 I think the room is quiet and naturally, so I think this is a great moment to proceed. Thank you all for coming. We are the House Education Committee, and we are here today to hear from you about work that the committee is doing on literacy in the instruction in Vermont. A few years ago, the Legislature Commission report to look at the way we provide instruction and funds, services for children, students who struggle in some way. And we received that report. It ended up being foundational work that the committee did coming forward with something called Act 173, which looks at our service delivery model and the way that we fund students who need additional support, including special education 504. So out of that report, it also identified literacy as an area where the state needed to do some work. And to that effect, we have decided to take this up and we are looking forward to hearing from you. We have three bills that are just in our, you know, now that is not the end of our work. The work that we do may end up looking nothing like that and part of that will depend on what we hear from you today. We also aware that this is an issue also could have a lot of emotion to it for people who have struggled with reading. You'll have three minutes. Everybody who haven't signed up, let us know. If you wanted to speak today, we'll give you three minutes. I know three minutes doesn't feel very long, but in order to make sure we get to everybody, that's the deal. So Kathleen, Representative James, will be timing the three minutes and that when you have 30 seconds left to go, she'll do that. And when you're tying this up, a T. Very concrete. And if you aren't able, you say, oh, I really wish I'd said, please feel free to submit written testimony to us as well. We're more than happy to hear from you and Avery Lam who is right over there, will share her email information and we will take that and post it on our website as well if you'd like. So with that, we'll get started. We have sort of broken it up into professional witnesses and personal witnesses, just making sure that we have the various voices in this discussion represented. So we'll start with Julius Faulding and on deck will be... Doreen Dorfman. Yeah, so you can just be ready, Doreen, to go. Okay, well thank you. For the record, could you state your name? Julius Faulding? Good afternoon, my name is Julius Faulding. Throughout my life, I've struggled with dyslexia. I've been through ups and downs thinking that I wasn't everybody who'd got a medal with my friends or my family. For my first grade, it sounded like I had dyslexia. School was the hardest thing for me. There was just one time when somebody said to me, I will never forget. The university was sitting at a T. left school who didn't understand how to do something. A girl in her class said, you can't stop your stupid. That year was very hard for me. I remember coming home every day and crying on the bus. My classes were all new to me. They just didn't understand, or my teacher. My mom took me and my sister out of school and home to school with us. Throughout my life, there's been more comments like that that made me feel like just because I can't spell or read or write, it makes me less than them. Yeah, you're probably not. You're just gonna go on the record, so. Yeah. If you could do a little bit louder, because we really want to hear from you. I hope that some kids don't have to go through what I went through and get their needs met or obviously don't have a life knowing that when they grow, they won't be able to spell. I'm currently in eighth grade. I'm going into high school next year. I'm worried that I'm going to be picked on or have comments made about my spelling. I'm also worried that if I need help with the spelling word, if I can trust somebody to tell me about me being young. I don't want to be less than anybody else, but yet I am because of my spelling writing. It's not my fault I was born this way. Some people call it disability, but I don't think it's a disability for me to change it. Thank you very much for your time. Please support the spells because I'm going to do what I would do. Thank you, Julia. For the record, can you tell us your name and whose testimony you will be reading? My name is Dr. Doreen Dorfman from Woodbury Center. The author of the letter I will read is Dr. Bruce Rossow of Williamsville, Vermont who was unable to attend. Dear members of the House of Committee on Education, thank you for taking the time to receive this letter written in response to the literacy bills under consideration. These bills are under consideration for a reason. Recent data show that 63% of our fourth graders are reading basic or below basic levels, reflecting even at the slow level, downward movement in achievement. These results are alarming. Why are we in such dire straits? Going back before anyone in this room was born, there have been reading wars. One side remains in favor of the whole approach to teaching reading with a focus on meaning, exposure to stories, world language and books and reliance on contextual guessing and visual cues. The other side has long promoted a structured approach to teaching, decoding, encoding, text comprehension and written expression in which all the layers of word structure including phonology and specifically phony, awareness, orthography, morphology, semantics, syntax, argument structure and pragmatics are explicitly taught in this step by step developmentally informed manner. What has changed over a few hundred years of bickering is now we have the science of reading. What hasn't changed is the bickering. The science has clearly come out on the side of structured and explicit teaching of emerging basic reading and skills. In 2000, the National Reading Council presented overwhelming evidence supporting this conclusion. The report recommended five areas to target for instruction including phonemic, awareness, phonics, oral reading, fluency, vocabulary and comprehension. Preschool and kindergarten age children need in addition to strong oral language development, explicit instruction in letters, letter names and letter formation and manipulation of speech from large units to single speech sounds segmented from spoken words. Once this foundation is built, children prepare to discover the alphabetical principle that a spoken word can be segmented into phonemes, each of which is represented by a letter unit. The mapping of speech sounds to letter units we call phonics. This is at the core of learning to efficiently read and accurately spell words. In emergent literacy, the ability to decode and spell previously unknown words into the key to the kingdom. Am I out? 30 seconds sign. Oh, okay, sorry. We're gonna reset, you have 30 seconds. Those who catch on early thrive, those who don't sink. Early intervention saves kids. Explicit and sequential code based instruction through the primary grades is the road to the code. Unfortunately, since the release of the NRP report, their recommendations and the underlying research have been