Student examples.

What students look like at each funding tier.

The Intensity of Services rubric is abstract — five domains, four factors, a tier ladder, a couple of gates and overrides. This page shows it running: each example takes one real (composite) student, walks their IEP through the rubric, and lands them at a tier and service group — so you can see what a "Tier 3 student" or a "Tier 7 student" actually looks like.

The students span kindergarten through high school, because the caseload does. Every student is invented/composite — no real student data. Where a rating involves genuine judgment, the example says so rather than pretending the rubric is more precise than it is.

Tier 1 — the floor

The lowest tier — reached two completely different ways, which is why it's the one tier with two examples.

1Kindergarten · speech-only

A speech-only kindergartner

Speech is her only service — the override forces Tier 1. The twist: her Communication factors rate Significant, and she's still Tier 1.
1Grade 1 · minimal services

A minimal-services first grader

One light academic service, every factor Minimum. He reaches the same floor the other way — by the plain ladder, simply not climbing.

Up the ladder — Tiers 2 to 5

As more domains come live and reach Significant, a student climbs. These four show the ordinary ladder at work.

2Grade 6

Resource room, dyslexia instruction

One Significant domain — carried by the dyslexia-practitioner credential.
3Grade 7

Academic plus behavior

A second live domain lifts the tier — and the first real judgment call (Tier 2 vs 3).
4Grade 9

Transition-age, multiple domains

Four domains, rated against same-grade peers. His speech counts as a related service.
5Grade 10

High, but not gated

Four involved domains, empty fifth — so the gate doesn't fire and the ladder lands Tier 5.

The top — Tiers 6, 7, 8

Where gates and overrides take over from the ladder. Read 5→6→7 in order to see the gate logic click.

6Grade 2 · the gate

Four significant, one moderate

Exactly the pattern the Tier 6 gate looks for. The middle of the three-way contrast.
7Grade 7 · the gate

Every domain significant

The top of the scored ladder, by the all-five-significant gate. Highest-wins doing real work.
8Grade 2 · override

Residential placement

The top tier, set by the residential override — but every factor is still rated, with full care.

How to read the Tier 5 → 6 → 7 contrast

If you read only three of these, read these three in order. They're nearly the same heavy profile, separated by a single domain — the heart of the model: the tier is about the shape of a student's needs, not a raw total.

Example Fifth domain Tier How it's set
Grade 10, four involved domainsempty5ladder (gate doesn't fire)
Grade 2, four significant + one moderateModerate64-significant-plus-1-moderate gate
Grade 7, all five significantSignificant7all-five-significant gate