In order to gain a better perspective of the roles and responsibilities of Special Education teachers, I spoke with Paul Boetcher,

who teaches students with emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD) at Medford High School in Medford, Wisconsin. Paul provided insight into specific teaching methods used by both the EBD and regular education teacher in teaching Special Education students. I had not had any any experience with Special Education students in my previous classes abroad, so speaking to Paul eased some of my concerns about teaching in an inclusive classroom. Hopefully, I will have teachers hardworking teachers like Paul for support with Special Education students. One of the largest areas of interest among teachers across Wisconsin is the new Response to Intervention (RtI) initiative. Although this is a confusing topic for myself and other teachers in Project Teaching, Paul was able to clarify how RtI may differ from other teaching models. Paul defined RtI as a more inclusive model facilitated by positive intervention. Paul currently teaches a variety of pull-out classes in which EBD students are taught a modified curriculum in a small group setting with other special education students. Under RtI the pull-outs would be treated more like interventions. Instead of teaching a modified curriculum in these classes Paul would be re-teaching important concepts from the regular ed curriculum to lower level students. These are still hypothetical applications of RtI because RtI is not slated for introduction at Medford High School until fall 2014 and the district is still working out how to coordinate RtI with the Aligned by Design model. Currently Paul has an EBD case load of 14-15 students whom he writes annual Individualized Education Plans (IEPs), I am a special ed teacher. I have an EBD case load of about 14 or 15 student. I am responsible for writing and carrying out IEP's and making sure we have collaboration with parents and the IEP team. I Kind of draft the IEP's and make sure that the students' IEP's are being followed in the classroom. With my EBD students I have also done Functional Behavioural Assessments or FBA's and I write Behavior Plans based on positive intervention. I'm very involved in the IEP process. I run IEP meetings, I go to a lot of IEP meetings for students that are not on my case load because I have them in my classes. I guess I am the author of a lot of IEP's. Paul's district is in talks to determine how these interventions can be incorporated, and the inclusive model in regular education teachers and Well, everything is based off of positive intervention in terms of the classroom environment. They want to go to more of an inclusive model with it where they offer less pullout offerings because students should be able to be efficient in the regular ed curriculum if they are given interventions outside that can kind of help them based on reteaching and stuff like that. I know the preliminary discussions that we've had in my district, we might not offer as much in terms of pull-out classes but pullout classes might end up being somewhat of an interventions, where I am not teaching the whole curriculum but I am re-teaching, concepts and stuff like that. I'm putting it at a level where some of our lower achieving students can handle and that might be what we use for intervention next year, but we are still kind of trying to figure that all out. The referral process can be initiated by the school or the parents. The first step step before any paperwork gets started, whether initiated by parents or school, is parental consent must be given in writing. Once parental consent is given, then referral testing and evaluations can be done. Because EBD is a behavioral disorder, the criteria states that the student must exhibit severe, chronic, and frequent behavior that greatly departs their development from same age peers. This behavior must be present in school and in either a home or community setting in order to qualify as EBD. Hope this helps. If you have further questions, let me know.