A BILL to amend the Code of West Virginia by adding a new section defining “dyslexia”; establishing a dyslexia screening and intervention pilot project; and establishing a dyslexia teacher training pilot program.
Bill provides:
Defines “dyslexia” as a specific learning disorder that is neurological in origin and that is characterized by unexpected difficulties with accurate or fluent word recognition and by poor spelling and decoding abilities not consistent with the intelligence, motivation and sensory capabilities of the person, which difficulties typically result from a deficit in the phonological component of language.
Establishes a pilot project to provide early screening and intervention services for children with risk factors for dyslexia, to be implemented in three school districts selected by the state superintendent. Will screen children six years of age or younger for indications of dyslexia, provide appropriate reading intervention services, and administer assessments to ascertain whether the intervention services improve reading and learning.
The pilot project shall run for three full school years, beginning with the 2013-2014 school year.
The goal of this pilot project is to demonstrate and evaluate the effectiveness of early reading assistance programs for children with risk factors for dyslexia and to evaluate whether those programs can reduce future special education costs.
Creation of a dyslexia teacher training pilot program:
The state board shall establish a pilot project to educate teachers on recognizing and adapting to children with risk factors for dyslexia. The state superintendent shall select one or more institutions of higher education and three school districts to participate in the pilot program. The selected institution(s) of higher education shall provide teacher candidates and current teachers of grades kindergarten through fourth in the selected school districts with training on the indicators of dyslexia and the types of instruction that children with risk factors for dyslexia need to learn, read, write and spell, including multisensory structured language programs. The pilot project shall run for a length of time to be determined by the state board.
he goal of this pilot project is to demonstrate and evaluate the effectiveness of training teachers to provide early reading assistance programs for children with risk factors for dyslexia and to evaluate whether the early assistance programs can reduce future special education costs.
