We Are Decoding Dyslexia Maryland: 14 Chapters, Stronger Together

Decoding Dyslexia Maryland is a parent-led, grassroots movement driven by families concerned about reading instruction and interventions for all students, including those with dyslexia, in Maryland Public Schools.

Reading & Dyslexia Handbook Bill reintroduced by Delegate Eric Ebersole and Senator Katie Fry-Hester

2021 Legislative Update

During the 2020 legislative session, Delegate Eric Luedtke and Senator Katie Fry Hester introduced HB 718 and SB 575, the Reading and Dyslexia Handbook bills. HB 718 passed the House unanimously, but due to the pandemic and the shortened legislative session, the Senate bill did not make it to the Senate floor.

The Reading & Dyslexia Handbook legislation was reintroduced for the 2021 legislative session by Delegate Eric Ebersole as HB 237 and it is scheduled for a hearing before the House Ways & Means Committee on January 20th at 1:00 PM. The Senate cross-file is sponsored by Senator Katie Fry-Hester and is SB 126; it is scheduled to be heard by the Senate Environmental, Health and Education (EHE) Committee on January 27th at 11:00 AM. 

Advocacy Tool-Kit

We are asking parents, educators, administrators and community partners to email their representatives in the Maryland General Assembly in support of this legislation. DDMD's Advocacy Tool-Kit provides a Step-by-Step guide to navigating the legislative process and how to engage with representatives.  

If you are interested in submitting written / oral testimony and/or meeting with Senators on the EHE Committee, please fill out the Interest Form so the DDMD Legislative Committee can coordinate with you. 
The Maryland Ready to Read Act (2019, SB 734, Ch. 512), originally included language to create a Dyslexia Handbook.  The final bill did not include the handbook language in order to shorten and tighten the bill. The recommendation to create a Dyslexia Handbook is an inexpensive means to provide supplemental information to Maryland’s 24 local control districts so they have access to the best practices to identify and address dyslexia in Maryland.
​“This Handbook should reflect the neurobiological and operational definition of dyslexia provided in the dyslexia Technical Assistance Bulletin and mirrored in this document, and should include evidence-based practice guidelines for identification, assessment, and intervention, service delivery model(s), and progress monitoring strategies and tools. This is a legislative opportunity to establish and fund a Working Group or Dyslexia Advisory Committee to develop the handbook using the Best Practices document presented by the Task Force.”
Maryland’s 2017 Legislative Dyslexia Task Force Report includes a recommendation to create a Dyslexia Handbook as a result of the findings from the Dyslexia Task Force.  The Task Force found that administrators, educators, and parents would benefit from a resource on dyslexia that is electronically accessible to all (p. 52).  The Recommendation says:

COVID-19 Response & Recovery

Maryland's Education Recovery Plan

Both the State of Maryland and the Maryland Department of Education released plans on May 6 to recover and resume the economy and education. The first draft did not include input from community stakeholders and has since been updated to reflect some of that input.  A new version of the plan is linked HERE and is still considered a DRAFT.  The team that is working on the DRAFT document meets June 3 and a summary of that meeting will be posted on the DDMD blog page.
Resources to Stay Informed & Take Action
  1. Federal, State and Local Guidance, Information and Resources
  2. Maryland's Continuity of Learning Plans for each of the 24 school districts.  The Padlet includes special education information and resources district by district.
  3. TAKE ACTION PAGE: Federal and State action items are listed here including a response to the May 6 DRAFT Education Recovery Plan for Maryland.  Response to the June 1 DRAFT recovery plan will be posted ASAP.
  4. Remote Learning Padlet: Resources and information with a focus on dyslexia and reading.  Resources are digital and non-digital for use at home with your children and/or students.
Please let us know how we can help you and your family: DecodingdyslexiaMD@gmail.com
Literacy is a human right and dyslexia is often a reason why many children and adults struggle to read and spell. Dyslexia has largely remained misunderstood and under identified in the public-school setting. Legislation, awareness, and advocacy are occurring nationally on this important topic to help increase dyslexia awareness.

Decoding Dyslexia was created to take on this urgent right to read as one of the civil rights issues of our time. We have made important steps forward but admittedly have come short of addressing the literacy needs of Black and brown students whose dyslexia and learning disabilities are disproportionately unidentified or misidentified as being attention issues or emotional disturbances.

This means their literacy needs are being overlooked, or they are left with little to no access to services or appropriate structured literacy approaches that address dyslexia with fidelity. Often times, false narratives like a lack of parental involvement, care or concern, and false blame that perpetuates that Black and brown children are not being read to as much as their white counterparts are suggested as the sources of their reading issues and they are labeled secondary dyslexics.
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These false narratives further separate the educational inequities that Black and brown children experience within the current education system. Decoding Dyslexia has fallen short in imagery, advocacy, support and partnerships, although dyslexia crosses all racial boundaries and does not discriminate. Our imaging and movement for the most part has unconsciously portrayed dyslexia as a white literacy issue, and that could not be further from the truth.

