For families whose kids need special education services, the system they have to pass through can sometimes be an obstacle instead of a help.
Starting in 2020, all North Carolina schools were required to use a framework called Multi‑Tiered Systems of Support, or MTSS, to help identify struggling students. But some families and advocates say the system is creating delays for children who need special education services.
In 2015, teachers in Greene County Schools told Antonio and Lynne Blow that their son, Walker, was struggling with reading comprehension. The Blows thought Walker would receive the academic interventions he needed to get back on track.
“We were hearing from the schools that there were some concerns,” Antonio Blow said. “So we were hoping that they would have the answers to how to move him forward.”
Walker was in first grade then. In second grade, his parents sought special education services but were denied. Instead, they say the school spent years providing interventions that fell just short of special education through a tiered system that eventually became known as MTSS — with little improvement.
Walker ultimately received an individualized education program, or IEP, but not until sixth grade. The Blows said several factors contributed to the delay, including a second denial in fifth grade. But they believe MTSS played a role, with too much time spent on lower‑level interventions that weren’t always implemented well and weren’t helping.
“We’ve gone from first grade and now we’re at sixth grade,” Antonio said. “And whatever they’ve put in place obviously is not enough and is not working. So that is the frustrating process.”
How MTSS is designed to work
Since 2020, all North Carolina districts have been required to use MTSS. It’s not a special education tool. Instead, it’s a schoolwide model in which educators identify students who are struggling and move them through “tiers” of increasingly intensive academic or behavioral interventions. If there’s no improvement after the highest tier, schools may consider special education.
But it’s worth noting that MTSS is not designed to be a pathway to special education, and students suspected of having a disability can still be evaluated for an IEP even as MTSS interventions are ongoing.
Many educators say MTSS can be effective. But some argue the system can become a roadblock for students who need special education, who end up lingering in the tiers, getting interventions instead of individualized special education services.
“We hear from folks all over the state having similar experiences,” said Aimee Combs, executive director of the Exceptional Children’s Assistance Center, which supports families navigating special education. “Some of these kiddos have been on interventions for years. And I mean, years making minimal progress. And they stay there, and it’s kind of like: how much data do we need?”
Combs said some families or teachers request evaluations, only to be told students must complete all MTSS tiers or undergo more interventions first. Using MTSS to delay or deny an evaluation violates a federal requirement known as Child Find, which requires schools to identify students with disabilities as early as possible. If a parent or teacher requests a special education evaluation, schools have 90 days to complete that process, starting with an initial referral meeting.
“And yet we hear from many families that can't even get to that initial referral meeting because they're told like, we can't meet to discuss this until we've done all those things,” Combs said.
A lawsuit in Cumberland County
In December, a former second‑grade teacher in Cumberland County Schools filed a class‑action lawsuit alleging that the district delayed evaluations by requiring students to complete MTSS tiers first.
The teacher, Cynthia Lee, said she referred three students for special education, which should have triggered a 90‑day deadline to complete the process. Instead, she said the district delayed the evaluations and told her to work through MTSS first.
The lawsuit alleges Lee first referred students for special education in the fall of the 2024-25 school year, but that the district refused to start the process, claiming the students had to complete all three MTSS tiers first.
They completed Tier 3 interventions by April 2025, at which point Lee alleges more delays took place. By the end of April, she filed a complaint to the Department of Public Instruction, which ruled in her favor, finding Cumberland County Schools out of compliance.
Even then, she says, the district didn’t comply with the department’s deadlines and corrective actions. Her three students didn’t get IEPs until October, more than a full year from when Lee says they were first referred.
Lee says cases like this impact children’s education — that’s what inspired her to sue.
“We need to let people know. Ignorance is not bliss,” Lee told WFAE. “If I didn't know these parents' rights, I could have never stood up.”
Lee said she filed the case as a class action because she believes the issue is systemic. She argues that DPI needs to better train school staff, inform parents of their rights and hold districts accountable for implementing MTSS correctly.
“DPI is not doing the check and balance they’re supposed to,” she said. “They’re not training the teachers. They’re not training the staff. They’re not telling the parents. So, of course, it’s going to be more than just Cumberland County because DPI is the problem.”
Cumberland County Schools said in a statement that it is committed to identifying students with disabilities and does not use MTSS to delay referrals.
“When a student is suspected of having a disability, a referral for evaluation may be initiated at any time, regardless of the student’s participation in MTSS,” said Associate Superintendent of Student Support Services Melody Chalmers McClain.
The district has also denied Lee’s claims in court filings.
