California Bill Requiring Dyslexia Screening for Young Children Advances in Senate Committee

An elementary school student writes on her notebook in Brea, Calif. on May 24, 2021. John Fredricks/The Epoch Times

A California Senate bill that would require schools to screen young children for dyslexia passed the state Senate Education Committee last week.

The committee unanimously voted to pass state Senate Bill 691 during a March 29 hearing and sent it to the Senate Appropriations Committee for a vote on April 10.

The bill would require all districts to screen children in kindergarten through second grade for dyslexia annually, unless parents choose to opt their child out.

State Sen. Anthony Portantino (D-Burbank)—who introduced the bill Feb. 16—told the committee during the hearing that it’s easier to help a child overcome dyslexia when it’s identified early.

Portantino referred to data from the International Dyslexia Association, which reports that it takes four times longer to help a child overcome dyslexia in 4th grade than it does in late kindergarten.

“This bill follows the science and research ... because we know if we help a young child earlier in their journey, we’re going to be more successful,” he said. “If we wait … it becomes harder to solve ... By knowing what the problems are, we’re helping kids get the reading care that they need and deserve.”

The bill received much support during the hearing from special education organizations, educators, affected parents, and children with dyslexia.

A file photo of California Teachers Association supporters demonstrating in favor of public employees having to pay union dues, in front of the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 11, 2016, in Washington, DC. Mark Wilson/Getty Images

However, some educator groups and teacher unions—including the California Teachers Association and the California Association for Bilingual Education—said they opposed the bill during the hearing, saying it would add an extra burden on teachers and may misidentify English learners struggling with reading as dyslexic.

“We do not believe that [the bill] will effectively build a system that’s beneficial to all of our students,” said the representative for the California Teachers Association—which has 310,000 members across the state.

The representative called for a redraft of the bill to include clear expectations of how such a policy would be implemented locally with state resources and reflect the concern of educators who would implement it.

“For the intent of this bill to be achieved, there will need to be a comprehensive redrafting and not just one or two simple amendments,” he said.

To avoid misdiagnosing English learners as dyslexic, Portantino said during the hearing that the bill would also require that factors such as English language acquisition status, home language, and language of instruction are taken into consideration when screening.

The bill would also require the state’s Board of Education to establish an approved list of dyslexia screening instruments to be used by school districts for such screenings.

According to the bill’s text, such must include “developmentally and linguistically appropriate screening for phonological and phonemic awareness, sound-symbol recognition, alphabet knowledge, decoding skills, and rapid automatized naming.”

Under the bill, results would be shared with parents within 45 days of the screening.

California is currently one of only 10 states who do not require dyslexia screening for students, according to the National Center on Improving Literacy, out of Boston University’s College of Education and Human Development.

Other states that do not screen children are Utah, Alaska, Hawaii, South Dakota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Pennsylvania, New York, and Vermont.

Portantino introduced a similar bill in 2021, but it died in the Senate Education Committee.