Decoding Dyslexia’s Official Position on Black Literacy Matters (BLM)

Call to Action

  1. Review/revise grassroots policy statement to include diversity-focuses; 
  2. State-wide recruitment efforts to involve Black/brown families; 
  3. Be intentional in having Black/brown representation in campaigns and as part of our leadership and committees; 
  4. Create minority safe spaces for dyslexia support;
  5. Identify educational/organizational partnerships with minority-focused initiatives;
  6. Include disaggregated data in statistical outputs;
  7. Form an accountability structure to ensure consciousness remains; and
  8. Seek out opportunities for implicit bias awareness for organizational development.

Our Pledge

Decoding Dyslexia disavows racism, hatred, discrimination, police brutality, systematic, institutional and implicit biases.

Decoding Dyslexia pledges to diligently work to learn, listen and become aware of the effects of racism, biases, disparities in resources and programs and its impacts on Black and brown students who are dyslexic.

We pledge to become conscious and intentional of our messaging, campaigns, imagery, advocacy, support and partnerships to ensure that Black and brown students and families are represented.

We pledge to genuinely support, raise awareness and hold accountable the systems that overlook their needs and advocate on behalf of Black and brown students who not only have to overcome the effects of dyslexia but racism, educator bias, educational and systemic bias, access to services and information.

​We stand in accountability of the growth and changes we need to take, and we understand and stand in solidarity that Black lives matter, too.

Respectfully

Decoding Dyslexia Alaska Decoding Dyslexia Arkansas Decoding Dyslexia Colorado Decoding Dyslexia Delaware Decoding Dyslexia Florida Decoding Dyslexia Georgia Decoding Dyslexia Illinois Decoding Dyslexia Iowa Decoding Dyslexia Kentucky Decoding Dyslexia Louisiana Decoding Dyslexia Maryland Decoding Dyslexia Massachusetts Decoding Dyslexia Military Decoding Dyslexia Minnesota Decoding Dyslexia Missouri Decoding Dyslexia Nebraska Decoding Dyslexia New Hampshire Decoding Dyslexia New York Decoding Dyslexia North Dakota Decoding Dyslexia Ohio Decoding Dyslexia Oklahoma Decoding Dyslexia Ontario, Canada Decoding Dyslexia Oregon Decoding Dyslexia Rhode Island Decoding Dyslexia South Carolina Decoding Dyslexia Texas Decoding Dyslexia Utah Decoding Dyslexia Vermont Decoding Dyslexia Virginia Decoding Dyslexia Washington Decoding Dyslexia Washington, DC Decoding Dyslexia West Virginia Decoding Dyslexia Wyoming
Families/Advocates of Dyslexic Children in NJ Edward and Delaney Bray The Brittain Family Mark Brugger The Evoy Family Andrew Kavulich The Lewer/Lynam Family The Marsh Family
WY Lit (Wyoming)

Diversity Committee Team:
​ Clarice L. Jackson, Winifred A. Winston, Sheila Carr, Brandi Graham, DeJunne' Clark Jackson, Sandra Chittenden, Jamie Crenshaw, Karla Witt-Reid and Katie Ballard.

Maryland to Screen & Intervene for Kindergarten Students

Listen to educators, legislators, parents & students as they explain how reading screening and early interventions can help students who are at risk of reading difficulties and disabilities like dyslexia.
Listen to the DDMD origin story and learn about why parents and students across Maryland (and across the country) join together to raise their voices for students with dyslexia.  We know what to do: so let's do it.

Where to Find Help for Dyslexia, Dysgraphia & Dyscalculia

Please connect with your local Decoding Dyslexia Maryland chapter to learn more about supports for families along with how you can put your boots on the ground to change reading instruction in Maryland. LOCAL CHAPTERS

Ready to Read Screen & Intervene Legislation Signing Ceremony

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Thanks to these students and their parents, teachers and community partners, the Ready to Read bill passed the House and Senate unanimously. #soallcanread
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ESOL teacher Diana Gough, Prince George's County Chapter Leader, presented to the Prince George's County Delegation Education Committee, Chaired by Delegate Alonzo Washington in January 2019.
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Delegation's Education Subcommittee in February. Pictured above are Diana Gough and Delegation Chair, Delegate Alonzo Washington, D-Prince Georges.
Delegate Eric Luedtke and Senator Craig Zucker, sponsors of the Ready to Read bills, talk about the unanimous House vote for SB 734 on March 27th!  #soallcanread 
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Ameer Baraka supports the Ready to Read Act and asks Governor Hogan and Lieutenant Governor Boyd Rutherford for their support to screen kids for reading difficulties early! Follow Ameer on Twitter @ameerbaraka
Delegate Luedtke Drops House Bill 690: Ready to Read! 85 cosponsors!!
Decoding Dyslexia Maryland Frederick County's Dynamic Duo delivers testimony to the Kirwan Commission during its last public forum in November 2018. With laughs and honesty delivered with the true spirit of fierce advocates, the girls supported the Ready to Read Act and related how reading screening would have helped them get the help they needed.