What a Tier 4 student looks like (high school)

The student

Christian is a ninth grader with autism, served in a mix of general-education and resource settings. His IEP documents specialized academic instruction five days a week and speech therapy, with needs that also reach into behavior and independent functioning. At his age, the plan tilts toward transition — self-advocacy, workplace and adult communication, and the independent-functioning skills that matter for life after high school. He's a recognizable high-school profile: multiple live domains, none at the most extreme intensity, with the program oriented toward post-secondary readiness.

What jumps out first

No override. Four domains are live; only Personal Care/Health is empty. The rubric asks one thing at his age: rate intensity relative to same-grade peers, and for students approaching graduation, expect the live needs to show up as self-advocacy and adult-communication supports rather than early-skills instruction. That framing shapes how the Communication and Independent Functioning factors read.

The domains that matter

Four domains are live. Each is scored by highest-wins — the top factor sets the domain level — so it's worth seeing what carries each one.

Curriculum & Instruction → Significant. His academic access depends on assistive technology integrated across the day, so equipment carries the domain.

Factor	What the IEP requires	Level
A — type/frequency	Specialized academic instruction five days a week	Moderate (2)
B — credentials	Delivered by special-education staff	Moderate (2)
C — ratio	Resource-room grouping, no extraordinary ratio	Moderate (2)
D — equipment	Assistive technology integrated across the academic day	Significant (3)

Communication → Significant. His communication supports, oriented toward self-advocacy and adult communication at his age, require specialized provider expertise, so credentials carry the domain.

Factor	What the IEP requires	Level
A — type/frequency	Recurring speech therapy on a set schedule	Moderate (2)
B — credentials	Specialized provider expertise for self-advocacy and adult-communication supports	Significant (3)
C — ratio	No special ratio required	Moderate (2)
D — equipment	No equipment involved	None (0)

Behavior → Moderate. Documented behavioral supports at a moderate level — no single factor breaks out above the others.

Factor	What the IEP requires	Level
A — type/frequency	Documented behavioral supports on a set schedule	Moderate (2)
B — credentials	Delivered by trained staff	Moderate (2)
C — ratio	No special ratio required	Minimum (1)
D — equipment	Standard behavioral supports / tools	Moderate (2)

Independent Functioning → Minimum. Transition-oriented self-management supports at a light, but real, level — every factor rates Minimum.

Factor	What the IEP requires	Level
A — type/frequency	Light, transition-oriented self-management supports	Minimum (1)
B — credentials	No specialized provider required	Minimum (1)
C — ratio	No special ratio required	Minimum (1)
D — equipment	No specialized equipment required	Minimum (1)

So: two Significant, one Moderate, one Minimum across four live domains.

The empty domains

Personal Care/Health has no direct service in Christian's IEP — nothing to rate there, one line and move on.

The tier

Tier 4, by the ladder. Two Significant domains plus a Moderate and a Minimum sum to a total that lands at Tier 4. This is a ladder placement, not a gate — he doesn't have the four-significant pattern the Tier 6 gate needs. His spread (two high, one middle, one low) is typical of a student whose needs are real across several areas without any single area at the ceiling.

Service groups

Service groups are the separate read for time and staffing, computed apart from the tier. Because Christian has an instructional service (specialized academic instruction) in addition to speech, his speech therapy counts as a related service. His speech is 30 minutes once a week → 180 minutes per six-week period, which meets the 180-minute floor for Service Group 1. This is the contrast with a speech-only student, whose speech is instructional and counts toward no group — the same 30-minute speech service lands Christian in a group precisely because he has another instructional service and Min Flores does not. No dedicated 1:1 → no group 4–5.

What this example shows

A transition-age high schooler with needs spread across four domains, rated against same-grade peers and oriented toward self-advocacy and adult communication — and a clean illustration of the speech reclassification rule. His speech is a related service here, because he has another instructional service, unlike the speech-only student.