Parent touts dyslexia bill

DENVER - When Theo Reitwiesner was struggling in the second grade, he announced to his mother one day that he was done with school.

Though Theo had struggled at times with his reading, school testing in Colorado Springs had placed him only in a “strategic” zone for kids performing slightly below average, and Patricia Reitwiesner was baffled by his fatalism.

It was not until he underwent a barrage of tests from private specialists that Theo was diagnosed with dyslexia, a neurological learning disability characterized by difficulty reading and spelling, and placed in a remedial program designed to deal with his disability.

Reitwiesner got tutors for both of her sons to deal with their learning problems, but she wonders how many kids go undiagnosed and struggle with self-doubt. So when she hosted a town hall meeting for state Rep. Mike Merrifield in October, she pulled him aside and asked if there was anything the state could do.

That spawned HB1223, a bill that would require the Colorado Department of Education to assist school districts with training in recognizing and dealing with dyslexia.

The measure has its initial hearing Thursday in the House Education Committee. Merrifield is the chairman. It would be the first major effort by the Legislature to deal with the learning disability.

Merrifield, D-Colorado Springs, acknowledges the bill is not as farreaching as he wished. He removed some proposed mandates, such as ones that would require college teacher-certification programs to teach material specifically related to dyslexia.

But the bill would be a major step toward equipping districts to identify dyslexics and increasing awareness about the disability, activists said.

“It’s not nearly enough, and of course it’s not as much as the parents wanted,” Patricia Reitwiesner said. “But it is a start. And it gives us a wonderful opportunity to talk about dyslexia.”

Studies show that 5 percent to 20 percent of the population has dyslexia, a neurological learning disability that results in difficulties with language and reading skills. If just 10 percent of Colorado students have such symptoms, 80,000 kids are affected.

Before Reitwiesner — and then a host of other parents — approached him, Merrifield confessed that his only familiarity with the disability was the joke about the dyslexic agnostic insomniac who lay awake at night wondering if there was a dog. The former music teacher soon learned that the disability does not involve reading words backward but could be responsible for a lot of the kids who score poorly on tests and contribute to the state’s 25 percent high school dropout rate.

Charlotte Tye, director of Colorado Springs’ private HillSprings Learning Center for children with learning disabilities and attention deficit disorder, said teacher training in dyslexia varies between school districts. While Pueblo’s largest district sends teachers to training specific to dyslexic students, other administrations will offer quick courses on the subject without any followup or any experts available to work with dyslexic kids.

Merrifield’s bill, which appears to have bipartisan support, does not include money for personnel that may be needed. Reitwiesner, for example, sends tutors to school with her children to help them, but she knows many parents can’t afford that.

Whether further bills and mandates come out in future years depends on how seriously the education department takes the bill’s suggestions to coordinate with college teacher-prep programs and improve training, Merrifield said.

“If we could get these kids the chance to achieve as they’re capable of doing, it would make a huge difference,” Merrifield said. “We could make a huge difference in the dropout rate and the graduation rate.”

CONTACT THE WRITER: (303) 837-0613 or ed.sealover@gazette.com