ignored in many parts of Vermont. They continue and more students are struggling under our watch. It's time. Thank you. Thank you. My name is Linda Moran. I am a parent of a dyslexic boy and this is our story. Why are parents seen as true partner? Why aren't parents seen as true partners in their children's education? I have a 10 year old son who was red flagged in kindergarten, but the school wasn't sure what the issue was. Cody was diagnosed with an eye issue, but the learning was undiagnosed. At the beginning of second grade, I questioned Cody's learning ability because he was behind in his academics. The answer I was given was a lot of kids struggle. He'll be fine, he'll catch up. In the middle of second grade, there was no progress. When I was witnessing no advancement in his learning, I requested an outside evaluation done because I knew Cody had some level of dyslexia. I wrote a letter of request for evaluation and then I was approached by the administrator and was asked, do you realize the school has to find this request? During an IEP meeting in the third grade, the team and I were discussing Cody's level of reading and coding skills. I had mentioned statistic wise, Cody was probably not going to be an admin reader but would be able to read to some degree with the right structured literacy program. The following day, Cody was pulled into a room not once but twice and was asked, does your mom put you down a lot? Let the anxiety begin. If it's not bad enough to be dyslexic and be surrounded by your peers and their negative remarks about your reading ability, but let us add the faculty to this scenario by questioning the child about his mother's parenting skills. I can go on several more instances but that isn't what's going to fix this problem that affects hundreds of students in Vermont. What will help our children to succeed in our schools? The literacy bill being signed will help address this epidemic that students and parents deal with every day. Please support structured literacy, early screening and teacher training. Thank you. Thank you. Hi, thank you for having me. Is there a question? Sure, my name is Cara Quinn and I'm a first grade teacher at Edmunds Elementary School in Burlington, Vermont. And as of the summer of 2019, I'm also an Oregon-Gillingham certified classroom educator. I have a master's degree in elementary education and I've been teaching grades K through four for 17 years. And early on in my teaching career, I used a combination of foundations, visual products, readers and writers workshop. I also had some basic training and guided reading from my colleagues and most often the kids in my classroom that had strong pre-reading skills did well, but those without a solid foundation stayed below the standard and got additional support outside of the classroom. Despite the fact that literacy instruction is an integral part in an elementary classroom, I never felt like I had adequate training or that that was a strength of mine. In the summer of 2018, I decided to take a course on structured literacy offered by the Stern Center. Budget cuts had meant that I would no longer be able to rely on interventionist support so that the below grade level students could get the support that they needed. So I started to panic because I knew I didn't have the necessary skills and level of understanding that was required of the special educators and interventionists that typically worked with my struggling students. The structured literacy approach completely transformed my approach to teaching literacy. I was blown away with all the information I learned. It was dumbfounded as to why this had not been required part of my initial training as a classroom teacher. I questioned how I was ever considered qualified to teach literacy without this level of understanding about the English language and how it works. It was honestly both embarrassing and enlightening. Prior to taking the structured literacy course, I had a very basic understanding of the structure of our language and how it relates to teaching literacy. I had lots of confusion and certainly didn't understand the why behind the patterns and rules of structured literacy approach. The shift that occurred afterwards was completely remarkable. In 2019, 77% of my class was below grade level in reading. That year I had students that started grade one as early kindergarten readers and ended the year above grade level for first grade. I had non-readers that finished first grade at a mid first grade reading level. In 2019, my class outperformed any of the 15 classes that preceded them in all areas of literacy. And I started seeing results immediately in their handwriting, but then the positive results were evident in all areas. All of my readers exhibited consistent decoding skills that far surpassed the skills of the previous classes. And eventually, my whole class was reading or attempting to read the more complex reading passages they were given. My students had a much larger bank of learned words or sight words that they could not only read but also write. They could consistently use spelling rules to write words and sentences and many of the kids would apply these rules in their independent writing pieces. We all benefited from the vocabulary expansion that happened. Because of the structured literacy approach, now I'm way more diagnostic in my teaching. I can look at my readers and know specifically which concepts they have and which ones they don't have. I can also educate their parents and explain the specific skills their students have. I know firsthand that there are many factors that contribute to a child's readiness for reading. But I also know that the structured literacy approach is consistent, transparent, and predictable, and that's exactly what these emergent readers need. Is that that you finished? I have one more paragraph. It's quick. The structured literacy approach has completely empowered my students. They have an enthusiasm for reading and writing that I've never seen before. That enthusiasm combined with an understanding of how the English language works is what is propelling them into success in literacy and giving them a foundation for all future learning. Thank you. Thank you. In a record, can you tell us your name? My name is Julie Masco. Hello, my name is Julie Masco. I live in Eden, Vermont. I've lived there all my life. I'm the mother of eight children, five adopted, four of them from DCF, one private and three biological children. I have five grandchildren. I've been intending IEP means for my children and for my daughter, Sierra's education. And now I attend them for my grandchildren. Learning differences are hereditary. And unfortunately, instructional practices haven't changed and I want something better for my grandchildren. I don't want my granddaughter, Maddie, to go through what my daughter, Sierra, did. I'm here today because of my fifth grade granddaughter, Maddie. She doesn't want to go to school anymore. She recently dropped out. For years, I've been telling the school that