LD Blog

Alexa Posny, former Director of the US Office of Special Education Programs and now Commissioner of Education for the US state of Kansas, refused to support efforts by a parent group seeking legal recognition of dyslexia in Kansas. Writing under the headline “Education chief won’t endorse push for law recognizing dyslexia” in the Wichita Eagle, Jillian Cohan reported that Commissioner Posny told the Kansas Coalition for Dyslexia Legislation that she does not think legal efforts to provide services are effective.

Education chief Alexa Posny told the Kansas Coalition for Dyslexia Legislation that she agrees early identification of reading disorders is essential. Ideally, she said, Kansas institutions of higher learning should include training for future teachers on how to best help struggling readers.

The meeting was part of the coalition’s push for laws specifically recognizing dyslexia. When coalition member Terry Sader asked if Posny might offer guidance as the group lobbies the Legislature, Posny said she doesn’t think such measures work.

“When we want people to do the right thing for kids, they need to do that because it’s the right thing to do,” she said.”…Any time you make it mandatory, it’s not highly effective.”

Dyslexia almost always should be covered under federal and state protections for people with learning disabilities, Posny said.

I have to agree with Ms. Posny about part of her statement and strongly disagree with her about another part. She’s right when she asserts that dyslexia is included under Learning Disabilities. Thus, a statute protecting students with dyslexia would be redundant.

However, I must strongly disagree with her assertion about “doing the right thing.” I do, indeed, want people to do the right thing for students, but if schools were doing the right things for students, then there would have been no need for laws such as PL 94-142 and its successors. In fact, however, there was and continues to be ample evidence of schools not doing the right thing for students (just track Pete and Pam Wright’s or Charles Fox’s sites). Instead, schools fail to identify students who have real special education needs and also fail to provide services that meet those needs.

Reduced to its basic form, Ms. Posny has just argued that she does not think IDEA works.

Link to Ms. Cohan’s article. Link to an earlier story on the meeting. Links for the Wrights’ Wrightslaw site and Mr. Fox’s SpecialEdLaw Blog.