Output & service groups
Service groups (separate from the tier)
A student gets a tier and up to two service groups. Groups don't change the tier — they're a separate measure of how much provider time the student receives. Here are the two sets, and the two misreads to avoid.
The tier isn't the whole funding picture. A student also gets up to two service groups, which sit alongside the tier and add to it. Groups don't change the tier — they're a separate measurement of how much provider time the student receives.
The shape: at most one group from {1, 2, 3}, plus at most one from {4, 5}. Either, both, or neither.
- Groups 1–3 come from related-services minutes.
- Groups 4–5 come from individualized provider support — either a dedicated 1:1 ratio or services delivered offsite.
Groups 1–3: related-services minutes
"Related services" = OT, PT, counseling, special transportation, and the like — services that support the student's education. glossary Add up the minutes of all related services in a six-week period, and the total places the student in the highest band it reaches:
| Group | Threshold (per six-week period) |
|---|---|
| (none) | Under 180 minutes |
| 1 | 180 to under 270 minutes |
| 2 | 270 to under 540 minutes |
| 3 | 540+ minutes |
The minutes that count are the related services documented in the IEP and delivered directly to the student; consultative time provided only to staff doesn't count.
Two non-minute triggers also qualify Group 1 on their own:
- The student receives special transportation as a related service, or
- The student receives parent counseling and training as a related service.
Minutes are summed across services, not counted per service
This one is easy to misapply. A student with PT, OT, and speech doesn't get three group assignments. You add the minutes together into one six-week total, and that single total picks one group.
90 min PT + 90 min OT + 100 min speech = 280 minutes total → Group 2. Not three groups; one.
Groups 4–5: individualized provider support
Groups 4–5 measure how individualized a student's service delivery is. There are two ways to qualify, and a student needs only one of them. Either way, the student lands in Group 4 or Group 5 — the two are mutually exclusive, so a student gets one of them or neither.
Route 1 — a dedicated 1:1 ratio. Time a provider is assigned exclusively to one student to deliver IEP services, as a percentage of the instructional day:
| Group | 1:1 ratio (% of instructional day) |
|---|---|
| 4 | 50% to under 80% |
| 5 | 80%+ |
Route 2 — services delivered offsite. Special education and related services the student receives at home, at a hospital or other medical facility (including outpatient), or at another facility the school system doesn't operate — but delivered by the district's or charter's own personnel. Measured as hours per week:
| Group | Offsite services (hours per week) |
|---|---|
| 4 | Under 4 hours |
| 5 | 4+ hours |
Group 4 is the moderate band on either route; Group 5 is the significant band on either route.
1:1 time is staffing, not classroom placement
Route 1 is about a provider assigned only to that student — not how much of the day the student spends in a special-education setting.
- A student in a self-contained room 80% of the day is not automatically Group 5 — only if they have dedicated 1:1 staffing 80% of the day.
- A student in general education most of the day with a dedicated 1:1 aide beside them does qualify, even though their setting time looks light.
Route 2 is the location-based path: services delivered offsite by district staff, counted in hours per week.
Putting it together
A student carries at most three labels: one tier, at most one group from {1,2,3}, at most one from {4,5}.
The speech-only note: a speech-only student is forced to Tier 1 by the override, and — because speech is their instructional service, not a related service — their speech minutes do not compute a service group. A pure speech-only student is Tier 1, no group. If that same student also gets a related service (say OT), the OT minutes compute Groups 1–3 normally; the speech still doesn't. How scores become a tier
Quick gut-check
- Add all related-services minutes for a six-week period → one of Groups 1–3 (under 180 minutes → no group). Speech counts here only if the student has other SDI; for a speech-only student it doesn't.
- Special transportation or parent counseling/training → Group 1 by itself.
- Groups 4–5 have two routes, and one is enough: a dedicated 1:1 ratio (50% to under 80% → Group 4; 80%+ → Group 5), or services delivered offsite by district staff (under 4 hrs/week → Group 4; 4+ hrs/week → Group 5). Groups 4 and 5 are mutually exclusive.
- Groups are additive on top of the tier; they don't change it.