​EARLY SCREENING & REMEDIATION
​
​Stop Learning Differences Becoming 
Lifelong Disabilities

SCHOOL CONSULTATIONS

Our school district consultation team uses proven strategies to instill confidence and unity in the district, paving the way for the effective implementation of evidence-based reading instruction and a robust Multi-Tiered System of Support (MTSS). 
  • MTSS who, how, what, and why
  • Data team planning
  • Effective progress monitoring 
  • Universal screening 

 ADVOCACY WORKSHOPS 

We run free educational workshops for parents, teachers, and administrators. These range from unique workshops to support the science of reading and advocacy in a school district to subjects including:
  • The science of reading
  • High-quality remediation 
  • IEP goal workshops
  • Progress monitoring 

ADVOCACY & CONSULTATIONS

Get an Advocate! We represent students at their school districts on a pro bono or sliding scale basis, and offer free 20-mi ute consultations.​ We organize professional development, consult with administrators to implement MTSS to increase reading and writing skills through the school district. MTSS reduces the number of students needing refferrals for special education.

Can't Afford a Reading Tutor?
And need a kick-start? Toe by Toe will help... $36 including postage

Meet Toe by Toe! This is a highly structured phonics-based workbook for parents and guardians to use with their children (good for adults too). It takes just 5-20 minutes a day, and it helps emerging readers practice vital foundational skills. Toe by Toe helps parents recognize and better understand their children's skill weaknesses. 
  • More affordable than an Orton-Gillingham tutor!​
  • The book builds all the reading skills needed for reading 
  • The exercises are explicit, structured, systematic and cumulative
  • Helps parents understand reading skill weaknesses 
  • Can be used to show school administrators and teachers what progress tracking and structured literacy look like!
We offer this book at a discounted cost for parents willing to complete a survey, and send their comments about the book. Additionally, profits from the book go directly towards advocacy for underprivileged students.

Literacy and Justice for All and
​Speak Up for Literacy Campaign T-Shirts!

Help us advocate for children in crisis by buying a t-shirt!

FOR SCHOOL DISTRICTS

​"It's coming! I may not be able to read tomorrow or the next day, but it's coming....."
Isla, age 10

IT'S POSSIBLE!  a leadership plan for implementing quality reading instruction and ensuring literacy for all!

OUR MISSION
Learning how to read is like a vaccination against poverty, yet thousands of New York State students are instructed to guess words, and never receive evidence-based reading instruction. As a result, more than 52% of students who speak English as a first language read well below grade level and are at risk of dropping out of school or graduating with low literacy skills.

We are committed to advocating, raising awareness, educating, and legislating about the social and economic injustices caused by illiteracy and how to address them. We advocate for students in crisis, including low-income families and those in foster care, by collaborating with school districts to ensure they receive the evidence-based instruction in reading and writing that they are entitled to. We promote and organize evidence-based literacy instruction to ensure more students are on a college-ready, job-training, or career trajectory.

Make a donation: support a child in crisis

PLEASE SHARE THIS REPORT (AND GUIDANCE BELOW) WITH YOUR SCHOOL DISTRICT ADMINISTRATORS, TEACHERS, BOARD OF EDUCATION AND FAMILIES

New York State Dyslexia And Dysgraphia 

Task Force: Report & Recommendations

Please review the report using the link below or by clicking the image, and share it with your school district's board of education, administrators, teachers, and families. 

We must discuss the recommendations and how school districts can best implement them. The report's outline is a solid start, but let's push for increased oversight and accountability. Establishing a Center or Division for Dyslexia and Dysgraphia would help, but this would require adequate funding and setting up proper independent oversight.

According to the Education Consumers Foundation (2019), illiteracy costs New York State more than $3.6 billion annually. Low literacy skills significantly contribute to poverty and disenfranchisement. Screening and remediating at-risk children, youth, and adults in the Information Age is a vital human right. Equitable access to education promotes social justice and increases resilience and quality of life for all New Yorkers.

