The 133rd Ohio General Assembly passed legislation (ORC 3323.25, 3323.251, 3319.077 and 3319.078) concerning the screening of and intervention for children with dyslexia, effective April 12, 2021.
Ohio’s dyslexia support laws (ORC 3323.25 and 3323.251) define dyslexia as “a specific learning disorder that is neurological in origin and that is characterized by unexpected difficulties with accurate or fluent word recognition and by poor spelling and decoding abilities not consistent with the person’s intelligence, motivation, and sensory capabilities, which difficulties typically result from a deficit in the phonological component of language.”
Students with dyslexia tend to have difficulty processing speech sounds, decoding words and reading fluently. Such difficulties often lead to slow and inaccurate reading, inadequate comprehension and difficulty with written and/or spoken language. The percentage of students with dyslexia ranges from 5%-17%, while the percentage of students experiencing characteristics of dyslexia is reported as high as 15%-20% (Elliott & Grigorenko, 2014; Fletcher, et al., 2019; International Dyslexia Association, 2012; Odegard, et al. 2020). The resources needed to address these characteristics may vary based on a student’s reading profile. For more information, refer to Ohio’s Dyslexia Guidebook.