Louisiana

State Education Agency (SEA) Dyslexia Legislation

Has Legislation?Yes

Parent Opt-Out/Consent Procedures by Law?
Yes
SEA Recognizes IDA Definition?
No
SEA Recognizes State Definition?
Yes
SEA Has Dyslexia Specialist?
No

Louisiana Title 28 Education Part XXXV

Unlike most states, Louisiana has had state law on dyslexia since at least the 1990s. Current policies are the culmination of a piecemeal process too lengthy to describe in detail here. Most provisions related to dyslexia education are described under Title 28 of Louisiana's Laws.

Screening

Required?Yes

Parents Must Be Notified of Results?
Yes
SEA Publishes List of Screeners?
Yes
Annual Reporting to the SEA?
No
Response to Intervention for Student Learning Disability Eligibility in 2010?
Required by law
Student Learning Disability Eligibility (Zirkel & Thomas 2010 Classification)?
RTI required, SD prohibited, Other permitted in combination with other approach (ambiguities in legislation noted)

Every public school student in grades kindergarten through third should be screened at least once for the existence of impediments to a successful school experience, unless objected to by his or her parents. Such impairments include: dyslexia and related disorders, attention deficit disorder, social and environmental factors that may put a child at risk. At any time outside of grade level screenings, students may also be screened if referred to the SBLC and the committee deems such screening to be appropriate.

State Recognized Screeners

AIMSweb, DIBELS 6th Edition, DIBELS Next, STAR, STEEP Advanced Literacy, Fontas and Pinnell Initial Sounds, Phonograms, Oral Reading Rate, and Reading Comprehension, FAST, SRI, HMH, STEP. See also Louisiana Title 28 which lists additional screeners.

Pre-service

Required?No

Louisiana does not have pre-service legislation related to dyslexia.

In-service

Required?Yes

Screening specialists require 18 clock hours of training in the following areas: characteristics of ADHD, characteristics of dyslexia, characteristics of social and emotional Risk Factors; use of appropriate screening instruments; administration and interpretation of LEA-selected screening instruments; operation and administration of building-level committee; selection of classroom strategies, accommodations, and modifications; and child advocacy. More details can be found in Title 28, which describes the guidelines and regulations concerning the implementation of Louisiana dyslexia law.:

Intervention

Required?Yes

Multisensory?
Required
Explicit/Direct?
Promoted

The law states, "In accordance with the program adopted by the board, the city and parish school boards shall provide remediation for children with dyslexia or related disorders in an appropriate multi-sensory, intensive phonetic, synthetic to analytic phonics, linguistic, meaning based, systematic, language-based regular education program. For those students who are not dyslexic and who do not qualify for special  education services, other appropriate programs shall be offered to remediate their particular physical or educational disorders." State guidance documents indicate that multisensory language programs should include direct instruction.

Possible Interventions

Alphabetic Phonics; Intermediate Essential Language Structures Program; Language!; Language Circle; Slingerland; Wilson Language Training.

Literacy State-identified Measurable Result (SIMR) - Part B

Has Literacy SIMR?Yes

Louisiana's SiMR is "to increase English Language Arts proficiency (basic and above) rates on statewide assessments for students with disabilities in third through fifth grades, in nine Local Education Agencies across the state."

Resources

A Guide to Dyslexia in Louisiana

Decoding Dyslexia Louisiana

International Dyslexia Association Louisiana

Citations

Zirkel, P. A., & Thomas, L. B. (2010). State laws for RTI: An updated snapshot. Teaching Exceptional Children, 42(3), 56-63.

Gearin, B., Turtura, J., Kame’enui, E. J., Nelson, N. J., & Fien, H. (2018). A Multiple Streams Analysis of Recent Changes to State-Level Dyslexia Education Law. Educational Policy, 0895904818807328.

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Last modified: 
10/27/2022 - 4:43pm