Cathy Osten

New Bill Seeks Review of Dyslexia Instruction in CT

HARTFORD – A bill championed by state Senator Cathy Osten (D-Sprague) to analyze state laws governing dyslexia instruction and teacher training passed the Education Committee today on a unanimous and bipartisan ‘consent’ vote and now heads to the Senate floor for further consideration.

Senate Bill 1067, “AN ACT ESTABLISHING A TASK FORCE TO ANALYZE THE IMPLEMENTATION OF LAWS GOVERNING DYSLEXIA INSTRUCTION AND TRAINING,” was co-sponsored by Sen. Osten and by 19 other Republicans and Democrats.

The bill calls for the creation of an 11-member state task force to examine if and how Connecticut schools are complying with existing state laws regarding teacher instruction on how to detect dyslexia and the literary interventions for those students.

The bill also allows the task force to make various recommendations regarding dyslexia.

“As many as 20 percent of our population show some symptoms of dyslexia, such as poor spelling or writing or inaccurate reading, so an analysis of the impact of laws governing dyslexia instruction and Connecticut’s teacher prep and other programs is the appropriate thing to do,” Sen. Osten said. “It’s crucial that we determine what Connecticut is doing well, and what more needs to be done, so we can better serve our school children and their parents.”

If approved by the full House and Senate and signed into law by the governor, the task force report is due by January, 2020.