Implementing Interventions in the Classroom

Requests for academic interventions must be approved through the Academic Resource Center in accordance with the Procedures for Requesting Academic Interventions. If you have questions regarding interventions, please contact Dr. John Blackshear, Clinical Director, at the Academic Resource Center (919) 684-5917.

A student who receives interventions must arrange a meeting each semester with the Clinical Director and Interventions Coordinator to request interventions. Undergraduate students meet with the Interventions Coordinator, who prepares the interventions letters. These letters are used as an introduction to the faculty and contain a list of approved interventions for the student. The intention of the interventions letter is to allow the best possible interaction between the faculty member and the student in arranging the delivery of interventions.

It make take up to one week for intervention requests and documentation to be reviewed and processed. Students are expected to make ALL submissions at least two weeks before exams so that interventions can be properly arranged. Students also are expected to meet with their professors upon notification to discuss implementation of their interventions.

Note: The Interventions Coordinator works with undergraduate students only.

For Students

It is the student’s responsibility to request academic interventions each semester. The student should contact the Academic Resource Center to arrange an initial meeting with the Clinical Director and the Interventions Coordinator to arrange interventions.

Note: Prior to the start of each semester, the Interventions Coordinator will email a reminder to all returning students who have been approved for interventions to schedule an appointment to coordinate approved interventions for the upcoming semester.

The Clinical Director and the student will discuss the student’s course load and which intervention will be used.

During the meeting with the Interventions Coordinator, the student should have the following information available: course schedule; professors’ names, emails and campus addresses; name and campus address of the student's academic dean.

The Intervention Coordinator writes and mails an intervention letter to each instructor per the student’s request. The letter will contain a list of the interventions the student has been approved to receive. A copy of the letter is mailed to the student and to the student’s dean (and the director of foreign language department, as necessary).

Note: Letters will be emailed to foreign language instructors and another copy will be sent via fax to the director of foreign language. A hard copy will also be mailed to the director who will forward the letter to the instructor.

It is recommended that the student meet with each instructor early in the semester to discuss how approved academic interventions will be arranged.

Note: It is the responsibility of the student to initiate this discussion, giving the faculty member reasonable time (at least 2 weeks before a test/and or examination) to arrange the needed interventions. The instructor cannot be held responsible for making arrangements if the student has not made his or her needs known well in advance.

For Faculty

Faculty members of undergraduate students will receive a letter regarding interventions for each eligible student. The letter will contain a list of the interventions the student has been approved to receive. The letter will also provide information regarding the delivery of interventions such as extended time, separate testing area, and use of note takers.

If a faculty member believes that an intervention listed in the letter would fundamentally alter the nature of the course or program, he or she should contact the Academic Resource Center’s Clinical Director at 684-5917.

Some students need print material in an alternative format. When a faculty member is contacted by a student and/or the Academic Resource Center’s Interventions Coordinator requesting information regarding required textbooks, reading materials and other reading expectations for an upcoming course, it is important that the information be provided immediately so the Interventions Coordinator of the Academic Resource Center can forward the materials to the Jim Baker of the Student Access Office in order that the materials be transferred in a timely manner. In addition, a syllabus for the course also may be requested to facilitate obtaining and converting materials into an alternative format.

If a faculty member is uncertain about how an intervention should be implemented, he or she should contact the Clinical Director of the Academic Resource Center (684-5917) immediately.

Please be aware that all information regarding a student’s disability is to be kept confidential.

Note: Students frequently approach faculty members with requests for special privileges such as extensions of due dates or alterations to assignments. Of course, faculty members have the right to respond to such requests as they deem appropriate, and to extend academic privileges to any of their students. Some students may have a request such as extended time to take exams because they have a disability. In these cases, faculty members should be aware that if the student has submitted appropriate documentation and has been approved for academic interventions, the student’s instructors will have received information via an Interventions Letter from the Interventions Coordinator.