Oppose HB69

I am asking you to oppose HB 69. While we are all concerned about struggling readers across Louisiana, this bill has several unintended consequences: In Louisiana, we disproportionately identify children of color with disabilities, and this bill would exacerbate this problem. Black students score lower on every major assessment of cognitive functioning. This bill would require that these assessments be a required part of the dyslexia identification process, with no way for parents to opt out. We will find many, many, many disabilities we were not looking for - thus continuing the cycle of over-identifying children of color. This bill will enrich the Cassidys and their friends, in three ways: The proposed “dyslexia-specific” screener is the Shaywitz Dyslexia Screener, published by Pearson and created by Sally and Bennett Shaywitz (friends of the Cassidys, and Sally Shaywitz is a board member of Key Academy) who will receive the money from the purchase of these required assessments. This bill requires teachers to undergo hours of additional training, which schools will have to buy from the center run by the Cassidys With this increase in the identification of students with dyslexia, parents will be looking to the new schools that have opened around the state marketed just to them: Key Academy and its two new locations, run by the Cassidys. If we become forced to administer cognitive tests to determine the presence of dyslexia (a practice not supported by research), black students will be systematically excluded from attending Key Academy. We will also continue to over-identify them in special education in public schools around the state. This bill does not have the support of key educational groups - all the major state associations for service providers (Speech Pathologists, School Psychologists) and even superintendents are opposed to this bill. We already have a robust, evidence-based, and free way to identify students with dyslexia across the state. This bill is being pushed by politicians, not educators.