something is wrong. Why isn't she reading at a higher level? Maddie reported to us that she was sitting in a classroom and didn't know how to do it. She asked the teacher for help and the teacher told her that she needed to wait. And by the time the teacher got done going through the class, class was over. Maddie never did get any help. She said the teacher hollers and looks angry at her a lot. Maddie's afraid to go into the classroom. I've been trying to get her help but people don't understand or know what she needs. We should be able to trust the teachers to give us the right information. At one of the meetings, I said, this child is in the fifth grade and is reading on an early second grade reading level. Before I could say any more, the director of special services interrupted me. She embarrassed me and she was implying that I had a negative attitude. And that's probably why Maddie won't go to school. The head of DCF was there at that meeting and he did the same thing. And I think they had it all preplanned. You see, they try to stifle your opinion when they have no answers to give to you. My husband, Steve, from the years of observation said, they tell you at the beginning of the year something and then it's not implemented until the end of the year. I want something better from my grandchildren. Please support this bill and ensure that the Implementation is done with fidelity. Thank you. Good afternoon. I'm an educator of 30 years and much of my education has been in the high school. I'm nearing closing my career and was dumbfounded of why students were graduating with second and third grade reading levels. I have been full circle. I am now in the elementary level and now know why. Have you ever Googled reading programs? If not, beware. The marketing of reading programs is so pervasive. It is exhausting to discern and review them all. As I said, as an educator with 30 years of experience in both the public and private sector, I am all too familiar with a multitude of aspects that influence students' reading outcomes and reading programs is one. Good intention educators and school districts, eager to improve students' reading scores, fall prey to marketed reading programs. Many of these aren't even backed by science. Often these include teacher manuals with step-by-step directions and a plethora of reading, excuse me, of related reading materials. Yet it is not these manuals nor materials that create effective reading instruction. It is teacher knowledge and understandings of aspects such as but not limited to our history of the English language and its predictability, how our brain learns best and essential approaches for implementing reading instruction. Rather than our tax dollars spent on reading programs and their robust materials, might investing in developing teachers' depth of knowledge in breadth of understanding to approach reading instruction, particularly K through three, be more prudent. Our reading data indicates that current reading instruction is not working well enough. Cookie-cutter reading programs are not the answer. Might we consider one solid instructional reading approach? Reading instruction, particularly in K through three, must be explicit, structured, multi-sensory, sequential, cumulative, and tailored to each student's needs. Dr. Mary Ambalanus quotes a simply sums my point, what we need instead of one well-grounded, grounded teacher-proof method is a universe of well-grounded, method-proof teachers. Let us re-examine the marketing of reading programs in general and external student politics and our fixed mindsets influencing our students' reading outcomes. I have four more sentences. Go ahead, yeah. Okay. We don't know what we don't know. We must re-imagine literacy instruction to close the achievement gap. Once we agree to the value and power structured language provides to ensuring students' read proficiency, then tier one, tier two, and tier three, literacy teachers will be better equipped to improve students' literacy outcomes. Thank you for your consideration towards passing this literacy bill. And you can see. I was told, is this personal or a professional? It's become a passion. Thank you. No, you're good. You're welcome. Yeah, great. If you want to move me around. But you might have, you might have 15 minutes. Is that what we're trying to do? This is Sierra's testimony. I'm the mother of four children. My twins have been attending even schools since they were young. When I was in school, I always felt stupid and dumb and that nobody cared about me. I turned to drugs and spent time in jail. The people I met in jail were the most real people I've ever met. Now, I see these feelings in my daughter and I didn't want her to go through what I did. I got so busy trying to take care of my children's educational needs that I quit my job. DCF told me that if I homeschooled, then they would get me for educational neglect and asked me, who has the degree? He was angry. He didn't scare us. I said, you're trying to get me for educational neglect, but the school is not doing anything for my daughter. So it's my responsibility to make sure she gets an education and I'm gonna homeschool her because she isn't getting an education right now. The state doesn't want me to homeschool but the school isn't teaching my children. They hired a paraeducator with a high school education to work with Maddie. The school and DCF made me feel wrong because I advocate and advocate and they blame her lack of progress and mental health on our home life other than being accountable within the school. As a parent, how are we going to know if they are making progress? I have asked a number in a little box on the report card doesn't tell me. I want to see the progress and there's a graph where my cousin works which will give us more of an idea of where our kids are. Looking at a graph is better. How do I know that she's really getting it? I trusted them and here we are. My son is in kindergarten. He has speech services and is on an IEP but he cannot write his letters. I have another son in preschool. They both have speech needs and we have a strong family history. This bill will help break this cycle for my youngest and for the next generation. Please support structured literacy instruction for the classroom, progress monitoring with visuals so parents can understand and a dyslexia screener. My children need to be screened. Please help my family. For the record, can you tell us your name? Yes, Bella Costello. All right, I'm a little nervous, sorry. So I want to say that we started our dyslexic journey. My son started kindergarten. Throughout the year, we could recognize letters for sounds together. We wondered should we peek in the garden again but being such a bright child, it would not be good for your self esteem. The teacher suggested he go on to first grade. During kindergarten, he hadn't tested outside of school. My husband not being a faith into the school system and it was noted in the report showing signs of dyslexia. He was immediately put on an IEP at the end of