intervention. The message is that with so many children who have problems, resources are being used to help as many as possible.