Let's Push to Implement the Recommendations and a Literacy Center with Independent Oversight in 2025!
Please share this report!
nysed-dyslexiadysgraphia-taskforce-report-12.20.24.pdf
File Size: 3953 kb
File Type: pdf
Download File

Guidance Issued by 

New York State ​

Institutions & Associations

Screening & Evaluations for
School Psychologists (2025)

NYSAP, Evaluating for Dyslexia in Schools__1_.pdf
File Size: 3048 kb
File Type: pdf
Download File

NYSED Regulation Amendments: MTSS and Evidence-Based Structured Literacy (2025)

Evidence_based_scientifically_based__002_.pdf
File Size: 72 kb
File Type: pdf
Download File

NYSED Meeting Needs of D&D (2024)

meeting-the-needs-of-dyslexia-dysgraphia-dyscalculia.pdf
File Size: 106 kb
File Type: pdf
Download File

Universal Screeners
​Approved by Task Force (2024)

approveduniversalscreeners.pdf
File Size: 800 kb
File Type: pdf
Download File

NYSED Questions & Answers (2018)

q-and-a-students-with-dyslexia-dysgrahia-dyscalculia.pdf
File Size: 186 kb
File Type: pdf
Download File

Guidance on Special Education Law (2018)

chapter-216-of-laws-of-2017-advisory.pdf
File Size: 56 kb
File Type: pdf
Download File

Video from Our Written Testimony Workshop
​Held on Thursday 10th October, 2024

Speak Up for Literacy
​Ask Members of Your Board Of Education to Adopt a Literacy Goal:
​
​"95% of 3rd Grade Students Will Read to Grade Level"

Thank You to Our Trail-Blazing Champion Parents! 

Megan 
Thank you Megan!

​Cairo-Durham Central, Greene County 

3rd-Grade Students, 2019: 75 students
Total reading below grade level: 65%
At Basic Level: 37%
Below Basic: 28%
Calculated Dropouts: 7
Unprepared Graduates: 27
The annual cost to NY taxpayers for no trained teachers: $ 1,566,000 
report-district-wide-53.pdf
File Size: 105 kb
File Type: pdf
Download File

Take Action: 

Speak Up for Literacy New York! 

Send in your Speak Up video & get a FREE T-SHIRT 

Join us and talk to your public-school representatives; the Board of Education (BOE), Panel for Education Policy (PEP), and Community Education Council (CEC). Please share the link to our campaign on social media & email. Share videos on YouTube of your testimonies – let’s do this!   

Data is from the New York Education Department and The Education Consumers Foundation
Data includes: number of students predicted to dropout, number of students reading below grade level and what your district's failure to teach reading costs taxpayers.

→3-minute script to read out at your district's education meeting with reading levels for your district
→Brochure to hand out with all the reading level data 
→The economic impact to taxpayers of your district's failure to teach reading
→Number of predicted dropouts for your school district
→The number of unprepared graduates at your school district
→Number of students reading below grade level (below proficient) in your school district
→Reading by district; compares all districts by county
→Grade progression for individual school districts - how well does your district support literacy skills?
​→Advocate T-shirt $30​ (optional/fundraiser)

Check out how many states have literacy laws. Explore the National Center on Improving Literacy:

Notice how far behind NY is...
​

Support Our Advocacy Work
​Make a PayPal Donation

​How well are New York's children taught to read?

Take a look at Albany county; this is data from NYSED for general education students.

​*We use data for 3rd grade reading proficiency as it is the single most important indicator for academic success. If a child is not reading to grade level by that point, they are educationally disadvantaged for a lifetime. Without remediation they are unlikely to fully benefit from their education or reach their potential.

​↓Take a look at Albany City SD; this shows data for 4 cohorts and their progress over 4 years. The data used to make this graph is from NYSED.

​Check out students with disabilities (85% classified as disabled have dyslexia). Look at their ability to read-they have made NO PROGRESS IN 4 YEARS.

SHAME ON YOU NYSED: 95% of ALL students have the capacity to read to grade level when the instruction is explicit, systematic and cumulative (science-based structured literacy).

