While scientists estimate that between 5 and 12 percent of children in the United States have dyslexia, just 4.5 percent of students in public schools are diagnosed with a 'specific learning disability,' a category that includes dyslexia and other learning disabilities, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. But public schools are failing to identify or treat dyslexia, even though there are proven ways to help kids with dyslexia learn to read. One in five American kids struggles to read, and many of them have dyslexia. Kindergartners in an Ohio classroom learning letters.

According to dozens of interviews with parents, students, researchers, lawyers and teachers across the country, many public schools are not identifying students with dyslexia and are ignoring their needs. Public schools nationwide have long refused to use the word, allowing many of them to avoid providing special education services as required by federal law. The reluctance to confirm that a child is 'dyslexic' goes beyond avoiding a label that could harm kids. And I said, 'What do you mean?' She said, 'It is not in our realm of professionalism to say that a student is dyslexic.'' 'And I asked the psychologist why, and she said we would never say that a student is dyslexic. 'But they would not say that he was dyslexic,' said Pam. The school tested him, and the report said Dayne had weaknesses 'often seen in students diagnosed with reading disabilities including dyslexia.' It went on like this for years: Pam suspecting Dayne was dyslexic, the schools saying no, and Pam believing them because they were the education experts.Īt the end of Dayne's senior year in high school, Pam learned she had a legal right to an evaluation. Teachers said Dayne would catch up, but by the end of first grade, he still wasn't reading. 'And Dayne always walked right past that board and sat down.' 'In the mornings when students came into the classroom, they would write that they'd brought their lunch or that they were going to purchase lunch in the cafeteria,' she said.

His mom, Pam Guest, knew something wasn't right when Dayne was in kindergarten. When he opens a book, he sees 'just a whole bunch of words, a whole bunch of letters lined up.' Today Guest's options are limited because he struggles to read. He had been working construction but quit, knowing that wasn't what he wanted do with his life. Subscribe now.ĭayne Guest graduated from high school in 2016. Listen to this audio documentary on the Educate podcast.

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