Decoding Dyslexia - Utah
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Utah Legislation

What's happening in Utah?  $250,000 in grants for Educators to receive training to help struggling readers!
​Decoding Dyslexia Utah successfully advocated for the Utah State Legislature to allocate $250,000 to support Utah educators in earning their reading interventionist endorsement.  The Reading Interventionist Endorsement provides educators with academic and field-based opportunities to learn best practices for meeting the instructional needs of students who are experiencing difficulty learning to read. The nine credit endorsement focuses on Tier II and Tier III instructional methods, strategies, assessment, and curricula that are proven to improve student outcomes.

The grant program is intended to allow Local Education Agencies (LEAs) and/or Regional Service Centers to offer a reading interventionist endorsement program for a cohort of K-12 educators.  By using a cohort model, we anticipate lower costs and more teachers accessing the coursework and earning the endorsement while receiving the intended knowledge and skills associated with the endorsement.  An overview of the required coursework is available at: http://www.schools.utah.gov/CURR/langartelem/Endorsements/Reading-Interventionist.aspx
 
Applications Due: May 31, 2017
Application Issue Date: April 21, 2017
Official Award Notification: June 9, 2017
Application Contact: Jennifer Throndsen (email to recieve grant application materials) 
Applications should be submitted to: jennifer.throndsen@schools.utah.gov
 
Applications must be received via email to the Utah State Board of Education on or before May 31, 2017 at 5:00 p.m.

Here is a link to help you better understand the process
http://le.utah.gov/documents/aboutthelegislature/billtolaw.htm
Find your local legislators
http://le.utah.gov/GIS/findDistrict.jsp
Find your State School Board members (select the “State Board” option on the right hand side of the page)
http://elections.utah.gov/map/district-maps

SB 117 Grants for the Dyslexia Pilot programs have been awarded! 
http://le.utah.gov/~2015/bills/static/SB0117.html
For the first time in Utah, schools in five school district will focus on teaching students with Dyslexia to read! 

Utah State Office of Education announced the five school districts who have been award grant funds to improve reading instruction for students with Dyslexia and other struggling readers. 
  • Cache County School District receives a $115,000 grant to improve reading instruction for students with Dyslexia.
  • Box Elder School District receives a $60,000 grant to improve reading instruction for students with Dyslexia.
  • Provo School District receives a $60,000 grant to improve reading instruction for students with Dyslexia.
  • Tooele School District receives a $60,000 grant to improve reading instruction for students with Dyslexia.
  • Layton Elementary in Davis School District receives a $30,000 grant to improve reading instruction for students with Dyslexia.
The goal of the project is to improve early identification and intervention for students with Dyslexia.  Early identification is the key to helping individuals with Dyslexia so they don’t fall too far behind their peers and lose opportunities to learn that only through reading.  Children who get off to a poor start in reading rarely catch up on their own.  A poor reader in 1st grade will almost invariably stay a poor reader…74% of those children identified in 3rd grade as reading disabled will remain so in the 10th grade without appropriate intervention. 
Grant funds will be allocated to the school district to provide teacher professional development regarding Dyslexia and to purchase reading interventions that are appropriate for students with Dyslexia.  This grant money is a result of a bill ran by Senator Osmond in the 2015 General Legislative Session, S.B. 117 Intervention for Reading Pilot Program. This legislation created a pilot program to provide professional development for educators and literacy interventions to students in kindergarten through grade five who are at risk for or experiencing reading difficulties, including dyslexia.
 
Karee Atkinson, President of Decoding Dyslexia Utah, the grassroots parent organization that was involved with the creation of SB 117 said, “This is the first time that schools in Utah have created plans to address Dyslexia in a systematic way.  We are so grateful to the schools who are participating in this pilot program and expect to see great success when students with Dyslexia are taught in the way they learn!”  
 
With this pilot program legislation, Utah joined 20 other states have passed or proposed dyslexia-related legislation in 2015. Decoding Dyslexia does not claim credit for all those state moves but one of the organization's biggest priorities has been to mobilize parents in support of regulations that would define dyslexia in state law, require student screening for the reading disorder, and offer dyslexia-specific professional development for teachers.
http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2015/12/09/parent-driven-group-wields-influence-on-dyslexia-concerns.html
https://www.facebook.com/DecodingDyslexiaUT
http://www.decodingdyslexiautah.org/


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