LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — More than 20 complaints have been filed against the Clark County School District alleging the district is denying basic literacy instruction for students with dyslexia, many of whom are in foster care.
The Legal Aid Center of Southern Nevada (LACSN) filed the due process complaints on Thursday on behalf of students in foster care. The Legal Aid Center claims CCSD is violating state and federal education disability law by failing to adopt an intensive literacy program for these dyslexic students.
"These students range from 2nd to 12th grade, and have been promoted through CCSD without learning to proficiently read. Among them are an eleventh grader who cannot spell words like 'hot' and 'pet' yet receives zero minutes of direct reading instruction, and a fifth grader who told his teacher every day, 'I can’t read,' and performs at a pre-kindergarten level without any specialized intervention," Legal Aid Center said in a news release.
The Nevada Legislature passed a sweeping education bill 10 years ago, part of which ensures students with dyslexia receive proper instruction. The Legal Aid Center claims CCSD is ignoring this law.
This is not the first time the district has faced legal challenges over their dyslexia instruction. Four years ago, Channel 13 told you how CCSD had to pay $500,000 to the Rogich family after a judge said the district violated federal law by not providing services to the Rogichs' daughter who has dyslexia.
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"Fifty years after the passage of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), foster children with disabilities in Clark County still do not have access to the basic instruction the law promised them. These children deserved better from all of us. Literacy is not a luxury. It is the foundation for every other opportunity in life. We cannot undo what these children lost, but we can demand that CCSD finally give them what they have been denied all along: the chance to learn to read," Marina Dalia-Hunt said.
Dalia-Hunt is team chief of the LACSN Education Advocacy Program.
The Legal Aid Center is calling on the district to adopt "a districtwide evidence-based Dyslexia intervention program delivered by trained specialists, provide intensive compensatory education to all affected students, and work with families, advocates, and state leaders to restore the promise of the IDEA."
CCSD has not yet responded to a request for comment.
