I know I repeat this all of the time but data is key. I'll add to this that knowing your student is equally if not more so important. You need to look at all of the data from your evaluations in class and qualitative data about your observations of that student to make a valued judgement on whether that student moves up, stays level, or needs to have a more intensive intervention. How many absences have they had? Is their progress impacted by those absences? Is there something going on at home that may interfere with learning? What about socially at school? Have you gotten input from parents about what they observe about their child's progress? All of these questions' answers will contribute to your decision but the good news is that a team of people from your school will help to make that decision with you.

I would agree with Dr. Long that data is key. But time is another one. After you have implemented interventions and strategies and you have factored in other variables, like absences and you don’t see typical growth, then it is time to move to MTSS.

These decisions are made at school data meetings. Students must meet target goal 3 times.

In our district, we use a flowchart with our universal screeners as well as tier 2 and tier 3 data points to help guide next steps for students. Once a student is placed in a tier, we instruct for at least 3-4 weeks and then take a data point. Most of the interventions that we use come with their own progress monitoring, so that makes taking data points easier throughout the process. We keep a student in the same intervention for at least 6 weeks before making any changes to time, group size, tool, etc.
Here is a snapshot of our math flowchart.
I will also say, our flowchart is a living and breathing document. It is updated and changed frequently based on need and feedback regarding the RTI process.