Park Slope School Gains Dyslexia Screenings

PARK SLOPE, NY — Early screening for dyslexia helped change New York Assemblyman Robert Carroll's life. It's a benefit he hopes to roll out to all public school children, starting at two Brooklyn schools.

Carroll on Friday announced New York City's Department of Education launched a pilot program for dyslexia screenings at P.S. 107 in Park Slope and P.S. 130 in Kensington.

Both schools are within Carroll's District 44.

"This is a huge thing," he said. "It's the first time they're doing whole grade screening of dyslexia."

The schools will pilot the Shaywitz DyslexiaScreen, a screener developed by Sally and Bennett Shaywitz, who founded the Yale Center for Dyslexia and Creativity.

It is based on classroom teacher observations and takes a few minutes per student. Carroll said teachers will answer about 10 to 12 questions per student.

Carroll's spokesperson Dan Campanelli said it costs about $1 per student, or $2000 for the whole pilot program.

"It’s significantly cheap," he said.

The pilot will wrap up in the coming weeks, Carroll said. He said he hopes its success will pave the way for legislation he introduced —A8786-A — which establishes guidelines for dyslexia screenings and support for students at risk of dyslexia.

Schools don't necessarily have to use the Shaywitz DyslexiaScreen going forward, Carroll said. But he wants to make sure screeners are efficient, low cost, readily available and have been tested.

Screeners only identify students at risk of dyslexia. Carroll said further state support is needed for programs to properly diagnose and remediate dyslexia through multi-sensory sequential phonics methods.

New York is far behind other states on screening for and remediating dyslexia, a learning disorder seen in about 20 percent of the population, Carroll said.

"Right now it is a travesty," Carroll said. "The vast majority of children who are having it identified and remediated are wealthy children."