logo
Why California Still Doesn't Mandate Dyslexia Screening

Why California Still Doesn't Mandate Dyslexia Screening

Yahoo02-03-2025

This article was originally published in CalMatters.
California sends mixed messages when it comes to serving dyslexic students.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom is the most famous dyslexic political official in the country, even authoring a children's book to raise awareness about the learning disability. And yet, California is one of 10 states that doesn't require dyslexia screening for all children.
Education experts agree that early screening and intervention is critical for making sure students can read at grade level. But so far, state officials have done almost everything to combat dyslexia except mandate assessments for all students.
Get stories like this delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for The 74 Newsletter
Get stories like this delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for The 74 Newsletter
'It needs to happen,' said Lillian Duran, an education professor at the University of Oregon who has helped develop screening tools for dyslexia. 'It seems so basic to me.'
Since 2015, legislators have funded dyslexia research, teacher training and the hiring of literacy coaches across California. But lawmakers failed to mandate universal dyslexia screening, running smack into opposition from the California Teachers Association.
The union argued that since teachers would do the screening, a universal mandate would take time away from the classroom. It also said universal screening may overly identify English learners, mistakenly placing them in special education.
The California Teachers Association did not respond to requests for comment for this story. In a letter of opposition to a bill in 2021, the union wrote that the bill 'is unnecessary, leads to over identifying dyslexia in young students, mandates more testing, and jeopardizes the limited instructional time for students.'
In response, dyslexia experts double down on well-established research. Early detection actually prevents English learners — and really, all students — from ending up in special education when they don't belong there.
While California lawmakers didn't vote to buck the teachers union, they haven't been afraid to spend taxpayer money on dyslexia screening. In the past two years, the state budget allocated $30 million to UC San Francisco's Dyslexia Center, largely for the development of a new screening tool. Newsom began championing the center and served as its honorary chair in 2016 when he was still lieutenant governor.
'There's an inadequate involvement of the health system in the way we support children with learning disabilities,' said Maria Luisa Gorno-Tempini, co-director of UCSF's Dyslexia Center. 'This is one of the first attempts at bridging science and education in a way that's open sourced and open to all fields.'
Parents and advocates say funding dyslexia research and developing a new screener can all be good things, but without mandated universal screening more students will fall through the cracks and need more help with reading as they get older.
Omar Rodriguez, a spokesperson for the governor did not respond to questions about whether Newsom would support a mandate for universal screening. Instead, he listed more than $300 million in state investments made in the past two years to fund more reading coaches, new teacher credentialing requirements and teacher training.
Rachel Levy, a Bay Area parent, fought for three years to get her son Dominic screened for dyslexia. He finally got the screening in third grade, which experts say could be too late to prevent long-term struggles with reading.
'We know how to screen students. We know how to get early intervention,' Levy said. 'This to me is a solvable issue.'
Levy's son Dominic, 16, still remembers what it felt like trying to read in first grade.
'It was like I was trying to memorize the shape of the word,' he said. 'Even if I could read all the words, I just wouldn't understand them.'
Dyslexia is a neurological condition that can make it hard for students to read and process information. But teachers can mitigate and even prevent the illiteracy stemming from dyslexia if they catch the signs early.
Levy, who also has dyslexia, said there's much more research today on dyslexia than there was 30 years ago when she was first diagnosed. She said she was disappointed to find that California's policies don't align with the research around early screening.
'Unfortunately, most kids who are dyslexic end up in the special education system,' Levy said. 'It's because of a lack of screening.'
Soon after his screening in third grade, Dominic started receiving extra help for his dyslexia. He still works with an educational therapist on his reading, and he's just about caught up to grade level in math. The biggest misconception about dyslexia, Dominic said, is that it makes you less intelligent or capable.
'Dyslexics are just as smart as other people,' he said. 'They just learn in different ways.'
The first step to helping them learn is screening them in kindergarten or first grade.
'The goal is to find risk factors early,' said Elsa Cárdenas-Hagan, a speech-language pathologist and a professor at the University of Houston. 'When you find them, the data you collect can really inform instruction.'