kindergarten. During the summer between kindergarten and first grade, my husband passed away unexpectedly. So within the next three years, I let the school take over my childhood education while I was struggling with the grief and being a single mom. In third grade, I went into his math class to observe. I realized that his peers were on the rug discussing multiplication. Where was my son? He was sitting at a separate table with a folder counting ducks and trying to add them up. See, my son not only had dyslexia but he had dysgraphia and dyscalculia as well. I then realized that I needed to step up as a mom. I took all his IPs and put them together. They were exactly the same. They were all his goals were the same. Nothing had changed. Why was this happening? He's a bright child. While it was obviously that he was not on the right setting for learning, he needed to be a specialized program with like-minded peers. So I immediately started researching summer programs for dyslexic children. I applied for three schools. Two of them would not accept him due to his academic scores. He was way too low. Schools would not accommodate him. Finally, landmark stepped up in Beverly, Massachusetts. They had a five-week summer program. We went down one day to be tested at that school. The director of that program came out in tears and said, I have never met a child that was so illiterate at his age. We received the one and only scholarship. For the next three years, he attended landmark for two summers. He had summer tutoring and they did develop a specialized reading lab within the school. Still, his reading level remained very low, really illiterate. Finally, in his sixth grade, I.P. meeting, Greenwood School, a residential school for boys, was recommended. He made leaps and bounds of his two years in schooling there. Go ahead. So he attended two years there and now present and he made leaps and bounds in Greenwood School being specialized in education. And now he's at the public school in St. Albans with small class sizes focused on his interests when he graduated from high school. He's a building trade, he's loved school, he's not grade level as far as reading, but he is, my fear was that he would never be able to travel, not be able to pick up a magazine and learn things that he was interested in. So it had early intervention been put into place. My child might have been able to continue public education. Thank you. Hello, my name is Mary Grace. I'm the executive director of partnerships for Literacy and Learning. And I feel I'm a little bit of a fish out of water here today, but I don't disagree with anything that's been said. Let me tell you a little bit about our organization. We work with schools all over the state to improve literacy instruction and the systems that support classroom teachers and student learning. Over the past 20 years, formerly, we were the Vermont Reads Institute at UVM. We've learned a lot about why it's working and not working well in schools for literacy instruction. I agree with everyone here that we have a lot of work to do as our name, as FAC, and local assessment scores tell us we can do better. But how do we do better matters? And so I'd like to raise an important point. Not all students learn the same way. And you're hearing right now stories from people that their student is not learning in a typical classroom. But teachers have diverse classrooms. A proficient teacher juggles a wide array of learning styles, behaviors, social and emotional needs. A proficient teacher embraces a comprehensive approach to instruction that addresses all the components of literacy as developmentally appropriate. What we worry about at our organization is that a bill that proposes a particular approach to literacy instruction will ignore that different students need different amounts of and types of instruction at different times. Let me tell you a personal story. My daughter was in a very structured literacy environment where she learned her literacy reading to read in a very systematic way. By the end of the second grade, she didn't know that she could read a book. She had mastered decoding by the end of kindergarten, but never had the opportunity to embrace literature. And we know that reading is about making meaning. And if we are keeping students back from doing that, we do a lot more harm. Rather than mandating by law how a teacher responds to his or her students, I would encourage us to look at the policies, approaches and laws already in place to see how we can support all students and how, additionally, we can support the teacher's professional development that's so desperately needed so that they can continue to work with the most vulnerable students. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, so Anaya. So I'm Sandra Chetnidnes, I don't know. I'm gonna read this for Anaya because she's my... Dear House Ed Committee, I'm Anaya Hoskins and I'm 10 years old, almost 11. I'm in fifth grade and I have dyslexia. My mom told me when I was in third grade that I have dyslexia. I hated reading, I still do. Kindergarten through fourth grade, I was always getting pulled out of my classes. I'd go do extra math and reading. I felt like I had to do extra work outside of the classroom. Only a few kids were doing it with me. It made me feel overwhelmed and annoyed because it wasn't helping me. In third grade, when I had my tutoring after school by a private tutor, it made me feel anxious and frustrated. In fourth grade, I had tutoring by way too many tutors online with Linda Moodbell in Boston. I was feeling stressed out and I had to miss science and specials. I wish I could be able to do things I like the most. I would get so overwhelmed and shut down and not do my Linda Moodbell. If this bill was in place when I was younger, I would not have to be pulled out for learning how to read in fifth grade. I want to be able to do science and social studies with my peers. I wanna be able to read hard words and know what they mean. I feel like the majority of teachers I've had don't understand anyone's dyslexia or dyscalculia. They don't know how to help us correctly learn. I get distracted in my classes when my teachers aren't giving directions I can understand. Please give my teachers the support they need to help us. In conclusion, these are all of the reasons coming from me to you. This bill should be passed. Please pay attention to the kids who need the help. We deserve the right to a correct education so we can do what we want in our futures. Sincerely Anaya Hoskins. Thank you Anaya. Thank you. It's important that we hear from you. Thank you everyone. Hi, my name is Cynthia Garthier-Horse. I grew up in Calis. I have a dating and in-call language from Marge-Lipson and I've been getting teacher training at APM in the mid-70s. And I used the training that Marge-Lipson gave me. My professional career gave me the opportunity to be trained in other programs such as Linda Bluebell, Wilson, and Roy Dillingham. And I now use those programs to create success with the students