An act relating to special education; requiring interventions for students displaying characteristics of dyslexia. Defines dyslexia and requires schools to provide research-based interventions for all students showing characteristics of dyslexia and experiencing difficulty in learning to read or write.
DDAI Analysis: As currently written, this bill would require New Mexico schools to recognize dyslexia and to provide traditional, phonics-based tutoring appropriate for dyslexic students as part of the Response to Intervention model before referring such students to special education. This could provide more effective and immediate assistance to some students by bypassing the IEP process. However, it could also delay getting individualized services to students who did not benefit from the tutoring provided by delaying full scale diagnostic testing or implementation of an IEP pending outcome of the dyslexia remediation.
We would like to see this law amended to provide more flexibility for alternative or individualized forms of intervention, to allow for schools to pilot new and emerging programs for dyslexia rather than being tied only to a single model of tutoring.
