California Education Code related to access of curriculum and instructional materials
Dyslexia or related reading dysfunction
- 56337.5(a) A pupil who is assessed as being dyslexic and meets eligibility criteria specified in Section §56337 and subdivision (j) of Section §3030 of Title 5 of the California Code of Regulations for the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (20 U.S.C. Sec. §1400 and following) category of specific learning disabilities is entitled to special education and related services.
To determine if a student has dyslexia, schools are only required to test their phonemic awareness. The law does not require them to use any other kind of test and they only have to do this much if they are already being tested for special education services. While this is a good step forward, it is not enough.
Specific Learning Disability
- 56337(a) A specific learning disability, as defined in Section §1401(30) of Title 20 of the United States Code, means a disorder in one or more of the basic psychological processes involved in understanding or in using language, spoken or written, which may manifest itself in the imperfect ability to listen, think, speak, read, write, spell, or perform mathematical calculations. The term “specific learning disability” includes conditions such as perceptual disabilities, brain injury, minimal brain dysfunction, dyslexia, and developmental aphasia….
School districts cannot deny dyslexias very real existence. Schools are required to use researched based programs. Orton-Gilliingham based education support is considered best practice. OG programs come in a few flavors. The more common programs being used are:
- Barton Reading and Spelling System
- Wilson Reading System
- Linda-Mood Bell
A majority of special education teachers are not trained in any of these reading systems. This is also true of resource room teachers. It is not their fault. Districts are not providing the training and university programs rarely do. However, if you can find a Barton tutor, they can train the staff, parents, and aides to work with these students. Beyond helping students with dyslexia, most teachers pick up a few tricks they can use on larger classes. Mind you, the programs call for 1-1 tutoring to be effective, but teaching all students some spelling tricks helps them out too.
It is the issue of needing to work with students one to one for an hour two times a week that puts a hardship on schools, especially when you consider that one in five students have dyslexia. That means that out of 30 students, the average class nowadays, six students need extra support. If there are twenty classrooms, it means 120 students need to have best practice support, which is one to one using one of the above listed programs.
Considering schools are having their budgets cut, increased student to teacher ratios, and the many other hardships schools have to deal with and you can see why they might try to avoid the one to one ratio. Yet, the program won’t work with most students with the more severe forms of dyslexia if it is not one to one.
I imagine it will continue to be a fight to get these students what they need, but if you approach it with the understanding of the school’s perspective, schools may be less defensive and be willing to work something out. With special ed law now backing the needs of students with dyslexia, the schools will eventually have to give in.
For more information, please contact me:
Jcoe (@) touching-success.com
(408)-796-3916