that I tutor. I work as a private literacy tutor at the moment. I have six years of public school teaching experience. I think this bill is very important and I think the way this bill is written is going to be critical. We need a bill that is going to really surround, surround our teachers and our professionals with the opportunity to gain the knowledge that they need without letting them refer to practices that have been documented by research not to work. I'm concerned that the wording of the bill will be open to both whole language or balanced literacy as well as to explicit instruction. And I think it's really important that it focus on scientifically-based, scientifically-researched programs that with results that can be replicated by numbers of kids across the board. I think this because I believe that reading instruction is a right that we have in our country. It's what our democracy is based on, the ability to read and comprehend things that are being written in our countries that we can make our laws and judge them for ourselves and then vote as well-educated voters. I also think it's an equity issue because the studies show that over the years the children whose families are unable to read for whatever reason tend to be the children who are not getting the opportunity to receive the services that they need in school. As I said, I work as a private literacy tutor and it seems to me that most of the people I work with, although I try to keep my tutoring services affordable, the people who have time and resources to reach out to someone to teach their children are people who are middle-class or above. And I work hard to find ways to reach the families that can't really afford that because they have the right to learn to read too. I think that if teachers are taught and have the opportunity to experience what it's like to use sequential direct instruction to teach phonics to children, they will see their children grow and blossom. I find it very hard to believe that a second grader who was able to decode is not basically banging down the door to get to the library and get library books. That child would be thrilled about using their skills. I believe in the mother's testimony and I would like to be able to help a child like that. And I don't think it has to do with the way the child was instructed. I think the role of the child's enforcement to receive direct sequential instruction, to receive structured language instruction. And I would like that for all of the children and all of our communities. I think this issue is really key. I think it's life and death that people learn this. Our prisons are filled with community people who struggle to read and are being blamed for not learning to read when the schools are teaching free problems. Thank you very much for the opportunity to share this. Hi, I'm Lisa Allen. I'm testified today in support of all the parents who are trying to ensure that children receive the specialized reading instruction they deserve. My son is now a junior in high school and doing well, but it was a long road of advocating for his needs that got him where he is today. When he was young, he attended the same preschool where I taught and I guess he was not identifying his colors, letters, or numbers. Through a family history of dyslexia, therefore, when my son entered kindergarten, he asked that he be evaluated and received services. The reading specialist did a classroom assessment and said he was on grade level. He did not need support. His teacher and I continued to advocate for intervention so he did receive support later in that year. In first grade, I was again told that he did not need evaluation because the teacher used a classroom assessment tool that showed he was on grade level. I continued voicing my concerns and he again received some extra readings for no formal evaluation. In March of that school year, I went outside of the school district to get my son evaluated privately. He showed a clear deficit and rapid naming, which is an early indicator of later struggles with reading fluency. I was encouraged to find someone who can give him explicit reading instruction. A few months later, at our expense, we hired a private tutor who worked with him throughout the summer. In second grade, we again voiced our concerns. In this time, although not until January, the school year, he was formally evaluated. The testing showed he was reading 18 words correct per minute. The fumes he banked bentomarm for second grade using his assessment tool was 8,200 words correct per minute. The score in the other test showed he was significantly below grade level of expectation for second grade, and they placed him among the bottom 15% of his peers. He was therefore finally eligible to be placed on an IMB for special education in the area of reading fluency. He ultimately received formal instruction through the school. But observing the instruction he was receiving at school, compared to the type of instruction he was receiving from his tutor, it became clear to us that statements with only the school instruction alone would have been completely inadequate. So we continued paying for private tutor at our own expense. By fifth grade, he has closed the gap, and was reading on grade level. He will always read out a silver rate in his peers, and he must do so with great intention. This is the nature of dyslexia. We are thankful for all the teachers who continue to accommodate with extra time to complete his work. When I asked my son if I could share his story today, he responded, yes, I want you to, because there are kids in my grade who receive only reading instruction through school with me, and they are still struggling. I can't imagine how frustrating it would be to be in high school and not be able to read on grade level. I'm a teacher and we advocated for a son. I did not give up when we were told he was on grade level. We also paid for private tutoring. Not every family has these resources, which makes our current education system an equitable, and it will fail to give some children the chance they deserve. Thank you for your time. Thank you. Good evening. Actually, I also have twins and I have four children, so that was really moving. So nine years ago, the word dyslexia changed my life. Because my children's disposition changed in first grade. You need to know more about dyslexia and how to help my children. I study structured literacy. I earned a graduate degree with concentration in dyslexia studies, and then I worked as a special educator for two years. In my second year as a special educator, I started working with the younger students. A fellow OG reading specialist came on board. She teaches teacher structured literacy. I thought we were going to make history in this small school. But the classroom teachers didn't have the same belief or training. Though the principal had attempted a common language. In the beginning of the year, I was quietly reading a book to a first grader to build our relationship, to build trust. The classroom teacher came over