Bill Summary – FastDemocracy

-- H 5839
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     LC001736
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                       STATE                OF       RHODE                 ISLAND
                                            IN GENERAL ASSEMBLY
                                           JANUARY SESSION, A.D. 2021
                                                 ____________
                                                  AN ACT
             RELATING TO EDUCATION DYSLEXIA - THE RHODE ISLAND SCHOOL FOR
                                    DYSLEXIA ACT
                Introduced By: Representatives Quattrocchi, Place, Filippi, Nardone, and Price
                Date Introduced: February 24, 2021
                Referred To: House Education
     It is enacted by the General Assembly as follows:
          SECTION 1. Title 16 of the General Laws entitled "EDUCATION" is hereby amended by
 adding thereto the following chapter:
                                             CHAPTER 67.3
                      THE RHODE ISLAND SCHOOL FOR DYSLEXIA ACT
          16-67.3-1. Short title.
          This chapter shall be known and may be cited as the "Rhode Island School for Dyslexia
 Act."
          16-67.3-2. Legislative findings.
          (1) Dyslexia is a specific learning disability that is neurobiological in origin, characterized
 by difficulties with accurate or fluent word recognition and by poor spelling and decoding abilities
 that typically result from a deficiency in the phonological component of language.
          (2) Twenty percent (20%) of school-aged children in the United States are dyslexic.
          (3) Approximately eighty-percent (80%) of children placed in special education for
 learning disabilities are dyslexic.
          (4) Dyslexia does not reflect an overall defect in language, but a localized weakness within
 the phonologic module of the brain, where sounds of language are put together to form words or
 break words down into sounds.
          (5) Most children identified as having characteristics of dyslexia and related disorders can
 be remediated successfully by explicit, systematic, multisensory instruction in phonics and
 morphology.
         (6) When intervention is delayed, it takes four (4) times as long to intervene in fourth grade
 as it does in late kindergarten because of brain development and because of the increase in content
 for students to learn as they grow older.
         16-67.3-3. Rhode Island school for dyslexia.
         (a) Upon the submission of all requirements pursuant to § 16-77.2-2 the commissioner is
 hereby directed to authorize the creation of a charter school to admit all children found to have
 identifying characteristics for dyslexia, dyscalculia, or dysgraphia, eligible to attend public school,
 or a charter school, subject to space limitations, with an explicit mission and purpose to educate
 children found to have dyslexia, through a multi-sensory phonics based Orton-Gillingham Infused
 approach.
         (b) There shall be two (2) alternative education campuses, one located at Rhode Island
 college, and a second located at the university of Rhode Island.
         (1) The initial alternative education campus located at Rhode Island college shall be
 operational within one year of the passage of this act, and the second alternative education campus
 will be operational within two (2) years of the passage of this act.
         (c) If the number of applications exceeds the capacity of a program, class, grade level, or
 building, students must be accepted based on the severity of dyslexia. If the applications exceed
 the capacity of the program, class, grade level, or building, additional space must be made available
 by the following calendar school year.
         (d) The dyslexic charter school may give enrollment priority to a sibling of a dyslexic pupil
 currently enrolled and attending, as long as said sibling has a diagnosis of dyslexia, or who, within
 the last six (6) years, attended the school for at least one complete academic year. The charter
 school must also give enrollment preference to students enrolled in the charter school for dyslexia
 the previous school year.
         (e) The principle of the dyslexia charter schools shall have the requisite knowledge and
 experience in a direct, explicit, multisensory, phonics based, structured, sequential, diagnostic, and
 prescriptive way of teaching literacy, have completed the IMSE comprehensive thirty (30) hour
 Orton-Gillingham training, and have experience in the indices of teaching children who have
 dyslexia, dyscalculia, or dysgraphia, including the use of assistive technology, assistive software
 programs, and evaluating the children without the use of testing or grading.
         (f) The teachers of the dyslexia charter schools shall have the requisite knowledge and
 experience in a direct, explicit, multisensory, phonics based, structured, sequential, diagnostic, and
                                           LC001736 - Page 2 of 4
 prescriptive way of teaching literacy, as well as having completed the IMSE comprehensive thirty
 (30) hour Orton-Gillingham training.
           (g) The reading specialist schools shall have the requisite knowledge and experience in a
 direct, explicit, multisensory, phonics based, structured, sequential, diagnostic, and prescriptive
 way of teaching literacy, as well as having completed the IMSE comprehensive thirty (30) hour
 Orton-Gillingham training, as well as giving completed the IMSE intermediate thirty (30) hour
 Orron-Gillingham training.
           (h) Both schools shall create a governing board, comprised of two (2) parents of currently
 enrolled children, one parent of a dyslexic student who has graduated eighth grade from the charter
 school, the principle and one teacher from the charter school, a representative from academia versed
 in the science of reading, and a representative from an established dyslexic school within the United
 States.
           (i) The board shall meet monthly and as needed, to receive a report from the principle, and
 to make necessary decisions pertaining in the school.
           (j) The Rhode Island school for dyslexia shall be exempt from state mandated testing due
 to the unique characteristics of the school population.
           (k) The dyslexic charter schools shall be named "The Rhode Island school for dyslexia",
 and shall have a motto "Strength, Determination, Fortitude".
           SECTION 2. This act shall take effect upon passage.
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                                         EXPLANATION
                               BY THE LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL
                                                 OF
                                           AN ACT
       RELATING TO EDUCATION DYSLEXIA - THE RHODE ISLAND SCHOOL FOR
                              DYSLEXIA ACT
                                                ***
      This act would establish a charter school for students with dyslexia.
      This act would take effect upon passage.
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