A school’s traditional response would be to “provide some other person, more time, and using the same materials, try and re-teach him,” said Randy McCarty, principal at Smoketown Elementary in Conestoga Valley School District.

If he continued not to get it, Johnny would take intelligence tests and school officials would compare his IQ to his academic level. If his IQ was fine but his grades were not, that was considered evidence of a possible learning disability.

Johnny would then enter the intricate web of special education classes.

But now, instead of placing him in special education right away, school districts are launching intervention programs to bring students like him up to speed with reading. Conestoga Valley, Donegal and Warwick start their programs this school year.

“We understand now that there are some kids who probably should not be in special education,” McCarty said. “We’ve ended up putting them in there because we haven’t found anything else that works.”

It’s a growing trend in response to research and changes in the law.

The method is called “Response to Intervention.” Educators hope that it will help more children master reading while at the same time reduce the number of students placed in special education classes.

Eastern Lancaster County already has the intervention program at Blue Ball Elementary School.

And the remaining 12 county school districts have started the process, said Jennifer Lillenstein, staff development and training specialist with the Intermediate Unit 13.

“It’s taking a life of its own in Lancaster County,” Lillenstein said.

“The focus of prevention is in early elementary years,” she said.

The idea is to watch children as early as kindergarten, and “mobilize intervention right away rather than wait for students to show patterns of failure,” Lillenstein said.

The intervention model involves three steps or tiers. Each district tailors their intervention a little differently.

n The first step involves giving a core reading program and assessment tests at least three times a year.

Schools will provide flexible group settings (each based on skill level), and also provide longer times for direct teaching in areas of need — ranging from 60 to 90 minutes a day.

The second step would start as soon as testing showed that Johnny was behind grade-level expectations.

n The second phase involves going beyond the core reading program with more in-depth intervention targeted at each student’s needs.

For example, if the testing shows that Johnny reads with pauses and breaks in his speech, it shows that he is thinking how to pronounce the words instead of reading them fluently.

This could mean he has trouble with phonics or vocabulary, for example, so he would receive an additional 30 to 90 minutes in those areas.

In step two, students would continue to have small group instruction, but also use extras such as reading materials.

Officials would monitor progress at least twice a month.

This step lasts 10 to 15 weeks, depending on the school district.

Students exit the step ready for traditional teaching, remain in this step longer, or move to step three, school officials said.

n Step three resembles level two. It just gives more daily time and intervention is more intensive, school officials said.

After a period of time, if Johnny doesn’t respond to the intervention, “then we have reason to believe” he “needs something else,” McCarty said.

That something else is probably special education services.

Most districts will use the intervention program at one elementary school to start and then expand to others.

Smoketown is the first elementary for CV. Donegal Springs if the first in that district. Warwick is launching it all four of its elementary schools.

“This is too important not to go districtwide,” Superintendent John George said. “Having any child not able to read is simply not acceptable.”

Research, he says, has shown that this way works.

George said the intention is to “separate out those children who have simply not learned reading and teach them reading, so they can succeed; there will always be some children who have a disability and who truly need specially designed instruction.”

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