Output & service groups
Service groups (separate from the tier)
A student gets a tier and up to two service groups. Groups don't change the tier — they're a separate measure of how much provider time the student receives. Here are the two sets, and the two misreads to avoid.
The tier isn't the whole funding picture. A student also gets up to two service groups, which sit alongside the tier and add to it. Groups don't change the tier — they're a separate measurement of how much provider time the student receives.
The shape: at most one group from {1, 2, 3}, plus at most one from {4, 5}. Either, both, or neither.
- Groups 1–3 come from related-services minutes.
- Groups 4–5 come from dedicated 1:1 time.
Groups 1–3: related-services minutes
"Related services" = speech, OT, PT, counseling, and the like — services that support the student's education. glossary A student is placed in the highest band their total minutes reach, per six-week period:
| Group | Threshold (per six-week period) |
|---|---|
| 1 | 180–270 minutes |
| 2 | 270–540 minutes |
| 3 | 540+ minutes |
Two non-minute triggers also qualify Group 1 on their own:
- The student receives special transportation as a related service, or
- The student receives parent counseling and training as a related service.
Minutes are summed across services, not counted per service
This one is easy to misapply. A student with PT, OT, and speech doesn't get three group assignments. You add the minutes together into one six-week total, and that single total picks one group.
90 min PT + 90 min OT + 100 min speech = 280 minutes total → Group 2. Not three groups; one.
Groups 4–5: dedicated 1:1 time
These measure time a provider is assigned exclusively to one student to deliver IEP services, as a percentage of the instructional day:
| Group | Threshold (% of instructional day) |
|---|---|
| 4 | 50% to under 80% |
| 5 | 80%+ |
1:1 means dedicated staffing, not setting
The natural misread is to treat this as "how much of the day the student is in a special-ed setting." It isn't. It's about a provider assigned only to that student.
- A student in a self-contained room 80% of the day is not automatically Group 5 — only if they have dedicated 1:1 staffing 80% of the day.
- A student in general education most of the day with a dedicated 1:1 aide beside them does qualify, even though their setting time looks light.
The rubric's wording: 1:1 time is "time during which a provider is assigned exclusively to the student to deliver IEP-documented services, and does not include incidental proximity or general supervision."
Putting it together
A student carries at most three labels: one tier, at most one group from {1,2,3}, at most one from {4,5}.
The speech-only note: a speech-only student is forced to Tier 1 by the override, but their speech minutes still compute service groups normally. So a speech-only student with 280 minutes of speech per six weeks is Tier 1 + Group 2. How scores become a tier
Quick gut-check
- Add all related-services minutes for a six-week period → one of Groups 1–3 (or none under 180).
- Special transportation or parent counseling/training → Group 1 by itself.
- Dedicated 1:1 staffing as a % of the day → Group 4 or 5. Setting time is not 1:1 time.
- Groups are additive on top of the tier; they don't change it.