Colorado

House Bill 08-1223

This bill expands the authority of the Colorado Department of Education such that it is authorized to provide technical assistance related to the screening and education of students with dyslexia. Provisions are not requirements.

House Bill 19-1134 addresses research on effective methods for assisting early-grade students with dyslexia (i.e., dyslexia pilot program for 2020-2021) and makes connected appropriations.

SB 19-199 amends the 2012 READ Act to include professional development in teaching evidence-based reading by the 2021-22 school year or to provide evidence that educators have met this requirement.

HB 19-1134 and Colorado’s dyslexia handbook recognize IDA’s definition of dyslexia.

The READ Act does use the term “dyslexia” specifically. Instead, it requires interim assessments using approved measures in Grades K-3. The approved measures include measures of word reading ability and component skills. The act further specifies that “If a teacher finds, based on a student's scores on the approved reading assessments, that the student may have a significant reading deficiency, the teacher shall administer to the student one or more diagnostic assessments within sixty days after the previous assessment to determine the student's specific reading skill deficiencies. Each local education provider shall select from the list of approved assessments adopted by rule of the state board pursuant to section 22-7- 1209 (1) those assessments it uses to determine a student's specific reading skill deficiencies. A local education provider may choose to use other diagnostic reading assessments in addition to but not in lieu of the approved assessments.”

Screening recommendations are described in the state guidelines for identifying students with disabilities. Colorado also has laws requiring interim reading assessments during early elementary.

State Recognized Screeners

DIBELS 6th Edition, DIBELS Next, easyCBM, TOWRE-2, CTOPP-2, TOSCRF, and TOSWRF.

According to the READ Act, “If a student has a significant reading deficiency, the student's READ plan must include the intervention instruction that the local education provider provides through the multi-tiered systems of support or a comparable intervention system implemented by the local education provider.”

According to the READ Act, “If a student enrolled in kindergarten is identified as having a significant reading deficiency, the local education provider shall create the student's READ plan as a component of the student's individualized readiness plan created pursuant to section 22-7- 1014. The local education provider may include components of the student's individualized readiness plan that apply to teaching literacy as part of the student's READ plan after the student completes kindergarten, so long as the local education provider administers an approved reading assessment to the student in grades one through three as required in section 22-7- 1205 (1) and the student's READ plan meets the requirements specified in subsection (5) of this section. (5) Each READ plan must include, at a minimum:(a) The student's specific, diagnosed reading skill deficiencies that need to be remediated in order for the student to attain reading competency;(b) The goals and benchmarks for the student's growth in attaining reading competency;(c) The type of additional instructional services and interventions the student will receive in reading. At a minimum, the local education provider shall ensure that the student receives educational services in a daily literacy block for the length of time identified as effective in research relating to best practices in teaching reading.(d) The scientifically based or evidence-based reading instructional programming the teacher will use to provide to the student daily reading approaches, strategies, interventions, and instruction, which programs at a minimum shall address the areas of phonemic awareness, phonics, vocabulary development, reading fluency, including oral skills, and reading comprehension. The local education provider may choose to select the programs from among those included on the advisory list prepared by the department pursuant to section 22-7- 1209”

The state’s dyslexia handbook additionally promotes interventions that are multisensory and include instruction that is explicit, direct, systematic and cumulative.