Mandatory Dyslexia Screening and “Counting” Your Students at Risk for Characteristics of Dyslexia

By Andrea Kunkel, ODSS Executive Director/CCOSA General Counsel

Coming out of House Bill 2804 from the 2021 Oklahoma legislative session, beginning in the 2022-23 school year, any student enrolled in grades kindergarten, 1, 2, or 3 who is assessed under the Reading Sufficiency Act (RSA) and is not meeting gradelevel reading targets after the beginning-of-the-year assessment, shall be screened for characteristics of dyslexia.

The Oklahoma State Board of Education has approved assessments to be used for this screening. Districts and schools may use any of the assessments found on page 13 of OSDE’s Implementation Guide: Early Screening for Reading Difficulties, including Characteristics of Dyslexia (“Implementation Guide”), found at https:// sde.ok.gov/sites/default/files/documents/files/22-23%20Screener%20 Implementation%20Guidance.pdf .

Districts and schools will follow the timeline for screening for characteristics of dyslexia, including the timeline for reporting results to families, as found on page 23 of the Implementation Guide and recreated on page 37 of the full issue of Better Schools Magazine:

For information about providing appropriate interventions for students identified as at-risk for characteristics of dyslexia, OSDE refers districts and schools to the extensive information found in the Oklahoma Dyslexia Handbook.