Dyslexia Education Bill Passes the House

On Wednesday April 19th, I am pleased to share that the dyslexia legislation that I co-introduced with Sen. Cathy Osten passed the House unanimously. Now it heads to the Senate then the governor. Many thanks go to Allison Quirion, founder of Decoding Dyslexia – CT and a great advocate for those with dyslexia.

This bill is important because…

1. Kids who are identified as dyslexic are close to 20% of all the students in Special Education. Also, of all the kids that drop out of school, 75% of them have a reading disability.

2. Currently, there is no requirement for Special Education teachers to have instruction in “evidenced based structured literacy” meaning specific instruction in how to teach kids who are dyslexic how to read. Our daughter is dyslexic so I know this road from personal experience and well.

3. There is no cost to this legislation to either the municipality or state. The instruction would be in their course work to receive their certification in Special Education. Additionally, it will save money in the long run by Special Education teachers being able to effectively teach/remediate students with dyslexia.

 

 

Here is the official header of the bill:

AN ACT REQUIRING SPECIAL EDUCATION TEACHERS TO COMPLETE A PROGRAM OF STUDY IN EVIDENCE-BASED STRUCTURED LITERACY INTERVENTIONS FOR STUDENTS WITH DYSLEXIA.
To require teachers applying for professional certification with a comprehensive special education or integrated early childhood and special education endorsement to complete a program of study in the diagnosis and remediation of reading and language arts that includes supervised practicum hours and instruction in the detection and recognition of, and evidence-based structured literacy interventions for, students with dyslexia.

Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions or concerns about this or any other legislation.