what is the relationship between rti and special education the relationship or what the relationship should be between rti and special education is a very important issue some people believe that special education should have little role in rti others believe that special ed should have a predominant role in rti um some believe that rti that special education's proper role or function should be sprinkled if you will across and among the rti tiers so that special educators are working at tier one tier two tier three and so forth others believe that special educators should be only at the most intensive tier uh in an rti system so there's uh i think um considerable confusion at the moment as to what special ed's proper role function set of responsibilities should be in an rti system what the professional role of special educators should be in an rti system importantly a related concern or question is what constitutes most intensive instruction um states and districts and other stakeholders are relatively clear about what should go on at tier one and tier two what general education can do to contribute to a well-functioning high-performing rti system there's there's there's relative confusion uncertainty as to what the nature of instruction should be for the children who are chronically unresponsive to tiers one and two what what do we do for the kids with the kids who are not responding to quote-unquote best evidence practices and secondly who should deliver that most instructionally intensive treatments or interventions so i wish i could give you you know a clear uh persuasive um consensual sense or opinion as to what's special education's uh what what special education's role should be but there really isn't a consensus at this point um what would i personally like to see um i would personally like to see special educators providing most intensive instruction special educators don't exclusively need to be those providing that most intensive instruction but i think that i think that's in principle that's what special educators role should be primarily they should be working with kids who are the most instructionally needy children in a given school you