Intervention MTSS Certification Draft Use Cases and Resource Elements
Summary (Draft for Feedback)
This draft describes a proposed Ed-Fi certification approach for Intervention / MTSS products. For intervention-company product leaders and education agency customers, Ed-Fi certification verifies that vendors' products conform to the Ed-Fi Data Standard's data model, semantics, and REST API specifications, enabling interoperable data exchange across diverse systems using standardized formats and resources
By standardizing how intervention data is published via Ed-Fi APIs, certification can help reduce custom integrations and support:
Faster, more repeatable district onboarding by replacing one-off data exports and point integrations with a shared contract
Cross-vendor reporting and MTSS dashboards that can aggregate intervention activity consistently
Portability of intervention history across systems and vendors for longitudinal analysis
Cleaner handoffs into state and regional data hubs for compliance, evaluation, and analytics use cases
Current Status: the specific certification bar (including what is required vs optional in v1) is a draft for feedback and will be determined through community governance. Key decision areas called out in this document include cohort-based workflows, effectiveness modeling, and dosage/fidelity representation.
The goal is to begin credentialling intervention products by Fall 2026.
What’s in scope (at a glance)
Publish and maintain an intervention catalog (definitions, identifiers, delivery parameters)
Publish student intervention assignments (who is assigned, when, and why; including assigned dosage expectations)
Publish session-level participation / attendance events (including delivered duration for fidelity/dosage tracking)
Optionally support cohort-based workflows (grouping students and associating cohorts to interventions)
Optionally support effectiveness and prescription concepts where available (subject to governance decisions)
The draft also assumes access to core context entities needed to interpret published intervention data: Student, Staff, and EducationOrganization (often as read-only references from an existing Ed-Fi ODS).
Use Cases Covered
Use Case 1: Publish and maintain an intervention catalog
As a district or intervention platform, I want to define and publish the interventions available for use, so that schools and staff can consistently assign approved interventions to students.
What this demonstrates
Stable intervention identifiers
Core metadata needed for interpretation across systems
Clear ownership of intervention definitions
Key Ed Fi concepts exercised
Intervention
EducationOrganization
Descriptors such as InterventionClass, DeliveryMethod, Diagnosis, GradeLevel
Use Case 2: Assign a student to an intervention
As an educator or intervention coordinator, I want to assign a student to an intervention with a defined start date and rationale, so that intervention participation is formally documented.
What this demonstrates
Student level assignment tracking
Context for why a student is receiving an intervention
Assigned dosage expectations
Key Ed Fi concepts exercised
StudentInterventionAssociation
Student
Intervention
DiagnosticStatement, Dosage
Use Case 3: Define intervention delivery parameters
As an intervention provider, I want to define when and how an intervention is delivered, so that expected service delivery can be understood across systems.
What this demonstrates
Temporal boundaries of interventions
Delivery method and scheduling context
Organizational responsibility
Key Ed Fi concepts exercised
Intervention
BeginDate / EndDate
MeetingTime
EducationOrganization
Use Case 4: Record intervention attendance events
As an educator or intervention provider, I want to record whether a student attended a specific intervention session, so that actual participation can be tracked and verified.
What this demonstrates
Session level participation tracking
Distinction between planned vs delivered services
Support for partial attendance
Key Ed Fi concepts exercised
StudentInterventionAttendanceEvent
AttendanceEventCategory
EventDate
InterventionDuration
Use Case 5: Track assigned vs delivered intervention dosage
As a school or district, I want to compare assigned intervention dosage with delivered dosage over time, so that fidelity of service delivery can be evaluated.
What this demonstrates
Full fidelity MTSS tracking
Alignment between planning and execution
Readiness for reporting and analytics
Key Ed Fi concepts exercised
StudentInterventionAssociation (assigned dosage)
StudentInterventionAttendanceEvent (delivered duration)
Use Case 6: Associate staff with intervention delivery
As a district, I want to associate staff members with the interventions they deliver, so that service responsibility and staffing patterns are visible.
What this demonstrates
Accountability for intervention delivery
Support for staff level reporting
Alignment with operational MTSS workflows
Key Ed Fi concepts exercised
Staff
Staff references within Intervention
Resource Elements
Data Model Requirements
These resources must be supported by a certified Intervention / MTSS system.
