Decoding Dyslexia-AK

06/01/2026

Nobody is suggesting that students with disabilities should be expected to perform identically to their nondisabled peers.

But Congress warned against a different danger: confusing disability with inability.

Most students receiving special education services do not have intellectual disabilities. Many have disabilities—including dyslexia and other specific learning disabilities—for which reading outcomes can be substantially improved through effective, evidence-based instruction.

05/30/2026

One thing that often gets lost in special education debates is that Congress already identified some of the biggest barriers.

When Congress reauthorized the IDEA, it found that special education had been impeded by:

• Low expectations
• An insufficient focus on proven methods of teaching and learning

Not my words.

Congress’s words.

And many parents are still fighting those same problems today.

05/30/2026

05/29/2026

Yes.

Parents often think they need a smoking gun.

Most cases are won with a thousand pieces of ordinary evidence showing the same story over and over again.

Save the emails.
Save the work samples.
Save the progress reports.
Save the artifacts.

The paper trail usually tells the truth long before the adults do.

05/29/2026

One of the most useful phrases a parent can learn is: “Can you show me where that is written?”

Amazing things happen when verbal rules are suddenly required to become actual documents. Policies, procedures, practices, guidance, and “the way we’ve always done it” are not the same thing.

Ask to see it. Every time. If it’s important enough to be enforced, it should be important enough to be written down.

05/27/2026

Anxiety and anger are just a few of the emotional symptoms experienced by those with dyslexia. Learn the facts about what dyslexics feel and how their experience differs from people without the condition.

05/25/2026

https://adayinourshoes.com/working-memory-iep-accommodations/?fbclid=IwZnRzaASBX3ZleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBzcnRjBmFwcF9pZAo2NjI4NTY4Mzc5AAEeYi35sB4aKStA-_Zgqbt0U_fXBmw58x6YHHgfEtEMRkzImLoiEeXN2yCY49I_aem_x13lwBu5oZqZ2ZAq33k7hQ

Working Memory and Auditory Memory are important executive functions. Here are IEP and 504 plan accommodations to support a child lacking this skill.

05/25/2026

Things have not improved.

Failing to teach our children to read has significant consequences beyond the individual child. We pay more to incarcerate an individual for a year than it would take to remediate them. An average federal inmate costs taxpayers $44,000 a year. Ironically- federal inmates now qualify (by law under the First Step Act) for a dyslexia screening on intake and evidence based literacy instruction while incarcerated. It’s an embarrassment that we don’t make those same guarantees to our elementary school children…