Georgia Department of Education
SSTAGE maintains close contact with multiple officials in the Georgia Department of Education. Besides our obvious connection to the topics of Student Support Teams (SST) and Response to Intervention (RTI), we also have vital interest in other areas: curriculum, assessment, rule making, research, school psychology services, disabilities, the state Board of Education, initiatives from the Governor’s office and the General Assembly, and federal requirements, among others. GaDOE is a nerve center for programs, requirements and resources surrounding all of those aspects of education in our state, not to mention funding!
GaDOE has partnered with SSTAGE for two years now on production and presentation of our SSTAGE Best Practices conference. We value this collaboration which benefits both entities and thus, the students of Georgia.
GaDOE also has a critical working relationship with the Professional Standards Commission (PSC), which is responsible for credentialing of educators. SSTAGE provided proposed standards to the PSC for an add-on certificate for SST Coordinator. These were adopted in 2005.
The GaDOE web page is a tremendous source of useful information: http://www.doe.k12.ga.us
(Be sure to see the six blue drop-down menus across the top of the page).
You will find one page solely dedicated to Response to Intervention with extensive resources. These include a vital GaDOE RTI Guidance Document. This was created by a statewide task force that included at least a dozen SSTAGE members. (also see our Web Resources page for elaboration)
In another section you will find information on Student Support Teams, the state SST Rule and a GaDOE SST Manual.
In 2011 John Barge was elected State Superintendent of Schools in Georgia. This will almost certainly lead to some changes in programs that affect SSTAGE members and what they do in schools. SSTAGE will endeavor to keep you abreast of these changes as we become aware of them and will provide input to GaDOE on those that may affect you.
