Dyslexia is the most common learning disability, affecting tens of millions of people in the United States. But getting help for children who have it in public school can be a nightmare.
“They wouldn’t acknowledge that he had a problem,” says Christine Beattie about her son Neil. “They wouldn’t say the word ‘dyslexia.’ ”
Other parents, she says, in the Upper Arlington, Ohio, schools were having the same problem. The district in a suburb of Columbus wasn’t identifying their children’s dyslexia or giving them appropriate help.
So, in 2011, the parents pooled their resources and hired a lawyer.
“I was not surprised there was a group of students with dyslexia who were not getting the kind of instruction that they really needed,” says Kerry Agins, an Ohio special education attorney who represented the Upper Arlington parents. She says the issue of public schools failing to address the needs of students with dyslexia is widespread, in Ohio and across the country.
Agins advised the parents to file a group complaint against the district.
Parents typically fight special education cases alone, seeking remedies one by one. But a group complaint, Agins told them, could force the school system to make broader change.
Nineteen people signed the complaint, including parents, students and graduates of the Upper Arlington public schools.
In August 2011, the Ohio Department of Education found the Upper Arlington Schools in violation of the law when it came to promptly and properly identifying students with learning disabilities and finding them eligible for special education services.
“We felt vindicated,” Christine Beattie recalls. “Like, we aren’t crazy. We know what we’re talking about.”
In its decision, the state ordered the Upper Arlington Schools to train teachers and staff on how to identify and evaluate students with learning disabilities.
But the parents said this was more than a special ed problem. They say it was a problem with the way kids were being taught to read. To read more from Emily Hanford, click here.