Past compliance issues
The lawsuit comes even after DPI previously acknowledged problems with its oversight. In 2020, as MTSS was being rolled out statewide, an advocacy group called Literacy Moms filed a complaint alleging that several districts’ MTSS policies appeared to violate Child Find. DPI agreed to corrective actions, including collecting written assurances from districts stating their MTSS procedures complied with federal law.
DPI told WFAE it could not comment on active litigation. The department said it has completed the corrective actions from the 2020 complaint, but emphasized that “frequent and ongoing monitoring” is crucial, especially as new district leaders and exceptional children staff enter the workforce.
Still, Literacy Moms co‑founder Virginia Sharpless said problems persist. She argues MTSS has made it harder to promptly identify students with specific learning disabilities (SLDs), such as dyslexia, where early intervention is critical as students are learning key pre-literacy skills in those early years.
Early identification has always been a challenge, Sharpless says, but “it’s gotten worse” with MTSS, in part because progress on the tier system can mask underlying disability.
“Schools are saying, 'Oh, children are making progress,' ” Sharpless said. “Well, just because the child makes progress doesn't mean you can't suspect a disability.”
In addition to implementing MTSS statewide in 2020, the state also made MTSS data the primary indicator used for determining whether a student had an SLD that warrants special education.
But Sharpless has been tracking state data on students with specific learning disabilities, or SLDs. She says the number of students identified with SLDs between ages 6 and 8 is 16% lower than it was in 2019, even as the total number of students with SLDs has increased slightly from pre-pandemic levels.
The number of students found at those ages was low to begin with, accounting for roughly 9.5% of all students identified in 2019. In 2024, they accounted for 7.9%.
“What’s happening is these kids, instead of getting early intervention, they’re getting delayed, delayed, delayed until, you know, third, fourth, fifth grade,” Sharpless said. “Before they’re starting to even qualify for special education.”
On the other hand, DPI said that since December 2020, the number of children identified with disabilities overall has steadily increased, rising to 220,730 compared with193,776 in 2020. But in a statement to WFAE, the agency acknowledged ongoing challenges with timely evaluations, pointing to statewide shortages in exceptional children personnel.
Challenges with resources, information
Advocates cite several underlying reasons for why MTSS may be misused or misinterpreted.
On the one hand, knowledge of the law is an issue — that’s where some, like Lee, say there needs to be more training for staff.
Sharpless, for instance, argued many teachers don’t fully understand their Child Find responsibilities or even know that they can make referrals themselves.
Parents, too, say they need more information to navigate the complicated world of special education.
Matthew Roll is a parent to a North Carolina second grader. He declined to disclose his child’s school district, noting his son has just been found eligible for an IEP and is still finalizing his plan.
Roll says his son had been denied an IEP in kindergarten but showed little progress on the MTSS interventions. When he recently requested a referral again, with his son now in second grade, he says the district suggested they wait until after he takes his middle-of-year exams to see if interventions were working. When he put his meeting notes into an AI chatbot, it flagged that advice as a violation of Child Find — and ultimately led to Roll finding the Cumberland County lawsuit. Roll re-requested an IEP and it was ultimately granted.
But Roll also argues schools need to be better at analyzing the data trends in MTSS so that districts don’t miss out on getting help to students who are struggling.
“Utilizing MTSS, while it has good intentions, like the school wants to help the child, I think it ultimately keeps delaying the inevitable, that the child does need help and support, and you eventually reach a critical point where that window of opportunity to actually get those foundational skills is missed,” Roll said.
“Reflecting back, had the school said, you know, there's not enough data. We need to get more information in kindergarten. If they had just done and looked at what we even all knew was the issue back then, maybe our son would have been better off now at reading and being able to comprehend in school.”
Another challenge, still, is resources. Combs of ECAC noted that while schools are not allowed to use a lack of resources or funding as a factor in IEP decisions, it’s still a reality that special education services are often underfunded.
Antonio Blow said he has seen those challenges firsthand — not only as a parent but as a Greene County Schools administrator.
Years of navigating the system, paying for private tutoring and seeking private evaluations underscored for him how difficult the process can be, even for someone who understands it. Limited resources, he said, can intensify the problem in smaller districts like Greene County.
“But even though it’s not enough, there still should not be an excuse because students suffer,” Blow said. “So you have to make the appropriate adjustments to make sure that all students are getting what they need.”
Greene County Schools Superintendent Rodney McNeil said in an email that the district couldn’t comment on specific student situations, but that the district remains “committed to continuous improvement and to ensuring that every child receives the services and supports they are entitled to under the law.”
As for Walker, the Blows say he thrived after finally receiving an IEP. He is on track to graduate a year early from an Early College High School this May.
