Worked example · Tier 1 · Kindergarten
What a speech-only student looks like
Min is a kindergartner whose only special education service is speech therapy. Because speech is her only service, the rubric places her at Tier 1 by override — and it stays Tier 1 even though her Communication factors rate Significant, because the override sets the tier independently of the factor scores.
The student
Min is in kindergarten, in a general-education classroom all day. Her IEP documents one direct special education service: speech therapy, 30 minutes twice a week, delivered by the speech-language pathologist, for a developmental speech-language need. No other instructional service, no related services, no aide, no modified ratio. Her communication goals are real and her therapy uses individualized communication supports — so on the factor sheet, her Communication domain is not light. She's a recognizable kind of young student: an early speech-language kid getting focused therapy and nothing else.
What jumps out first
Before rating anything, check for an override. Min hits one: speech therapy is her only service, which is the trigger for the speech-only override — and that forces Tier 1. Four of the five domains are empty; only Communication has a direct service. So the read is quick: there's an override, and one live domain. We don't stop there, though — the rubric is explicit that you still rate the factors even when an override applies, and in Min's case that matters more than usual.
When speech therapy is a student's only instructional service — no other instructional services and no related services — the tier is automatically Tier 1, regardless of how the factors score. How scores become a tier →
The domain that matters
Communication is the one live domain. Rating its four factors against what Min's IEP requires:
| Factor | What the IEP requires | Level |
|---|---|---|
| A — type/frequency | Recurring direct speech therapy on a set schedule | Moderate (2) |
| B — credentials | Delivered by a licensed SLP | Moderate (2) |
| C — ratio | No special ratio required | Minimum (1) |
| D — equipment | Access leans on individualized communication supports / technology | Significant (3) |
The highest factor is the domain score (highest-wins), so Communication = Significant. Here's the part worth seeing: that does not change her tier. The override has already set it to 1, and the rubric says so directly — a speech-only student is Tier 1 "regardless of whether the factor determinations are minimum, moderate, or significant in this communication domain." So Min's factors say significant and her tier is still 1. We rate the factors anyway, because they drive staffing and scheduling, not because they move the tier.
The empty domains
Curriculum & Instruction, Behavior, Independent Functioning, and Personal Care/Health have no direct service in Min's IEP — nothing to rate there, one line and move on.
The tier
Tier 1, by the speech-only override. Speech is her only instructional service → Tier 1, full stop. This rests on the override rule, not on a sum, so there's no judgment call to make and no second-rater disagreement to name. The override removes the ladder from the question entirely — which is exactly why her Significant Communication score doesn't pull her up.
Service groups
Service groups are the separate read for time and staffing. For Groups 1–3 you sum related-services minutes. Here's the wrinkle specific to speech-only students: when speech is the only service, it's the student's instructional service, not a related service — so there are no countable related-services minutes, and Min lands in no service group 1–3. (The same speech therapy would count as a related service for a student who also has another instructional service — see the Tier 4 example for exactly that.) For Groups 4–5 there's no dedicated 1:1, so no group 4–5.
What this example shows
The speech-only override sets the tier by rule, and it holds even when the student's factors run high — Min's Communication domain rates Significant, and she's still Tier 1. The factor scores still get filled in, because they do a different job (staffing, scheduling, the export) than the tier does. Tier 1 is a rule about her service configuration, not a verdict on how involved her communication needs are.
Related examples
- A minimal-services Tier 1 student — also Tier 1, but reached by the ladder with no override. The contrast shows what the override actually does.
- A student whose speech is a related service — because he has another instructional service, his speech counts toward a service group. The mirror of Min's case.
- How overrides work — the rule this example runs on.