My Dyslexic Child’s School Isn’t Helping. What Should I Do?

The situation: Your child has been diagnosed with dyslexia and the public school isn’t helping. They attend can’t, or won’t, or is reluctant to, or is just ill-equipped to offer the special services your child needs to catch up with their peers in reading, writing, spelling and other affected academic subjects. Either that, or your child attends a private school that has no interest in offering these services. Either way, you need help.  What should you do if your child’s school can’t help with their dyslexia?  The first thing you must do is switch into advocacy mode. The traditional educational system was not designed for your child, even though dyslexia is the most common type of learning disability. All the support your child receives from here on in will be the result of your initiative and persistence.

If a meeting with your child’s teacher and public school administration to develop an IEP (Individualized Education Program) hasn’t already occurred, you must insist on it and be prepared with your expectations. They must include specialized small group or one-on-one lessons with measurable goals and methods to measure progress. Federal, state and school district policies will govern the resources provided by the school. The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) is a federal statute that ensures students with disabilities are provided a free, appropriate public education designed to address their individual needs. But the devil is in the details and many districts either reluctantly provide the minimum service, or are overextended and struggle to do so. Moving beyond the classroom for your child with dyslexia There are legal avenues to force schools to follow through on an IEP but they are time-consuming and largely ineffectual.

Parents should document everything from the beginning of the process – report cards, tests, emails, etc. – and communicate with school faculty and staff to ensure the IEP is being followed. If that fails, you may request an IEP meeting and clarify your expectations and insist on accountability.

The documentation will prove helpful at this meeting. Frequent check-ins communicate to the school that you will be an ongoing presence demanding that your child’s special needs be addressed. For help navigating the process, see www.wrightslaw.com.

If all this fails, there are certainly legal and political avenues. Parents can hire a lawyer and sue, contact a local elected representative and have them bring pressure, or file a complaint with the federal Office of Civil Rights. The very act of doing so may serve as the impetus for the school to improve its service, but if it doesn’t, the legal process could take years.

Tutoring for students with learning disabilities

If the education provided by the school is not helping your child make satisfactory gains,
the next step is to seek help beyond the school. The two options are: private tutoring or
a school that specializes in children with learning disabilities. Finding a tutor who can help your child takes some sleuthing. Ask for recommendations from parents in your dyslexia community. Any tutor you hire should have training in an Orton-Gillingham-based program and proven success tutoring children. Meet the tutor before hiring them and determine whether they are a good personality fit with your child.
A great tutor who does not inspire your child will deliver the results you desire. Though it is optimal if the tutor employs the same instructional-based program as your child’s school, it is not necessary as long as the tutor and school communicate with each other and reinforce each other’s teaching. Most tutors recommend two or three 60- minute one-on-one sessions or the same number of 45-minute group sessions each week.

Specialized schools for students with learning disabilities

The most dramatic step, but often the most impactful, is to enroll your child in a school that specializes in children with learning disabilities. In the Charleston area, that is Trident Academy in Mt. Pleasant, which has a half-century track record of improving the language-based skills of students with dyslexia, dysgraphia, dyscalculia, ADHD and other learning disorders. All its teachers are trained in the Orton-Gillingham approach and their entire educational foundation is based on customized, multi-sensory teaching methods that have been proven successful in the academic research and practice. Most
students who enroll in Trident Academy make sufficient gains to transition back to a more traditional educational environment. Because each child is different, its impossible to predict how long it will take for a student to be ready for this transition, but the sweet spot for a stay at Trident Academy tends to be three to four years, ideally followed by a planned transition year. 

The ancillary benefit of a specialized school for students with learning disabilities is that there is no stigma or shame among the students because they all have one kind of language-based learning difference or another. Children find their tribe at schools for students with dyslexia and often make immense gains socially as well as academically. Whatever route you take, it is important to understand that your child will always have a learning disability, but that it can be overcome with the proper instruction. Your challenge is to determine what that is and provide it to your child.