In 2019, the Governor of Georgia (Brian Kemp) signed Senate Bill 48 into law, focusing on identifying and supporting students with dyslexia. The bill required the State Board of Education, State Superintendent, GaDOE, and Georgia Professional Standards Commission to:

Develop policies for referring K-3 students for dyslexia screening
Create a dyslexia informational handbook to assist school districts.
Provide professional development opportunities on dyslexia for teachers.
Create a dyslexia endorsement for teachers.
Add instruction on dyslexia and response to intervention (RTI) to existing standards for teacher preparation programs.

What is Dyslexia?

“Dyslexia is a specific learning disability that is neurobiological in origin. It is characterized by difficulties with accurate and/or fluent word recognition and by poor spelling and decoding abilities.

These difficulties typically result from a deficit in the phonological component of language that is often unexpected in relation to other cognitive abilities and the provision of effective classroom instruction.

Secondary consequences may include problems in reading comprehension and reduced reading experience that can impede the growth of vocabulary and background knowledge.” International Dyslexia Association

Characteristics of Dyslexia

Weaknesses in phonological awareness tasks (i.e., rhyming, phoneme segmentation, blending, letter naming fluency
Difficulty learning letter names and sounds
Difficulty learning sound-symbol association
Weaknesses in phonological memory (non-word repetition)
Weakness in word recognition fluency
Weakness in spelling
Weakness in oral vocabulary

Screening Process

Beginning in the 2024-2025 school year, Georgia schools will screen all students in grades K-3 for characteristics of dyslexia. At DCSS, dyslexia screening occurs alongside MTSS measures, universal screening, and tiered interventions.

Douglas County School System