Parents beg Colorado Board of Education for dyslexia screening law

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Bri Luna said her daughter started kindergarten with the nickname “Little Miss Sunshine” and took antidepressants in middle school because of reading difficulties.

Mary Sailas said her second-grade son, who stood up next to her, told her he would choose the ability to read over the superpower of flying. In a particularly heartbreaking moment, Amy Thompson described how her high school-age daughter took her own life in 2022 after years of struggling with reading and school.

The three mothers were among about 10 Colorado parents and advocates who implored the State Board of Education to mandate statewide dyslexia screening at the group’s monthly meeting Wednesday.

Advocates have advocated for universal screening legislation many times in recent years, but the bills either he died or significantly dilute. Now, there are signs that their move may attract some attention.

Colorado Department of Education staff discussed the possibility of a bill during the 2025 legislative session that would amend the state’s flagship reading law (the READ Act) to require the use of reading assessments that flag students in kindergarten through third grade for signs of dyslexia. . But staff warned that review of the new assessments would take until at least 2026; It’s a timeline that lacks the urgency that some advocates think is sorely needed.

Although the board’s discussion of dyslexia legislation took place late in the day after the departure of several board members, some board members approved of the overall screening.

“I really want to solve this problem,” said Board Member Karla Esser. “If we don’t get to the point where we have a handle, it’s going to keep bubbling over and over again.”

In the last few years, some parts of Colorado, Boulder Valley with several rural counties in southern Coloradohave begun screening students for dyslexia, but there is no statewide mandate to do so.

Dyslexia is a common learning disability that makes it difficult to decode and spell words, but with the right instruction, students with dyslexia can be as successful as their peers in school. About 15% to 20% of the population He has dyslexia, according to the Colorado Department of Education.

On Wednesday, even as education department staff we talked about legislation They warned Colorado that it could support the identification of students with dyslexia. upcoming budget problems and the difficulty of finding new money to help children with learning disabilities.

But some board members argued that statewide screening could provide hard numbers and a clear rationale for additional spending.

“I think if we start by telling ourselves the truth about how big the problem is, that can be part of the discussion about funding services,” said Board Chair Rebecca McClellan.

The READ Act, first passed in 2012, requires elementary school teachers to assess the reading skills of their students in kindergarten through third grade and create specific learning plans for students reading well below grade level.

But some parents and educators have complained for years that assessments miss students with dyslexia. Often this is because such students mask poor reading by relying on good verbal skills, complex vocabulary, or some other strength. State-approved reading assessments are not always designed to capture this disconnect.

Parents who spoke at Wednesday’s meeting described the dire consequences of these shortages: reading help that doesn’t get to the root of the problem, families being told to spend more time at home or doing more, and students slogging away at reading. They see themselves as stupid and worthless.

Thompson, whose daughter died two years ago while she was a student at Boulder High School, said that shortly before her daughter’s death, she wrote, “I don’t learn like other kids” and “I feel useless at school every day.”

Thompson said the girl’s reading problems had been evident for a long time, but the intervention given to her was inappropriate. After the girl did very poorly on a first-grade reading assessment, her teacher wrote: “Prepare your mouth and check the picture for difficult words.”

Looking at pictures to figure out what a word says is a long-debunked strategy used in many popular reading curricula.

“The way we treat students with dyslexia is now unconscionable,” Thompson said. “Putting a divider in the kindergarten will save lives.”

Other parents expressed frustration that families often have to pay for expensive private dyslexia assessments and private lessons in order to get the right help for their children.

In his public speech, Sailas, accompanied by his second grader and his eldest son, said that two of his eight children have dyslexia and that the wealth of the family should not be the determining factor in whether children learn to read or not.

“Low-income families like mine can’t afford private lessons,” said Sailas, who lives in Morgan County. “We need to see change. When a child has difficulties in kindergarten. It shouldn’t take years, tears and wars for them to get support.”

Anna Lebedda, a parent who lives in Fort Collins-based Poudre, described the financial toll of getting her sixth-grader’s reading and mental health back to normal because the girl was not receiving appropriate intervention for dyslexia at school.

“I have a kindergarten student with dyslexia this year, and I am terrified that our family’s personal resources are drying up,” Lebedda said through tears.

Ann Schimke is a senior reporter at Chalkbeat covering early childhood issues and early literacy. Contact Ann at: [email protected].