My son is in the 3rd grade and has severe dyslexia. We generally like the elementary school he is at (daughter went there K-5) but feel the school has been dropping the ball on his IEP accommodations. His 2nd grade teachers were great and he made some very good strides. His current teachers seem like generally good teachers but don't seem near as prepared to deal with kids with any learning issues. My wife is very involved with the school and everyone up there knows her, knows my son and knows about his issues so I assume the teachers he got were the best they had to offer in 3rd grade. My concern is not as much with his teachers but in general I feel like the school administration is dropping the ball, which makes me feel like this issue will continue no matter what.

Wife and I have started looking at alternatives. I'm hoping we can find a school (public or private) that is better equipped for helping kids with dyslexia. We are currently in Fairfield (290 & 99) and would like to stay in the area so that my daughter doesn't have to switch schools (freshman @ Bridgeland). If anyone has any suggestions I would greatly appreciate it.

Edit... he has been doing reading tutoring for 30 min in the evening 1-2 days a week for almost 2 yrs and my wife works with him a great deal.

Briarwood School

You should consider hiring an advocate that will do your dirty work to get your kid the required accommodations for his disability. Also, if you disagree with the IEP and his goals/accommodations, you can request an IEE from the district that will trigger an independent evaluation in addition to his FIE that the school already did. When it comes to making sure the school does what they are supposed to do, sometimes you want to go along to get along, but in the long run, it can be detrimental. Hiring an advocate will draw a line in the sand that you won't put up with the BS from the school and they'll get serious quickly.

Been there - mine was also 3rd grade with dyslexia....now he's set to graduate college as structural engineer and doing awesome. Here's what we learned.

Elementary school teachers aren't normally fully-trained to identify nor help dyslexic children. Not their fault, it's a specialty. Public schools in Texas probably WON'T provide help. It costs money both to test the kid, then to help the kid. The Chronicle had a tremendous series a couple years ago exposing how public schools in Texas severely limit the amount of specialty programs for students with needs. Why? It costs money. You'll continue running into roadblocks if you expect your public school to provide costly specialized tutoring. Private schools may or may not help either.

To get a fully-trained tutor for your child, try contacting Neuhaus. They can test your child, find out what your child needs, and provide private teachers to help - you'll have to pay. Not every dyslexia case is the same. For instance, my son would read something and not understand it - but if he heard it read to him then he fully understood. So we read to him a lot. The Neuhaus tutor knew what to do and improved his reading comprehension. But it took some time and patience. Neuhaus can also document the issues - this came in handy in allowing accommodations for my son when he was in high school.

Good luck - sounds like your child will be fine with you as a parent.

The current school (CyFair ISD) has been good about testing but I feel like the follow through is lacking. His current IEP is for reading only. We've been trying to get math assistance added for a year to no avail. Last year between his teachers and the aides he seemed to get lots of help. This year it feels like his current teachers weren't properly informed of his IEP background and the aide that helps him has been out a decent bit and when she is he goes without any assistance.
We also found out today through his tudor (teaches 3rd grade at same school) that his teachers feel he needs additional help... No sheet. Like I said, his current teachers seem like good teachers and I dont blame them. Feel like the caseworker/admin haven't communicated his case to them..

Take a look at Salem Lutheran or Trinity Klein Lutheran. Both have dyslexia programs in place and I've not had any issues with following IEP. We switched from a different private school that would not accommodate and told us to do support after school. The diag at the Cy Fair school we are zoned to told us to find somewhere else to go because the support would not be where we wanted (and what we felt she needed) for our oldest. We switched in the middle of 2nd grade and have been very pleased with the support and progress. I looked at all the private schools in the NW area and a lot aren't equipped (at the time a few years ago) to handle the dyslexia needs unless you got to a specialized school which was out of our price range. Salem was a happy medium for us.

We drive further out than Fairfield. It shouldn't be too bad of a drive to Salem. They diagnosed our youngest early on and the intervention and experience has been much more pleasant than all the undoing and intervention with our oldest. Both are doing very well.

Trinity Klein's program is newer and some of the staff from Salem switched over to start their program. Both are excellent people in the SS department.

My son is in the 3rd Grade at Cy-Fair ISD Elementary and has dysgraphia. We had a 504B put into place and he sees a specialty teacher EVERYDAY that works with him. When we went through the 504B we sat down with his teachers and school admin to spell out what assistance he would get...and this will follow him throughout the rest of his life. Strange that you all aren't receiving something similar for your child, unless things are that different between our two schools.

AggieBax00 said:

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My son is in the 3rd Grade at Cy-Fair ISD Elementary and has dysgraphia. We had a 504B put into place and he sees a specialty teacher EVERYDAY that works with him. When we went through the 504B we sat down with his teachers and school admin to spell out what assistance he would get...and this will follow him throughout the rest of his life. Strange that you all aren't receiving something similar for your child, unless things are that different between our two schools.

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My son has dyslexia & dysgraphia. I don't know what 504B is but im sure my wife does. He has an IEP plan that we discuss and adjust annually. Next meeting is coming up in Jan. He has a specialist that should work with him daily. The problem we see this year is that he had 2-3 people that rotated with him last year and that guaranteed daily attention. This year he as 1 and she has been out a decent bit. When she is out, he gets no extra help. The other problem (from my perspective) is that I am not sure his current teachers have been fully briefed on his IEP so they don't fully understand the issues or what they should be doing. I attempted to speak to them at meet the teacher and was told that they had spoken to his 2nd grade teachers and were up to speed. Now I question how well everything was relayed.

I think the IEP is more intensive than the 504B, but it is a document that defines his extra accommodations, etc. Sounds like you all have it set up, and it's the school that isn't fulfilling their end. My son's specialists sees him daily (along with others) for 30 minutes. Not sure he has missed a day since last year, so that consistency likely helps.

I take from your location your son is at Swenke...I know some of the admin staff, and can do some checking.

Ault

I have four (4!!!) dyslexic children ranging from 6-12. We've been working with them for the better part of 7yrs and we typically spend 45-55mins a day EVERYDAY taking them through a program.
Take a look at the program we've found amazing success with: http://texasreadinginstitute.org/
FWIW: Schools will make no meaningful difference in their improvement - they simply don't have the time or training to take on these kids.
Also check this out: https://features.apmreports.org/sold-a-story/
Best of luck.