and told him to read. He calmly said, I can't read. She pointed to the book and said, read the pictures. He looked up at her and said, I can't read. She repeated, read the pictures as I taught you. His face turned red. He stood up, put his hands on his hips and said, I can't read. The teacher sternly sent him out of the room. I had recently evaluated him. He was right. He couldn't read. He didn't know how all the sounds related to the letters. But he knew that looking at pictures wasn't reading. Let's unpack this. In kindergarten, he fell behind because staff was not trained. If the early elementary school educators had training, training that they believed in. They would have seen that his real struggle was not more in literacy, excuse me, was more in literacy, not his emotional disturbance. My evaluations show that his math scores were not an area of need. Please support dyslexia training. If he had been screened in kindergarten, a staff member trained in the science of reading would have been able to help him. Please support a screener. If the classroom teacher had structured literacy training, she would have known what this first grader knew. Reading pictures was not reading. Please support teacher training. If this bill had been implemented with fidelity when he began kindergarten, he would not have come to first grade needing intensive support. He may not have been sent out of the room so often. What about the teachers? My expertise as a special educator was second class. I was there, but not included in the decision-making during the above moment. By the grace of God, thank you. I helped my little buddy. Let's help other children turn this bill into law. Okay. So good evening, Health Community on Education. Thanks for having us. My name is Emily Lesh, and I am a mother of two, a professional in workforce development in education and policy. So both professionally and personally, this is a passionate issue to me. I'm also dyslexic. My son is dyslexic. My two brothers are dyslexic. My dad was likely dyslexic, and my grandfather was likely dyslexic. So I'm here as a parent and a concerned citizen, and I'm concerned that we're failing our kids. Research demonstrates that children who do not learn to read by the end of third grade are likely to remain poor readers for the rest of their lives. And reading is foundational, so that reading's foundational, and then they're likely to fall behind in other areas as well. There are also broad social and societal implications to this. So if you struggle to read, you're more likely to drop out of high school, to end up in the criminal justice system, and to live in poverty. As a country, we've grown onto a custom to having a nation full of kids and adults who don't read well. One in four fourth graders do not read at a basic level. Here in Vermont, we're worse off. One in three fourth graders in Vermont do not read at a basic level as the recent NAEP scores show. So this is unacceptable. And what we're doing right now is not working. So my son was on that trajectory. He's just in second grade this year, and given our family history of dyslexia, I've been on high alert since kindergarten, checking in with his teachers, faculty, and staff around his progress in any early warning signs around trouble with language processing or dyslexia. And the response that I've received is very similar to many in that I hear constantly that he's very smart, he's really engaged, and he's really well behaved. And he's doing great in that he'll learn to read in time. And he is smart, and he can break down the complex scientific systems. He's creative, he's compassionate, and he's a friend to all. Last year, he started to say that he didn't like to read and that he couldn't read, which I knew that he couldn't read. He was being straightforward about that. And I noticed a real shift in his attitude, and he was really struggling. And his teachers continually just said that he's really smart and that he'd get it eventually. So this year, just before Thanksgiving, I finally pushed the school district to do an evaluation, and his educational profile makes it extremely clear that he has extreme difficulty in language processing. He's dyslexic like me, although the education evaluation doesn't make that clear. And so we're working right now to complete his IDP and start basic structured literacy instruction. And so despite compassionate caring, passionate teachers who have his best interest in art, they didn't have the skills that they needed early on to get him what he needs. My brothers, I quickly went to head on because they received education in a private school in Cincinnati, specifically for kids with learning disabilities. Didn't learn to read in grade school or in middle school. What brought us to Vermont was Pine Ridge School in Williston, Vermont, which is no longer there. My parents had three things that made it possible for them to learn how to read in high school. They had first-hand knowledge of my brothers and what they needed. Secondly, they were huge advocates for them and they pushed for my brother's needs and what they needed. And then third, they had resources. I'm talking straight up cashier, and the savvy and the time to find the cash to get them into the high school and boarding school in Williston, Vermont. They learned to read, okay, great. So they learned to read and I hope that Vermont will follow other states, like Mississippi who's the only state across the country this last year that where their NAICS scores increased. Thank you. Thank you. Hello. My name is Jessica Berry. I'm speaking in front of all of you as a special educator. Throughout my young career, I've seen first-hand how we are not supporting our students with dyslexia. I see this as a teacher who has completed a teaching education program for both elementary, classroom teacher and special educator in the state of Vermont. In my five years of attending this program, the word dyslexia, nor structure of literacy, instruction was mentioned at all. I entered my first education job in 2015 as a special educator. I was immediately handed a report from the Stern Center diagnosing a student with dyslexia. I was perplexed by this term. I read the definition and immediately did all I could to be sure the plan I wrote and the program that my team was supporting was the best fit for the student. It wasn't until the following year that I was provided an opportunity to attend Fort Gillingham training, as well as Linden Bell training as well, to help best support the students I was working with. It is important to note that this report from the Stern Center came after a parent was in dispute with the school. Despite many attempts at intervention and following what many consider way to fail model to qualify for specialized instruction, this student was entering sixth grade at the time, but their reading and writing was below grade level but not significant enough to qualify. I hope that I don't come across as accusatory, but it's disheartening that it took that long for the word or the