WORDS: Dr. Kirstina Ordetx
According to Florida Senator Gayle Harrell, “Reading is
the most important skill that our students must learn to be
successful. They must learn to read and read to learn.”
Having a family member with dyslexia brought the issue of
struggling readers to the forefront for Harrell, who spearheaded HB
887 and advocated for changes in the law through Florida HB 7069.
Harrell expresses her concern at the rate of third grade students
who have consistently performed below grade-level in reading
over the past years. She is hoping that the new changes, which
became a law in October 2017, will bring both the prevention
and intervention that students with dyslexia desperately need to
become successful, lifelong readers.
Dyslexia is dened by the International Dyslexia Association
(IDA) as “a specic learning disability that is neurobiological
in origin. It is characterized by difculties with accurate and/
or uent word recognition and by poor spelling and decoding
abilities. These difculties typically result from a decit in the
phonological component of language that is often unexpected in
relation to other cognitive abilities and the provision of effective
classroom instruction.”
Research indicates that for the dyslexic student, IQ and reading
are not linked. In fact, where these students struggle with reading,
they may excel in other areas like problem-solving, STEM, art,
athletics, and music. Although there is no cure for dyslexia, there
are proven methods to help students learn to read with specic
strategies, recognition of spelling pattern and rules, and explicit
instruction of phonetic concepts.
Historically, parents of struggling readers have shared stories
of raising bright and talented children who just could not read.
For several possible reasons, the term dyslexia was infrequently
identified or unsupported by specific services in schools
across our country. Thanks to the unrelenting efforts of dyslexia
advocates and the sponsorship of Senator Harrell, things are
looking up for students who are at risk or identied with dyslexia
in the State of Florida. The highlights in the law include:
• Requires all teachers who provide reading interventions to hold a
reading certicate or endorsement beginning with the 2020-2021 school
year.
• Requires school districts to provide elementary teachers access to
training in effective methods of identifying characteristics of dyslexia.
• Requires statewide screening in kindergarten.
• Amends the core curricula to include evidence-based instruction
including explicit, systematic, and sequential approaches to teaching
phonemic awareness, phonics, vocabulary, fluency, and text
comprehension using multi-sensory strategies.
• Adjusted requirements for renewal of teaching certification to
include 2 college credits of reading instruction.
Today, most states have added specic laws and updated
their education statutes to clearly dene dyslexia and provide
guidelines to their school districts on how to identify students
with dyslexia and implement appropriate intervention. This
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