Ed‑Fi Resource | Purpose in Certification | Notes |
| Defines available interventions and delivery parameters | System is system‑of‑record; stable identifiers required |
| Assigns students to interventions | Core of student‑level MTSS tracking |
| Records session‑level participation | Required for fidelity and delivered dosage |
| Identifies participating students | Read‑only reference acceptable |
| Identifies sponsoring orgs | Required for ownership and hierarchy |
| Identifies staff delivering interventions | Read‑only reference acceptable |
Required Fields
Intervention
Element | Required for Standard | Required for Certification | Reason / Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
InterventionClass | Yes | Yes |
|
Diagnosis (Descriptor) |
| Yes | Targeted purpose of the intervention. |
DeliveryMethod (Descriptor) | Yes | Yes | Individual/Small Group/Whole Class |
BeginDate | Yes | Yes |
|
Staff (collection) |
| Yes | Relates the staff member associated with the Intervention. |
EducationOrganization | Yes | Yes |
|
InterventionIdentificationCode | Yes | Yes |
|
Namespace |
| Yes | Usually identity/required, this this was added later. Will be useful for determining who intervention data came from if there are multiple in a single ODS |
StudentInterventionAssociation
Element | Required for Standard | Required for Certification | Reason / Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
Student | Yes | Yes |
|
Intervention | Yes | Yes |
|
DiagnosticStatement |
| Yes | A statement provided by the assigner that provides information regarding why the student was assigned to this intervention. |
Dosage |
| Yes | The duration of time in minutes for which the student was assigned to participate in the intervention. |
StudentInterventionAttendanceEvent
Element | Required for Standard | Required for Certification | Reason / Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
Student | Yes | Yes |
|
Intervention | Yes | Yes |
|
EventDate | Yes | Yes |
|
AttendanceEventCategory | Yes | Yes | Excused/Unexcused/In Attendance |
InterventionDuration |
| Yes | The duration in minutes of the intervention attendance event. |
JSON Reference Payloads
Intervention
{
"interventionIdentificationCode": "INT-READ-001",
"educationOrganizationReference": {
"educationOrganizationId": 255901
},
"interventionClassDescriptor": "uri://ed-fi.org/InterventionClassDescriptor#AcademicIntervention",
"deliveryMethodDescriptor": "uri://ed-fi.org/DeliveryMethodDescriptor#SmallGroup",
"diagnosisDescriptor": "uri://ed-fi.org/DiagnosisDescriptor#ReadingDeficiency",
"minDosage": 30
}StudentInterventionAssociation
{
"studentReference": {
"studentUniqueId": "123456"
},
"educationOrganizationReference": {
"educationOrganizationId": 255901
},
"interventionReference": {
"educationOrganizationId": 255901,
"interventionIdentificationCode": "INT-READ-001"
},
"beginDate": "2026-01-15",
"endDate": "2026-03-30",
"dosage": 90,
"interventionEffectivenessRatingScaleDescriptor": "uri://ed-fi.org/InterventionEffectivenessRatingScaleDescriptor#Moderate",
"reasonExitedDescriptor": "uri://ed-fi.org/ReasonExitedDescriptor#Completed",
"staffs": [
{
"staffReference": {
"staffUniqueId": "T001"
}
}
],
"interventionClassDescriptor": "uri://ed-fi.org/InterventionClassDescriptor#AcademicIntervention"
}
StudentInterventionAttendanceEvent
{
"studentReference": {
"studentUniqueId": "123456"
},
"educationOrganizationReference": {
"educationOrganizationId": 255901
},
"interventionReference": {
"educationOrganizationId": 255901,
"interventionIdentificationCode": "INT-READ-001"
},
"eventDate": "2026-02-01",
"attendanceEventCategoryDescriptor": "uri://ed-fi.org/AttendanceEventCategoryDescriptor#Present",
"interventionDuration": 30
}
Test Scenarios
Future Considerations and Questions
Should intervention effectiveness be required or optional?
Strong consensus: important, but unclear/how to represent → not required for v1
Should cohorts be included in certification?
Recognized as useful but not universally implemented → not required for v1
Should intervention prescription be required?
Not widely used → likely excluded from certification requirements
What belongs on the “Intervention” vs “Student Intervention Association”?
Strong push: Move student-specific data (dates, dosage, delivery, etc.) to association level. Keep intervention object generic/library-like → not currently supported so not required for v1 of certification
Should delivery method be defined globally or per student?
Question raised: many interventions are flexible → likely per-student (association). Should dosage be fixed or student-specific? Real-world usage varies → needs flexibility at student level. Not currently supported in the data model –> not required for v1 certification
Additional Elements to the model recommended
Student-level modeling emphasized
Move key fields (dates, dosage, delivery) to Student Intervention Association
Goal of intervention
Strong support to include goal or objective of the intervention, associating with a skill or outcome of the assessment.
Tier of support (MTSS tiers)
Widely used and sometimes required for reporting → include (at least optional)
Reason exited
Clear gap → should be added