Dyslexia services

Indiana's public and charter schools are required to conduct universal screening to identify struggling readers who show risk factors for dyslexia.

All Marion Community Schools students in grades kindergarten through second will be screened, using a screening tool approved by the Indiana Department of Education (IDOE). Parents/guardians will be notified of upcoming screening. The universal screener is brief and is designed for all students.

When a student is found to be "at risk" or "at some risk", we will reach out to families to discuss the screener results and seek guardian permission to provide additional screening and appropriate intervention. (Families of students not found to be at risk will also be notified of that.)

What is dyslexia?

Dyslexia is a specific learning disorder that is neurological in origin that can be diagnosed only by a licensed medical professional. It involves difficulty reading due to problems identifying speech sounds and learning how they relate to letters and words (decoding). Also called a reading disability, dyslexia affects areas of the brain that process language.

School-based screening can identify students with learning characteristics related to dyslexia, so that appropriate intervention can be provided to these students.

This learning disability is often unexpected in relation to other cognitive abilities (thinking and learning). The needs of a student with dyslexia often cannot be adequately met by standard classroom instruction; systematic, sequential, and multisensory interventions can help meet their needs.

Some signs of dyslexia include (but are not limited to) difficulty spelling, identifying letters and sounds, producing rhyming words, deciphering between similar letters, and memorization.

Dyslexia cannot be "cured", but with early screening and intervention, individuals with learning characteristics related to dyslexia can have academic and post-secondary success.

When is the screening administered?

Kindergarten students will be screened in January.
First- and second-graders will be screened within the first 90 days of school.
New students in kindergarten through second grade who have moved from another state will be screened unless we receive documentation that they have already been screened or are exempt from screening for another reason.
Students in grade 3 or above can be screened upon request by a teacher or parent/guardian if the student struggles with all of the following six skills:
- Phonological and phonemic awareness (the ability to separate and change sounds in words)
- Sound symbol recognition (phonics)
- Alphabet knowledge
- Decoding (reading) skills;
- Rapid naming skills (quickly naming common objects)
- Encoding (spelling) skills

>> Teachers or parents/guardians who believe a student needs to be screened at an upper grade should contact the Special Services Department, 765-662-2546 ext. 8060.

Are teachers trained on dyslexia?

Each public school corporation and charter school is required by Indiana law to employ at least one authorized reading specialist trained in dyslexia. As of 2022, Marion Community Schools' Dyslexia Program Coordinator is Dr. Nancy Price, who has completed the LETRS training from Voyager Sopris Learning.

Teachers at all grade levels are trained on the universal and Level 1 screening tools at the beginning of the school year, through the IDOE's Dyslexia Professional Awareness course. This course includes information on the characteristics of dyslexia, evidence-based interventions, and evidence-based accommodations.

Additional resources

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