Truth about services for students with dyslexia is coming to light
The truth about services for Texas students with dyslexia is finally coming to light.
Earlier this month, the Texas Education Agency (TEA) sent a letter to school districts stating that students with dyslexia are eligible to be evaluated and potentially to receive “appropriate reading supports and interventions” under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA).
For families of dyslexic learners, this is a very big deal.
“My jaw dropped,” said Barbara Dilworth of Waco upon reading the letter. “I was just like, they are only telling us half of what our child is entitled to.”
For years, parents like Barbara and I have been told that students with dyslexia were only eligible for accommodations under Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. In my son’s case, that meant that he got extra time on assignments. But when it came to the daily, rigorous, research-based instruction required to help people with dyslexia become fluent readers and writers, our family — like many others—was on its own.
The TEA’s letter came in response to a January missive from the Department of Education’s Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP), which found that Texas was out of compliance with federal law. From 2004 to 2016, TEA penalized districts where more than 8.5 percent of students received special education services. As a result, many districts took steps to delay or deny evaluations for special education services under IDEA.
My son Waylon was in first grade when we first began to suspect that he was having difficulties with reading. In contradiction of the prevailing scientific consensus, his teacher assured us that he was too young to be evaluated.
In second grade, the school acknowledged that there might be an issue. We were told that he probably had mild dyslexia — whatever that means — but that his real issue was writing. Instead of referring him for evaluation, his teacher began to send home handwriting worksheets.
As a parent with little prior knowledge of learning differences, I was all too eager to hear that my son’s disability was minor and could be resolved with extra handwriting practice. However, by third grade, homework time devolved into a stress-induced meltdown every night. Finally, his teacher called us in. “Look,” she told us, “he consistently scores 20 points higher on tests when I read the questions out loud to him.”
Her discovery jolted me out of denial. I delved into the literature on dyslexia, and in the process learned that the most effective literacy interventions happen before the age of eight. I was desperate to get Waylon a comprehensive evaluation, but the district dragged its heels. At the time, the delay seemed unfathomable. In hindsight, I understand it as part of a constellation of policies and procedures that, wittingly or unwittingly, steered dyslexic students away from evaluation and referral to special education services.
As Waylon’s ninth birthday grew near, we gave up on waiting and shelled out $2,000 to have Waylon privately evaluated. We knew that we were incredibly privileged to be able to do so, but we soon found that a dyslexia diagnosis didn’t open the doors to meaningful help. His school offered Section 504 accommodations, but not the daily or near-daily language therapies that I had read about. I was told that only students with more extensive disabilities were eligible for that level of specialized instruction.
OSEP’s investigation uncovered a pattern that echoed my experience: “Multiple parents commented that they were informed by school officials that their children’s diagnoses of dyslexia indicated that the dyslexia was not ‘severe enough’ to warrant an evaluation for special education and related services under the IDEA.”
TEA’s recent course correction on evaluation and services for students with dyslexia comes too late for my son to receive the “free appropriate public education” that is his right under federal law. We were lucky to be able to move him to private school for a few years to get the extra instruction he needed. Meanwhile, thousands of other Texas students and their families fell through the cracks.
We can ensure that future students with disabilities get the education they deserve, but it will take advocacy to undo years of misinformation and, most crucially, more state money for evaluation and direct services. The legislature may not be in session this summer, but your representatives can still use a little “early intervention” on funding for special education services.
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