Dyslexic advocacy group forces NC changes. Schools ordered to do more to help kids.
The North Carolina Department of Public Instruction and the Wake County school system have been ordered to make changes that advocates hope will improve services for children with dyslexia.
DPI has found several districts, including Wake and Bladen counties and the agency itself, not to be in compliance with federal requirements for identifying children eligible for special-education services. DPI is requiring changes designed to reduce the roadblocks that may have kept some children from getting the help they need.
The changes come after Literacy Moms N.C. filed 18 complaints against the state and individual school systems accusing them of not being in compliance with the Child Find provisions in the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA).
“We’re doing the state’s job,” Virginia Sharpless, co-founder of Literacy Moms N.C., said in an interview. “We’re the ones who are monitoring the (school districts) and reviewing the PowerPoints and presentations.
“We’re forcing them to do their job. If they don’t do their job, we’re documenting that as well.”
Identifying students with dyslexia
Literacy Moms N.C. is a collection of dyslexic advocacy groups that formed amid concerns that school districts weren’t identifying dyslexic children early enough to help them to learn to read.
Sharpless says it’s outrageous that the state only lists 373 six-year-olds as having a “specific learning disability” compared to 7,691 12-year-olds. Most students classified as having a “specific learning disability” are dyslexic.
A major reason for the disparity, according to Sharpless, is that North Carolina’s public schools use an approach called Multi-Tiered System of Supports (MTSS) to provide services to students. Schools provide Tier 1 support for all students and advance to Tier 2 and Tier 3 for kids who are struggling.
Sharpless said some students aren’t being identified as dyslexic to receive special-education services until their schools complete all three MTSS tiers of services. She said some schools were also not telling parents that they could request that their child be evaluated at any time for special-education services.
“What do you think happens to those kids?” Sharpless said. “They don’t learn to read. This affects them when they’re 20 years-old, 30-years-old. It’s a life sentence.”
NC to notify parents of their rights
Literacy Moms N.C. began filing complaints with DPI in October, which is Dyslexic Awareness Month.
On Nov. 25, DPI issued a final report agreeing that the way state policies and manuals are written could lead to some students getting delayed for evaluation for special-education services.
“NCDPI is not in compliance with whether the (state education authority) has policies and procedures in place to identify and correct noncompliance with Child Find, specifically the practice of requiring interventions through a multi-tiered system of support (MTSS) before a disability can be suspected,” DPI says in its report.
DPI is requiring corrective action, including:
▪ School problem-solving teams must include an explicit question regarding whether or not a disability is suspected as part of each tier of intervention.
▪ School teams must meet and discuss whether a disability is suspected in any child served in Tier 3 or any students in any tier who has gotten intervention across different school years.
▪ Send a letter to parents of students at each tier telling them they can request an evaluation to see if their child has a disability.
▪ DPI will also consider changes suggested by Literacy Moms as it updates the technical assistance and policies it provides to school districts.
Changes required in Wake County
The agency is also requiring similar corrective action in complaints filed against individual districts and charter schools. For instance, DPI says in a Dec. 18 report that the Wake County school system must make changes such as:
▪ Update its website to say a special education referral will be made any time a parent or school employee suspects a student has a disability.
▪ Schools will remove MTSS procedures from their individual websites and instead link to the district’s MTSS page. DPI found some Wake schools listed information that could slow down when students get evaluated for a learning disability.
▪ Remove references to Tier 3 teams in the initial referral section of the district’s special education process guide.
Sharpless said she hopes these changes will help address the disparities that exist between affluent and less-affluent parents of dyslexic children. Sharpless paid for her daughter, who has severe dyslexia, to go to a boarding school in Connecticut after fighting with the Chatham County school system.
Her daughter is now in college, Sharpless said.
“Literacy shouldn’t only be for parents whose kids can afford it,” she said. “The state has to do a better job of enforcing IDEA and training teachers.”
This story was originally published December 24, 2020 at 10:00 AM with the headline "Dyslexic advocacy group forces NC changes. Schools ordered to do more to help kids.."