What are the hidden facts in New York Education Departments' data website?

​According to pre-COVID 2019 NYSED third to eighth-grade students' data, 51% of native English-speaking students and 55% of all students read below grade level (i.e., below the "proficient" level). Appallingly, 65% of African American/Black students, 84% of children in foster care, and 88% of students with disabilities cannot read to a proficient level or are functionally illiterate.
 
That said, 95% of ALL students have the potential to become skilled readers and read at or above grade level if they receive effective Pre-K to 3nd-grade instruction--i.e., instruction containing phonological awareness, phonemes, phonics, and building fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension. 

​

Take a look and find out how many children are taught how to read at your school district...

We have the data & charts for ALL SCHOOLS in New York State:

DONATE: ADVOCATE FOR DISADVANTAGED CHILDREN
​EMPOWER A LIFE

Don Meichenbaum, one of the world's leading experts on childhood trauma, states:

                                    "….one thing is more important to traumatized children than anything else. More important than therapy, more important than social programs, more important than anything else. The research shows that the single most powerful predictor of their ability to overcome the trauma and survive their circumstances is the ability to read. If they can read, they have a chance to find success in school and overcome all those terrible things in their lives. If they can't, school will only be another source of pain and failure added to all the other sources of pain and failure.  If they can read, they can benefit from therapy and everything else we may try to do for them. If they can't read, all of that is a waste of time".

Support Our Advocacy Work
​Make a PayPal Donation

Is your child struggling at school?

Do they guess at words instead of decoding them?
Do they struggle with spelling?
​Do they struggle with writing?
Are they starting to dislike school?
Are they falling behind?
Did you know that for every year that passes, the hours needed for remediation doubles?

We can help...

Special Education Quality Assurance

THIS IS WORTH A TRY- BUT WHAT THEY CAN DO IS LIMITED
Special Education Quality Assurance oversees preschool and school-age special education services through a quality assurance review process that emphasizes attainment of positive results for student with disabilities. Regional Associates, located in several quality assurance offices across New York State, coordinate the review process and also provide technical assistance to parents, school district personnel, and private providers. 
CALL THE NUMBER FOR YOUR AREA

Support Our Advocacy Work
​Make a PayPal Donation

We educate legislators and the public about the
literacy crisis in New York State 

VIEW TESTIMONY DOCUMENTS HERE

Make a Difference

Donate to the Dyslexia Advocacy Action Group's year end campaign and give the gift of reading this year. 

Take Action on Literacy Laws

A literacy law to screen and remediate incarcerated individuals needs your support.

  • Screening for risk of dyslexia for incarcerated individuals
  • Identification of dyslexia will initiate evidence-based interventions​

Call Your Assembly and Senate Representatives.
Ask them to sponsor A02062 / S00307

GENEROUS 2021 TAX BENEFITS FOR CHARITABLE GIVING

In 2020, Congress passed the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Recovery (CARES) Act in order to protect citizens from the economic consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic.  
Among other things, the CARES Act allows people to include “above-the-line” charitable deductions up to $300 for those who do not itemize their tax expenses.  
 This generous benefit has fortunately been extended through 2021 and made even better for those filing jointly. For individuals that don’t itemize, you can still deduct up to $300 for charitable contributions made in 2021, and for those filing jointly, you can now deduct up to $600 or $300 for each person.  
If you do itemize, you can’t claim the $300 deduction–but this year, there is a new provision just for you: you can now take a deduction for charitable contributions up to 100% of your adjusted gross income (up from 20-60% of AGI in prior years).  
Remember that these benefits only apply to gifts made in 2021 to qualified charitable organizations like Dyslexia Advocacy Action Group. You can check the status of a charity on the IRS.gov website.  
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Give the gift of reading 
We represent students in crisis to advocate for reading and writing remediation and disability services

​Support Us with a Donation
Dyslexia Advocacy Action Group is a 501c3 registered charity #47 33 27
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©2015 Dyslexia Advocacy Action Group, New York. All Rights Reserved.