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W. Palm Beach: Despite ONE IN 5 with dyslexia, students not getting help

BOCA RATON, Fla. For some kids, learning to read can come very easy. People who work in education say it’s “like magic” when a student suddenly gets it. For other kids, even when they have books at home, parents who read to them and strong teachers at good schools, learning to read can be a frustrating struggle.

Through this week, CBS12 News is looking for answers to why kids can’t read, and Wednesday's discussion is about dyslexia, the challenging process of getting children diagnosed and making sure they get the help they need to succeed. …

The National Institute of Health reports nearly one in five people have dyslexia or a similar learning disability.

But Tara Wallace, a former Palm Beach County teacher and administrator, says the number of kids getting help from the school district to address dyslexia is far lower than that.

“My entire career, I’ve worked at Title One schools,” says Wallace. “Schools who are traditionally low performing. Literacy rates are typically low. I’ve never seen a student diagnosed with dyslexia.”

Wallace spent her career teaching kids how to read, so imagine her frustration when she couldn’t teach her own son.

“I read to him every single night., and I just couldn’t figure out what was going on,” she said. Then she started asking another question: How could no one at his school figure it out either?

He had classic symptoms of dyslexia, like confusing similar words like cat and cot, spelling erratically, an inability to focus when there are distractions and difficulty distinguishing between left and right.

Still, no one caught on, or Wallace said she believes they didn’t want to see what was right in front of them.

“Did you feel like you were getting at least a fair shake from the district?” CBS12's News Matt Lincoln asked. “That they were at least trying to help your son?”

“No,” Wallace responded. “I believe a lot of it is compliance. Right? A check in the box.”

“Sometimes there’s just not enough hours in the day.” Valerie Harris, another former Palm Beach County School District employee, said. She coordinated what are called "Individual Education Plans “ or IEPs. Those plans outline how the school serves students with special needs from profound disability to minor learning deficiencies.

An IEP meeting is the key moment for a parent to get help their child needs.

“Many times I would be rushed out of an IEP meeting,” says Harris. “Because, you know, I had seven IEP meetings that day, and I felt that the parent wasn’t getting as much information as they needed. But Florida parents have the right to demand their kids educational needs are met by public schools.”

It can pay to have help in that fight.

“It’s very intimidating to go into IEP meetings,” Ashley Rivello, who is an advocate who specializes in childhood dyslexia, said, “We put our trust and faith in our education system to provide the best education possible for our children. Unfortunately, there’s limited resources in our schools. And there’s not enough teachers to help our kids with disabilities," she said.

The term “dyslexia” is not typically included in an IEP. Instead, the student is listed as having a "specific learning disability," an umbrella term for a number of related deficiencies. So a teacher could look at an IEP and still not know exactly what help a student needs.

Once an IEP is drafted, it becomes a legal document, which the district, school and teacher are bound to follow. This is another reason district staff may be reluctant to issue one, Rivello said.

“There’s not enough support or staff to help with all the IEPs,” says Rivello . “So they’d rather just not write them. It’s easier that way.”

Rivello took her own son out of public school when he was diagnosed with dyslexia.

Valerie Harris’ dyslexic daughter wasn’t getting the help she needed either. So she quit her job to teach her at home full time.

Tara Wallace hired a private tutor for her dyslexic son, and it remains a struggle.

But as a working single mom, Stephanie Salomoni, doesn’t have those options.

“I tried to get him into a better-rated school,” says Salomoni. “So I applied through the McKay Scholarship, and luckily, he did go to better schools that were able to help, and I’ve become close with the ESE department. But if that’s the best we can do in Palm Beach County, we’re not doing great. It’s been really, really hard.”

Florida’s McKay scholarship program allows students who are struggling with learning deficiencies to earn money towards private school tuition and lets students change public schools if they choose.

CBS12 News asked repeatedly to speak to the individual in charge of special education for the district to get some clarity on these issues. The requests were denied.

They did, however, send us this written response. It reads in part:

The School District of Palm Beach County has historically built capacity in instructional staff to meet the needs of students with dyslexia. Over the years, the district has expanded the awareness level of instructional employees and increased resource options to address student needs through core curriculum, instructional strategies, and evidence-based multisensory, explicit systematic structured reading intervention programs.

But again, the parents CBS12's News Matt Lincoln spoke to said the help their children were getting in schools is completely inadequate.

Specialized tutors who use state of the art multi-sensory tools that genuinely help dyslexic kids read can cost $100 an hour or more. Parents can buy the supplies and training themselves, but that costs thousands of dollars too.

Sending your child to a private school which focuses on teaching dyslexic kids would also cost thousands.

Or, you can fight. All Florida school districts are legally required to issue and honor those individual education plans.

One family actually went so far as to fight the district over this, and they won. But it got really ugly. That story is coming Thursday.


 
 
 

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