approach to change to help that student. I'm sure there are, as you hear, there's many stories like this, but I believe that they could be avoided if schools implemented evidence-based literacy instruction in the prime years of K to 3. I'm here today to speak for those students I see tearing up and mentally struggling in my office because they're struggling to connect to symbols on a page that we take for granted. Children are our most vulnerable population and I vow to protect them and make sure they're getting what they need when I became a teacher. So I'm here to ask you to consider the proposed bill for teacher training so it's no longer an excuse. We can't teach what we don't know. I'm asking you to consider the dyslexia screening so students like my example don't fall through the cracks because not all parents understand or they want to trust the school or statistically have struggled with school and have anxiety about addressing it. I'm fortunate to have been provided the training opportunities to consider myself an Oregon-Gillingham junkie, but not all areas provide that. I have seen how appropriate instruction allows students to access new worlds by gaining foundational skills to read. Passing these bills will allow students, parents and teachers access to resources and not only help students with dyslexia, but all students. Thank you. Hello and welcome. Hello, thank you. My name is Andrew Brown. Our child has been identified as 2E or twice exceptional. In essence, this means he is gifted and has dyslexia and dysgraphia. We are glad he was identified. However, we feel it's important to note that he was not identified in the public school no matter how hard we have pushed. He wasn't even granted a comprehensive evaluation. Our happy child entered kindergarten, not able to read and de-exited kindergarten without having and still not reading. We decided we need to take matters into our own hands and we decided to home school. My wife does not have an education degree, nor is she a licensed teacher, though she does hold a four-year degree and has a passion for finding the answers to things she doesn't understand. She, over time, realized what our child was experiencing was dyslexia and dysgraphia. She educated herself on what he needed and did the best she could. He is now in fourth grade in public school and is reading a love grade level according to our local benchmark assessments. Interestingly, interestingly enough, this is a child that missed his skipping books, skipping words he doesn't know and guessing them once he made them. He will also tell you he hates reading. I guess we should be glad his reading is above grade level, somehow we aren't. We can't help but wonder what would have happened if we trusted his kindergarten teacher that he would catch up. What if he continued to attend public school and not receive more of a re-reading instruction to inspire success? Would he have just been part of the appalling 32% of third graders that can't read? I'm glad we didn't take the chance and trust. I ask you, can you take a chance right now and trust our current literacy instruction is enough that our current identification measures are enough that dyslexia is receiving the attention it needs? As Mac Gardner Morse wrote in his testimony to you a few days ago, reading scores have not increased in the last 15 years and currently 63% of our children are not proficient in reading. Clearly the problem is not poverty, it is not special education, it is a general education problem. Our teachers have been taught and trained in the same literacy instruction methods from the past 35 years. And given the topic of today's hearing, I think it is fair to say we can all agree that the current system is broken and must be changed. I implore this committee to push back against those who say providing the needed interventions are high cost with low impact when it has not been tried and evaluated to determine whether that is opinion or fact. Perhaps training the teachers appropriately on the science of reading and learning disabilities such as dyslexia would be a step in the right direction. Perhaps some teachers would feel equipped enough to push back on the curriculum they are told to use. If Vermont is a national leader in climate change and still pushing for more, why are we trailing far behind the more than 40 other states with laws which specifically address and support dyslexia? Please change the way literacy is taught to our teachers so our children can truly learn to read so they can read to learn. Thank you. Welcome, my name is Kilbrock Castle and I'm 12 years old and in the seventh grade. The summer of second and third grade I was diagnosed with dyslexia and I've had tutoring so I was able to learn the rules that the school wasn't teaching. Just a couple of days ago a classmate of mine was asked how do you spell begin from the teacher? And she said, B-E-G-I-N-E. And I immediately thought, no, that would be begun because I know a rule that when a vowel is followed by consonant followed by silent E that vowel becomes long. So I know that would be begun. And I think everybody should be able to learn these rules. Also, when the teacher corrected her, she didn't teach her this rule, she simply said close, but it's B-E-G-I-N. Thank you, Phil. My name is Dewey LaHullier. My daughter, Lydia, was officially diagnosed with dyslexia when she was 10 years old. Lydia's incredibly bright, walked early and talked early and was a social butterfly right from the beginning. When she took preschool, the teacher noticed that she struggled to learn to write her name. And kindergarten, her teacher explained to me that she was not sure how Lydia learned. Now, I'm really concerned. She had tried everything in her 20-plus years of training and the experience that she had. So, Lydia was put on an IEP. She had a fantastic system at Johnson Elementary School. In first grade, I asked her special educator, is it possible that she had dyslexia? I was told they would look into it. What I did not know was that as much as they wanted to help Lydia and I know that they did, they did not have the training or the support to be able to screen her for that. I never asked again and they never confirmed or denied whether she had dyslexia. Please support the dyslexia screening part of this law. If I can stress anything more than anything. As a parent, when you are asking, you expect teachers and special educators to know whether your child has dyslexia. Like I just assumed 100% that if she had dyslexia, they would certainly know. Like I wouldn't have to keep asking because they would just know that. So please support dyslexia training for teachers. By the end of fifth grade, my daughter was withdrawn. She was nervous and she had lowest self-esteem. She didn't understand why everyone could do the work that was so hard for her. She continued to be a very diligent student. All the teachers told me how wonderful and hardworking she was and she would catch up. You'll hear that from all of us. Everybody said that they