To read about the Enders F vs. Douglas County School District decision, click here. SWIDA applauds the Court’s decision that the standards for students with learning disabilities must exceed de minimis. SWIDA agrees that school districts must not be satisfied by doing the minimum (such as providing accommodations only). Ideally, districts must have personnel who can use a multisensory, structured language approach that is appropriate to the needs of the student with dyslexia. (One size never fits all).
However, SWIDA also is concerned about two “elephants in the room.” One elephant is the lack of funding that can provide small-group or individualized instruction (if warranted). The other elephant is the lack of pre-service preparation of trained dyslexia specialists. Colleges train speech-language therapists, occupational and physical therapists, behavior specialists, etc. But few (as IDA has pointed out) train dyslexia specialists or therapists. Many of our elementary education and special education teachers are leaving college without even one lecture, let alone a minimal year long training, on dyslexia.