Cárdenas-Hagan's home state of Texas passed a law in 1995 requiring universal screening. But she said it took several more years for teachers to be trained to use the tool. Her word of caution to California: Make sure teachers are not only comfortable with the tool but know how to use the results of the assessment to shape the way they teach individual students.
UC San Francisco's screener, called Multitudes, will be available in English, Spanish and Mandarin. It'll be free for all school districts.
Multitudes won't be released to all districts at once. UCSF scientists launched a pilot at a dozen school districts last year, and they plan to expand to more districts this fall.
But experts and advocates say there's no need to wait for it to mandate universal screenings. Educators can use a variety of already available screening tools in California, like they do in 40 other states. Texas and other states that have high percentages of English learners have Spanish screeners for dyslexia.
For English learners, the need for screening is especially urgent. Maria Ortiz is a Los Angeles parent of a dyslexic teenager who was also an English learner. She said she had to sue the Los Angeles Unified School District twice: once in 2016 to get extra help for her dyslexic daughter when she was in fourth grade and again in 2018 when those services were taken away. Ortiz said the district stopped giving her daughter additional help because her reading started improving.
'In the beginning they told me that my daughter was exaggerating,' Ortiz said.
'They said everything would be normal later.'
California currently serves about 1.1 million English learners, just under a fifth of all public school students. For English learners, dyslexia can be confused with a lack of English proficiency. Opponents of universal screening, including the teachers association, argue that English learners will be misidentified as dyslexic simply because they can't understand the language.
'Even the specialists were afraid that the problem might be because of the language barrier,' Ortiz said about her daughter's case.
But experts say dyslexia presents a double threat to English learners: It stalls them from reading in their native language and impedes their ability to learn English. And while there are some Spanish-language screeners, experts from Texas and California say there's room for improvement. Current Spanish screeners penalize students who mix Spanish and English, they say.
Duran, who helped develop the Spanish version of Multitudes, said the new screener will be a better fit for how young bilingual students actually talk.
'Spanglish becomes its own communication that's just as legitimate as Spanish on its own or English on its own,' Duran said. 'It's about the totality of languages a child might bring.'
Providing Multitudes free of cost is important to schools with large numbers of low-income students. Dyslexia screeners cost about $10 per student, so $30 million might actually be cost-effective considering California currently serves 1.3 million students in kindergarten through second grade. The tool could pay for itself in a few years. Although there are plenty of screeners already available, they can stretch the budgets of high-poverty schools and districts.
'The least funded schools can't access them because of the cost,' Duran said.
In addition to the governor, another powerful state lawmaker, Glendale Democratic state Sen. Anthony Portantino, is dyslexic. While chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, he has repeatedly, and unsuccessfully, authored legislation to require public schools to screen all students between kindergarten and second grade.
Portantino's 2021 bill received unanimous support in the Senate Education and Appropriations committees, but the bill died in the Assembly Education Committee. Portantino authored the same bill in 2020, but it never made it out of the state Senate.
'We should be leading the nation and not lagging behind,' Portantino said.
Portantino blamed the failure of his most recent bill on former Democratic Assemblymember Patrick O'Donnell, who chaired the Assembly Education Committee, for refusing to hear the bill.
'It's no secret, Patrick O'Donnell was against teacher training,' Portantino said. 'He thought our school districts and our educators didn't have the capacity.'
O'Donnell did not respond to requests for comment. Since O'Donnell didn't schedule a hearing on the bill, there is no record of him commenting about it at the time.
Portantino plans to author a nearly identical bill this year. He said he's more hopeful because the Assembly Education Committee is now under the leadership of Assemblymember Al Muratsuchi, a Democrat from Torrance. Muratsuchi would not comment on the potential fate of a dyslexia screening bill this year.
Levy now works as a professional advocate for parents of students with disabilities. She said without mandatory dyslexia screening, only parents who can afford to hire someone like her will be able to get the services they need for their children.
'A lot of high school kids are reading below third-grade level,' she said. 'To me, that's just heartbreaking.'
This was originally published on CalMatters.

Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

LA Protests: Trump Suggests He'd Back Arrest Of Gavin Newsom (Live Updates)
LA Protests: Trump Suggests He'd Back Arrest Of Gavin Newsom (Live Updates)

Forbes

time34 minutes ago

  • Forbes

LA Protests: Trump Suggests He'd Back Arrest Of Gavin Newsom (Live Updates)

President Donald Trump on Monday suggested he would support the arrest of California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who has dared the Trump administration to detain him over the state's handling of anti-immigration protests in Los Angeles, though border czar Tom Homan said there were no talks to detain Newsom. President Donald Trump returns to the White House on Monday in Washington. (Photo by Win ...) 9:40 a.m. EDTTrump, when asked about Newsom daring Homan to arrest him, said he 'would do it if I were Tom—I think it's great,' claiming Newsom is 'grossly incompetent.' Earlier on Monday, Homan told Fox News that while 'no one's above the law,' there was 'no discussion' about arresting Newsom. 9:40 a.m. EDTWaymo removed vehicles from the downtown Los Angeles area and suspended service 'out of an abundance of caution' following guidance from the Los Angeles Police Department, though the robotaxi firm noted it was still operating in the greater Los Angeles region. At least six Waymo vehicles set ablaze Sunday and the company was in touch with the Los Angeles Police Department for an investigation, Waymo spokesperson Chris Bonelli told Forbes, as law enforcement warned burning lithium-ion batteries used in the cars release toxic gases, posing possible health risks, and to avoid the area. 8:54 a.m. EDTNewsom signaled he would sue Trump over his decision to send the National Guard into the state, alleging Trump 'flamed the fires and illegally acted.' June 9, 5 a.m. EDTAt least 60 people were arrested in San Francisco after police reportedly clashed with a group of protestors who gathered to show solidarity with the Los Angeles protestors and oppose the Trump administration's immigration crackdown and deployment of national guard troops to quell protests. 4 a.m. EDTIn a post on his Truth Social platform Trump mentioned the LAPD's comments from the press conference about reassessing the situation about bring in the national guard, and wrote 'He should, RIGHT NOW!!! Don't let these thugs get away with this.' In follow up posts Trump wrote: 'Looking really bad in L.A. BRING IN THE TROOPS,' and 'ARREST THE PEOPLE IN FACE MASKS, NOW!' 3:30 a.m. EDTThe LAPD told reporters at a late night press conference that it had arrested 10 people on Sunday, bring the day's total tally to 27 after adding to the California Highway Patrol's 17 arrests. LAPD Chief Jim McDonnell told reporters that he was aware of the 'deep fear and anxiety' among the immigrant community, and said the department is 'committed to transparency, accountability, and treating every Angeleno with respect, regardless of their immigration status.' When asked about the need for National Guard presence, McDonnell told reporters, 'tonight this thing has gotten out of control' but he would have to know more about their intended role before making that determination and added: 'we got to make a reassessment.' 2:30 a.m. EDTLos Angeles Police Department said an 'UNLAWFUL ASSEMBLY' declaration has been issued 'for the area of the Civic Center part of Los Angeles' and said people with with 'Cell Phones in the received the alert.' 1:30 a.m. EDTAccording to the New York Times, a man tried to aim his van at protesters near a gas station in downtown Los Angeles, but it is unclear if any people were harmed. The LAPD later told the Times that it had detained the van driver, and noted 'multiple charges to follow.' 12:30 a.m. EDTThe Los Angeles Police Department has announced that gatherings at Downtown Los Angeles have 'been declared as an UNLAWFUL ASSEMBLY,' as it ordered people to 'leave the Downtown Area immediately.' June 8, 11.45 p.m. EDTIn an interview with MSNBC, Newsom dared the Trump administration to come and arrest him in response to earlier comments by the president's border czar Tom Homan threatened to go after any official who interferes the immigration crackdown. Newsom told MSNBC, 'Come after me, arrest me, let's just get it over with, tough guy...I don't give a damn, but I care about my community.' In his interview, Newsom once again accused Trump of 'putting fuel on the fire,' with his actions and confirmed that his state will file a lawsuit against the Trump administration on Monday. 11.30 p.m. EDTCalifornia's Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis told CNN that she expects state officials to file a federal lawsuit on Monday against the Trump administration's move to federalize and deploy the National Guard in Los Angeles. Kounalakis said the lawsuit will say that the president did not have the 'authority to call in the National Guard for 400 people protesting in a way that local law enforcement could clearly handle it.' Earlier in the evening, Newsom said he had made a formal request to the White House to 'rescind their unlawful deployment of troops in Los Angeles county and return them to my command,' The governor said: 'This is a serious breach of state sovereignty — inflaming tensions while pulling resources from where they're actually needed.' 