Can DIBELS be used with students in special education?
Yes, DIBELS can be used with special education students. DIBELS is designed to be administered to all students who are learning to read in English and who are physically capable of taking the tests. You would generally only exclude students who are deaf, who stutter, who are completely nonverbal, or who have severe phonological difficulties. During the benchmark screening of all students, students receiving special education should be administered grade-level materials. When progress monitoring you can use materials at the students’ instructional-level if the grade-level materials are too difficult to show response to instruction.
