Hi Literacy Lovers,
In our recent podcast episode, Episode 99: An Important Discussion about Reading, we talk with mom, advocate, and President of Our Dyslexic Children, Brett Tingley. Brett shares how her advocacy work with other parents moved their district to use reading science.
In the podcast, Brett mentions the legal responsibility of schools and districts to teach students to read. We thought it might be helpful (we need a refresher too!) to review the Individual Disability Education Act (IDEA) law.
The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) requires public schools to provide special education services to eligible students. It is the federal law that protects your child with dyslexia and requires public school districts to, among other things, find children with dyslexia (commonly referred to as Child Find) and provide them with a fair and appropriate public education (commonly referred to as FAPE). By familiarizing yourselves with the concepts generally and using these terms, you will put your district on notice that you know the federal law that protects your child, the obligations the district has under it and the powers you have if they do not meet those obligations. You are not asking for any favors, only that your district follow federal law.
From A Strategic Roadmap’s Glossary of Terms, page 7.
We’re so glad you’re here to learn with us.
Learn More
Our Dyslexic Children created this guidebook: A Strategic Roadmap. The roadmap includes checklists, steps, and resources available for educators and parents eager to take action.
Wilson Language Fundations has students ‘tap’ out the sounds in words. Looking for an example of how this is done? Check out this IG post from Michelle at Read to Rewire.
During the podcast, we mention Teaching Reading Is Rocket Science by Louisa Moats. The hopefulness this quote resonates with us… and we hope it will with you, too.
“This we know: reading failure can be prevented in all but a small percentage of children with serious learning disorders. It is possible to teach most students how to read if we start early and follow the significant body of research showing which practices are most effective. Students living in poverty, students of color, and students who are eligible for remedial services can become competent readers—at any age. Persistent ‘gaps’ between more advantaged and less advantaged students can be narrowed and even closed. Fundamentally, these gaps are the result of differences in students’ opportunities to learn—not their learning abilities.”
Community and Connection
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Our friend Nora at Evidence Based Reading Instruction, EBLI, is another mom who, like Brett, fought for her daughter’s right to read. She shares science-based literacy info on her blog titled News from Nora. Check out her recent post, Student Literacy Behaviors that Scream Success (and those that don’t).
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This blog post from The Right to Read Project is pure fire: Getting Reading Right for the Kids Who Sued (and the others who could). California didn’t have a plan to teach kids to read, so one family sued the state and won. The writing samples indicate what’s happening in the child’s brain, as we learned from Richard Gentry in our podcast a few weeks ago.
If you haven’t joined the Melissa and Lori Love Literacy Podcast Facebook Group, join now! And, be sure to follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
More Literacy friends to follow mentioned in this episode and newsletter:
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Twitter: Kareem Weaver @KJWinEducation
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Instagram: Michelle @readtorewire
Related Episodes
The parents in Minneapolis will accept only reading-science aligned curricula for all students. Their inspirational actions, core belief that all students can learn to read, and deep desire to advocate makes this the perfect companion episode to Brett Tingley’s experiences and advocacy work in Ohio.
Melissa & Lori have over 100 podcast episodes available now on your favorite streaming service. Listen now as they discuss new ways to think about teaching reading and writing with educators and experts in the field.