Layered EducationRTI International, SRI and NIRN
Centering Students with Disabilities to Create Powerful Change
A national research brief that quotes Glynis directly.
About
Getting the right support to the right student.
Layered Education exists to transform how students with disabilities are supported, by partnering with families, schools, and organizations to build systems that are clear, effective, and sustainable.
Glynis Shulters
Glynis is the founder and principal consultant of Layered Education, now in her seventeenth year in special education across teaching, program leadership, MTSS systems design, and family advocacy. She has led MTSS implementation across 19 schools, and works with schools, districts and families across the country.
Most of that career has been spent inside school buildings, in both traditional districts and charter schools, rather than advising from outside them. That is where the particular shape of this work comes from. She taught special education in resource specialist and special day program settings, then started a co-teaching program from scratch as an inclusion facilitator, then moved into special education program administration, where she was the organization-wide trainer for CPI's Nonviolent Crisis Intervention, and then into MTSS intervention work across the network.
So she has run the intervention block, sat on the school side of the IEP table, and been the person responsible for whether a co-teaching model actually happened. That's also why the practice takes family advocacy as seriously as it takes district contracts: the same system looks very different from the two sides of the table, and both views are necessary to fix it.
Most of her consulting has been in schools serving communities of color experiencing poverty, and equity is not a section of the work. It is the reason for it. Her national seminars bring in teachers from every kind of district.
She presents nationally for the Bureau of Education & Research, and she writes the materials that go with the work. Student-led IEP tools, co-planning protocols, walkthrough look-fors, and a resource library schools keep using after a contract ends.
Students with disabilities deserve systems that see them, center them, and elevate them.
Credentials
- Master of Arts in Special Education, Loyola Marymount University
- Level II Education Specialist Instruction Credential, Mild/Moderate Disabilities
- Autism Spectrum Disorders Added Authorization
- Certified Read & Write Level II trainer
- Wilson Reading System trained
Named in national work
Three national research briefs name her work directly.
Marshall Street
Turning the Page to Secondary Literacy
Glynis is the named author of the tiered reading assessment practice.
Marshall Street
Opening Doors to Collaboration
Carries the case study on quarterly facilitated co-planning days.
If any of this sounds like the help you have been looking for, the first call is free.
Book a free callWhat makes Layered Education different
Implementation focused
We don't hand over a report of recommendations and leave. The work is judged on whether something changed in a classroom.
Alongside your teams
Collaborative by design. We work with the people who have to live with the result, not around them.
Systems and classrooms
Deep expertise at both levels, because a policy only works if a tired teacher can still follow it in fifth period.
Capacity, not dependence
We build internal capability so the work continues after the contract ends. The goal is that you need us less each year.
What we believe
Access
Standards-aligned, always
Every student with a disability deserves a high-quality, standards-aligned education, with the support that makes it reachable.
Systems
Strong systems, strong outcomes
Committed people inside a schedule that cannot hold the work will still produce poor results. The system is the lever.
Families
Families are essential partners
Parents hold information about their child that no assessment captures, and the plan is better when it is in the room.
Collaboration
Collaboration is critical
Two licensed teachers in one room is a structure. Collaboration is the thing that turns it into teaching.
Sustainability
Built to outlast us
Sustainable change comes from building capacity. If the practice leaves when we do, it was never really implemented.
Equity
The students furthest from it first
Design for the students the system reaches last. What that forces you to get right works for everyone else too.
Away from the work
Glynis is a people person with a big personality and a lot of energy. She is a tent camper, a baker, and a hyper-organizer who plans a birthday party the way she plans a program. She loves a holiday, Italian food, Southern California wineries, a good self-development book, and the Chicago Bears. She is a wife, a mom of three, and a dog mom to two rescues.
The team
Glynis leads every engagement. For work that needs more hands than one person has, Layered Education draws on a pool of vetted special education consultants: school psychologists, dyslexia practitioners, program designers, and compliance specialists. Every one of them has run the work in a school before advising anyone else on it.
Junior team
Bradley Shulters
Junior social media and technology manager
Digital content, campaign ideas, and fixing whatever has stopped working.
Karlie Shulters
Junior office assistant
Keeps the office organized, labelled, and stocked, which is why anything can be found.
Who we work with
Families
Navigate the IEP process with clarity and confidence. Support understanding your child's needs, preparing for meetings, and making informed decisions.
Schools and districts
Build and implement high-impact special education systems. Strengthen co-teaching, intervention, compliance, and service delivery.
Organizations and partnerships
Design and scale programs that improve outcomes for students with disabilities. Multi-site initiatives, grant implementation, and professional development.
The first call is free
Questions we get asked
Who is Glynis Shulters?
The founder and principal consultant of Layered Education, now in her seventeenth year in special education across teaching, program leadership, MTSS systems design and family advocacy. She has led MTSS implementation across 19 schools and works with schools, districts and families across the country.
What does Layered Education do?
Special education consulting for schools and districts, covering co-teaching, reading intervention for grades 6 to 12, inclusive program design and program measurement, plus IEP advocacy for families.
Where is Layered Education based?
Temecula, California. The practice works with schools, districts and families across the United States.