This one is very common – an outright unwillingness to say the “D” word, or even a declaration that it’s the disability that must not be named.

This nugget above came from a Freedom of Information Act sweep in Arkansa’s largest school district and was shared on the Read Team Facebook page. It’s from Oct 2015 and seems contrary to what the state’s own DOE was trying to accomplish regarding dyslexia at the time. However, that shouldn’t really be surprising. It seems that getting the word out, uncrossing signals and breaking down barriers with those who choose to believe otherwise about dyslexia continues to be a big challenge. Those of us with children with dyslexia can’t help but find it perplexing – because there is so much information and validated research as well as there are numerous proven Structured Literacy intervention programs readily available. Schools and parents should unite in the battle FOR our students in the fight against illiteracy – not AGAINST each other. We all just need to be armed with knowledge.

Here’s a link to the US DOE’s full letter and another link to an excellent synopsis of it from Understood.org.