Cathy Osten

Osten Welcomes Committee Passage of Latest Dyslexia Bill

State Senator Cathy Osten (D-Sprague) praised the Education Committee’s unanimous and bipartisan passage today of House Bill 7254, which would require teachers applying for certain certifications to study the detection of dyslexia in students.

The bill, which is based on language introduced earlier this session by Sen. Osten, is the last in a series of four dyslexia-related bills that Sen. Osten has helped write and pass into law in Connecticut over the past few years. It still must be approved by the House and Senate and signed into law by the governor.

“This bill today is the last piece of a four-year effort to bring children with dyslexia to the attention of educators in Connecticut,” Sen. Osten said. “The first bill was to create public awareness. The second bill provided structured, professional development, and the third bill built on that. Today’s bill ensures that teachers, before they even become teachers, can detect and address dyslexia in students and that they have some options for addressing it.”

HB 7254 requires teachers who are applying for any professional certification that has a comprehensive special education or integrated early childhood and special education endorsement to complete a program of study in the diagnosis and remediation of reading and language arts. That program has to include supervised practicum hours and instruction in the detection and recognition of—and evidence-based structured literacy interventions for—students with dyslexia.

The previous dyslexia legislation championed by Sen. Osten includes:

• PUBLIC ACT 14-39, which added dyslexia as a ‘primary disability’ on state education forms for an Individualized Education Program (IEP).
• PUBLIC ACT 15-97, which added dyslexia to in-service teacher professional development, and required the state Education Department to develop a reading assessment for use by local school boards to help identify students at risk for dyslexia.
• PUBLIC ACT 16-92, which required anyone after July 1, 2017 who is applying for a remedial reading, remedial language arts or reading consultant endorsement on their teaching certificate to complete a program of study focusing on literacy interventions for students with dyslexia.