4 p.m. EDTWhen asked by reporters whether he would invoke the Insurrection Act, the law that gives presidents the authority to deploy the military domestically, Trump said, 'Depends on whether or not there's an insurrection,' adding he does not think the Los Angeles protests are an insurrection, though he said there are 'violent people, and we're not going to let them get away with it.' Trump said he called Newsom and told him he had to 'take care' of the protests, otherwise he would 'send in the troops,' and he told a reporter who asked whether California officials who obstruct deportations would face federal charges: 'If officials stand in the way of law and order, yeah, they will face charges.' 1:30 p.m. EDTAbout 300 members of the National Guard have been stationed across Los Angeles so far, The New York Times reported, the first soldiers as part of the 2,000 Trump has promised to station across the city as more protests are expected to take place this afternoon. 1 p.m. EDTLos Angeles Mayor Karen Bass told the Los Angeles Times said she tried to talk to the Trump administration to 'tell them that there was absolutely no need to have troops on the ground here in Los Angeles,' stating the protests on Saturday were 'relatively minor' and 'peaceful,' with about 100 protesters. 3:22 a.m. EDTBass appeared to rebuff Trump's claim the National Guard did a 'great job' in the city, stating in a post on X that the National Guard had not yet been deployed at that time in Los Angeles, while praising Newsom and local law enforcement. 2:41 said in a late-night Truth Social post the National Guard did a 'great job' in Los Angeles, while slamming Newsom and Bass and the 'Radical Left' protesters and stating protesters will no longer be allowed to wear masks: 'What do these people have to hide, and why???' 12:14 slammed Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth for 'threatening to deploy active-duty Marines on American soil against its own citizens' as 'deranged behavior.' June 7The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department said it had arrested two people Saturday evening for alleged assault on a police officer, stating multiple officers had been injured by a Molotov cocktail, the Los Angeles Times reported. 10:34 exhibited 'violent behavior' toward federal agents and local law enforcement, the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department said in a statement, while clarifying it is not involved in federal law enforcement response and is instead focused on crowd and traffic control. 10:22 a post on X, Newsom said the federal government is taking over the California National Guard and deploying soldiers in Los Angeles solely to create a 'spectacle.' 10:06 announced in a post on X the Department of Defense is 'mobilizing the National Guard IMMEDIATELY to support federal law enforcement in Los Angeles,' stating Marines are standing by for deployment in case of violence. 9:17 House press secretary Karoline Leavitt announced Trump would deploy 2,000 National Guard troops to Los Angeles to address 'lawlessness,' citing protests targeting immigration officers. National Guard troops deployed in Los Angeles. (Photo by FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP via Getty Images) ... More Members of the National Guard stand guard outside the Metropolitan Detention Center, MDC in downtown ... More Los Angeles. (Photo by Frederic J. Brown / AFP) (Photo by FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP via Getty Images) Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., speaks to reporters near where the National Guard troops are ... More stationed. (Photo by FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP via Getty Images) A woman carries a Mexican flag in front of National Guard troops in Los Angeles. (Photo by Spencer ...) Protests broke out Friday and Saturday in Paramount and Compton, cities adjacent to Los Angeles, over immigration raids conducted by ICE, during which the agency detained 44 immigrants Friday and 118 immigrants Saturday, the Associated Press reported. Police and protesters clashed over the weekend, according to local reports and videos on social media, with law enforcement using tear gas and flash grenades to break up the crowds while some protesters threw rocks and lit vehicles on fire. Glendale, California, announced Sunday the city had terminated an agreement with Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement that allowed the agencies to house federal detainees at the city's police facility. Glendale officials said the move was 'a local decision and was not made lightly,' as the city 'recognizes that public perception of the ICE contract—no matter how limited or carefully managed, no matter the good—has become divisive.' Glendale's city manager opted to end the contract after 'careful evaluation of legal, operational and community considerations,' the city said, noting the decision was not 'politically driven.' Trump reportedly said in a memo he is invoking Title 10 of the U.S. Code on Armed Services, which allows the federal government to deploy the National Guard if the United States is 'invaded or is in danger of invasion by a foreign nation,' or if there is a 'rebellion or danger of a rebellion against the authority of the Government of the United States.' Vice President JD Vance said in a post on X on Saturday night the influx of immigrants, which he called 'Biden's border crisis,' amounts to an 'invasion,' rebuffing critics who have questioned whether Trump had the authority to deploy troops. Trump's move has faced some pushback from constitutional scholars. 'For the federal government to take over the California National Guard, without the request of the governor, to put down protests is truly chilling,' Erwin Chemerinsky, dean of the University of California Berkeley School of Law, told the Los Angeles Times. The legal issues raised by Trump sending the National Guard to L.A. (Los Angeles Times)

