1. United States
2. Colo.
3. Letter

The Colorado Education Association (CEA) is starting to push back on SB25-200 because Amendment L06 failed yesterday. You're going to hear from teachers across the state about how SB25-200 is going to be a burden on them. It's completely self-serving and based on fear-mongering. A few school districts already have dyslexia screening in place and more are following their steps. Their teachers are not overburdened, burning out, or quitting. I'm a member of CEA. I'm a teacher. I'm also a Certified Academic Language Therapist. My son has dyslexia. The amendment that CEA wanted would have postponed dyslexia-specific screening 1.5 to 2.5 years into the future. But, what happens to the students that are currently in 2nd Grade? 3rd Grade? When do they get screening? There is a reason why this amendment failed; the legislators in the education committee understand that we cannot keep postponing dyslexia screening. We've been fighting for this since 2019. The Kindergartners that started the fall of 2019 are now in 5th Grade. How many students missed out on services, intervention, support because there is no consistent identification and screening? Today, all CEA members got an email from the president of CEA. The message? “Once again, the legislature is considering a new education mandate without the funding to implement it.” They are asking teachers to write legislators to advocate for their working conditions and the impact of unfunded legislative demands: 🍎 This is not about teachers. This is about children's futures. 🍎 This is not about teacher working conditions. This is about children's academic opportunities. This is about the future workforce and citizenry of the State of Colorado and our country. 🍎 This is not about unfounded state mandates that add more work to teachers. This is actually about early intervention that will actually improve working conditions for teachers--early intervention means later success for students. Successful and confident students are engaged students. 🍎 This is not about being ready for the future demands of dylexia screening or an unfunded legislative demand. This is about knowing that the Dyslexia Working Group, parent advocacy groups, and families have been asking for dyslexia screening and help for years. We are 1 of 7 states that do not actively screen for dyslexia in K-3. We've been asking for help for our children. CEA has had forewarning since 2019. We've had plenty of time to "be ready." YEARS. Our children have not had that luxury of "being ready" for the future as a result. The dyslexia screening bill is not done yet: it cannot be watered down, it cannot keep getting pushed off into the future. We need your voices. Some of our children are too young to speak up for themselves.