them.

And of course, no one was paying attention to the fact that I was missing math every day.

And I was actually, I liked math and I was pretty good at math coming out of fourth grade.

But in fifth grade, I fell so far behind because I was leaving class so much.

Again, because there was an unhealthy learning environment, I was removing myself through escape behavior.

Right.

So then fast forward to sixth grade, I get into middle school and there's a teacher, Mrs. Gardner, who notices that I'm behind and I've got some gaps.

Where did that kind of motivation come from to create the International MTSS Association and sort of all the work that you've been doing since?

Yep

... that talk to you about the nuts and bolts of the actual framework.

But When I think about, again, kind of that mindset shift, a paradigm shift that has to happen, it's really considering MTSS as a prevention-oriented system.

We are trying to proactively and preventatively minimize the amount of kids that have learning and behavior difficulties in our school system, and then we wanna provide them with quick access.

Work from the assumption first and foremost that there's some sort of short-term additional challenge that with some extra support, that gap could close, and really starting to look at reserving that more formalized system for the kids that really do have long-term challenges.

It's not to say they have to cycle through that whole tiered process, 'cause that's also where we get it wrong.

Uh [laughs] in fact, I've heard of entire states having policies where they have to have Tier 1 intervention first before they can look at a referral [laughs] for special education.

Hmm.