'State of rebellion': Expert weighs in on Newsom challenge to Trump deploying National Guard
'State of rebellion': Expert weighs in on Newsom challenge to Trump deploying National Guard

Fox News

time43 minutes ago

  • Fox News

'State of rebellion': Expert weighs in on Newsom challenge to Trump deploying National Guard

President Donald Trump's decision to activate the National Guard to quell protests and riots in California over the weekend was met with objections from the state's Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom, who called the move illegal and vowed to sue the president over it. Trump said in a proclamation that mobilizing the National Guard troops was necessary to protect Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers, who he said were being hindered from arresting illegal immigrants. Attorney Brad Moss, who specializes in national security, told Fox News Digital the law Trump relied on to deploy the National Guard, found under Title 10, is designed to address rebellions. "The President invoked 10 U.S.C. 12406, which affords him the authority to federalize the National Guard in response to a state of rebellion within the United States," Moss said. The National Guard is a military force based in each state and under the dual control of governors and presidents. Governors typically have authority over their respective National Guard units, but presidents can call them into federal service in certain situations. Moss noted that Trump left his National Guard proclamation "sufficiently vague and nondescript," including by not mentioning California or Los Angeles County in it. Trump said he was moving 2,000 National Guard soldiers under his purview and delegating the remaining logistics to Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth. From there, U.S. Northern Command issued a statement saying 300 soldiers from the California Army National Guard were deployed to parts of Los Angeles County "to support the protection of federal personnel and federal property." While presidents have looked to the National Guard as a reinforcement to protect federal personnel and property before, Trump's move was unusual because it lacked the support of the governor. Moss said presidents can "technically" tap the National Guard without the governor's consent but that there are limitations on what the National Guard can be used for. "It is unclear how the court would resolve legal challenges here," he said. All Democratic governors opposed Trump's move, calling it an "alarming abuse of power" in a joint statement. Newsom took matters a step further, blaming Trump for exacerbating riots. The Democratic governor said local and state police had conditions under control but that they worsened because Trump called in the military. "He flamed the fires and illegally acted to federalize the National Guard. The order he signed doesn't just apply to CA. It will allow him to go into ANY STATE and do the same thing," Newsom wrote on social media. Over the weekend, Los Angeles police reported incidents of unlawful assembly outside an immigrant detention center and incidents of protesters throwing concrete bottles and other objects. Later, rioters set fire to and vandalized several self-driving cars and video showed shops being looted.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom is floating a federal tax boycott. Here's what to know.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom is floating a federal tax boycott. Here's what to know.

CBS News

timean hour ago

  • CBS News

California Gov. Gavin Newsom is floating a federal tax boycott. Here's what to know.

As tensions escalate between California and the Trump administration over immigration, another potential battlefront is emerging over taxes. The spat began with reports that the Trump administration is considering cutting funding for California's university system, the largest higher education system in the nation with about 12% of all U.S. enrolled students. In response, Gov. Gavin Newsom wrote Friday afternoon in a social media post that California provides about $80 billion more in taxes to the federal government than it receives in return. "Maybe it's time to cut that off, @realDonaldTrump," Newsom said. What is a donor state? A donor state is one that provides more in taxes to the federal government than they receive in return. The largest one, by far, is California, according to tax data. In 2022, California's residents and businesses provided $692 billion in tax revenue to the federal government. In return, the state received $609 billion in federal funding, leaving a gap of about $83 billion, according to the California Budget and Policy Center, a nonpartisan think tank. See which states are the biggest donors California's gap is so large partly due to the large number of high-income residents in the state, who pay a larger share of their income toward federal taxes than lower-income workers, the California Budget and Policy Center says. Overall, 11 U.S. states contribute more in taxes to the federal government than they get back, according to the Rockefeller Institute of Government: California ($83 billion gap) New Jersey ($28.9 billion) Massachusetts ($27 billion) Washington state ($17.8 billion) New York ($7.1 billion) Minnesota ($4.5 billion) Colorada ($2.9 billion) Illinois ($2.6 billion) New Hampshire ($2.4 billion) Connecticut ($1.9 billion) Utah ($709 million) Other states receive more in funding than they provide to the federal government, according to the tax data. The imbalance stems from a mix of reasons, ranging from some states having a larger share of residents on federal aid programs, such as Medicaid, to a larger number of federal facilities, such as military bases, compared with other states, according to the California Budget and Policy Center. What has the Trump administration said? In response to Newsom's post about boycotting federal tax payments, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent warned in a Sunday social media post that the governor "is threatening to commit criminal tax evasion." "His plan: defraud the American taxpayer and leave California residents on the hook for unpaid federal taxes," Bessent wrote. Bessent added, "Instead of committing criminal tax evasion, Governor Newsom should consider a tax plan for California that follows the Trump Tax Cuts model and reduces the onerous state tax burden to allow families to keep more of their hard-earned money."

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into the world of global news and events? Download our app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store