would catch up. A month later, Lydia was evaluated by the certain Senate and she was diagnosed. That was the end of fifth grade. Today, she is thriving and she's getting amazing support and she has an IEP that allows her to learn the way that her brain needs to. Still, she reads fluently at a third grade level in seventh grade. I can't stress that enough because she was always only a year behind, only one year behind. Third grade. But she is, she had a mom like me and I kept going to all those meetings and I kept pushing and I kept pushing and not all the kids in my mom have a mom like me. So please support these literacy pills and it'll make a huge difference in children's lives. Thank you. My name is Heather Rodriguez. In December of 2015, my son Estes was diagnosed officially with dyslexia at the Stern Center in Williston. He was six years old and in first grade. Estes was in kindergarten when I noticed his speech seemed to be a little bit different than my other sons and I know everyone tells you don't compare your two kids. There's always gonna be a difference but I just felt like something was different with his kid. So I mentioned it to his homeroom teacher and she had him visit the OT and he definitely had a delay. That was my first clue, unknown clue. During the fall of his first grade year, Estes was placed in an RTI group and quickly moved to one-on-one with a weaving interventionist. This is when I started asking a lot of questions. Why is he in a group and then he's moved to one-to-one? What's wrong? Why is he not learning to read? I was told that this is normal for kids and wait, just wait, he'll catch up. My husband and I decided that we wouldn't wait for him to fail and we took him to the Stern Center for a learning evaluation. The Stern Center confirmed our suspicions. He was evaluated by Stephanie Wade and found to be present for a specific learning disability known as dyslexia. Shortly after receiving the Stern Center of Al, we were sitting at the dinner table and my two sons were bickering saying, you're dumb, my older son, you're dumb, you can't read that. That's when we took the opportunity to explain to Estes that he was diagnosed with something called dyslexia. He listened, he didn't really understand and he couldn't even see the word, but what he did ask us is, so mommy, I'm not dumb, nobody, I'm not dumb. My husband and I began the process of getting Estes' help that he needed at school. During the same time we hired an OG train tutor, along with tutoring at the Stern Center. He was placed in an IEP at the end of first grade and remained on one until the spring of fourth grade when he transitioned into a 504 plan. Estes flourished during the seven months he was in private tutoring so much that when he entered second grade, his general ed teacher and his special educator could not believe how far he had come such a short period of time. This tutoring laid the foundation for the next two years at Johnson Elementary School working with his special education team. Estes now in fifth grade is at grade level rating and continues to receive the Principal's Academic Achievement Award every semester. Estes is thriving in school. Estes has an amazing team at Johnson Elementary who has supported his out-of-the-box ideas and entrepreneurial spirit, which is why I'm here today. Please support the dyslexia screener part of this law and please support dyslexia screening and training for teachers. I mentioned above, Estes was in kindergarten when I noticed a speech delay. His teacher had been teaching for many, many years and by the time my son was here in her class, this teacher had multiple years of teaching, wonderful educator, even has a dyslexic child of her home and was not able to recognize the warning signs of my son. Parents, Estes is lucky he had parents who were able to get him diagnosed and tutoring at such an early age. Parents who continue to partner with his school and provide him with the necessary literacy skills to be successful. However, not all role-owners have the ability or the resources to do what my husband and I did. Some and someone needs to be a voice for these kids and fight for them. Please support literacy bills Sergeant because our children deserve better than what they're getting. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. My name is Estes and I am dyslexic. In first grade, I thought I was dumb because I didn't know how to read. Also, I think some of our kids thought that. I still don't know how to spell gray. I'm a terrible speller. What helped you? My family was Ms. Berry and my tutor, Ms. Jennifer, who works at, is it PA? I think, Memorial. And yeah, thanks. Hi, my name is Melissa Culver and I am here in support of the literacy bills because my daughter was 12 and a half and at the end of her seventh grade year, when she was finally diagnosed with dyslexia. During my daughter's early elementary school years, I often met with teachers and guidance to try and figure out why my child struggled so much in school. Along with the reading and academic struggles, my daughter also missed a lot of school due to illness and she became a child that worried about what might be asked of her in the classroom. Dyslexia frequent trips to the nurse's office and eventually to school refusal. According to the school, anxiety was the problem and it's true, the visible symptoms of her anxiety were obvious. So obvious that everyone put their attention on the anxiety and sadly, couldn't see the hidden nature of her coexisting learning disability. I asked numerous times for academic testing. I was told my daughter didn't present like kids typically diagnosed with learning disabilities. I trusted the educators. I assumed they would know if my child had a learning disability. Teachers were not concerned because my child could read and she was highly verbal. In hindsight, we now know she memorized whole words and had amassed a huge bank of sight words which helped her compensate and get by early on. However, as one grows older, you need to understand how to sound out or decode words to access more challenging printed language. And if you have dyslexia, someone needs to teach you how to decode words or reading levels do not progress. Research shows that for dyslexia, early intervention is key to success. Sadly, every day, my now 13 year old has to play catch up because that early intervention window was missed. If Vermont required early screening for dyslexia for all students and if our teachers had professional development training on the early morning signs, I believe that escalating struggles my daughter had at school wouldn't have led to the unnecessary hardships with anxiety and ultimately our choice to pull her from public school and home school. I'm grateful that home schooling was an option and that I'm privileged to have flexibility with my employment and financial resources to provide tutoring and alternative educational opportunities. We even paid out of pocket for the educational testing to get a dyslexia diagnosis. Many of my friends do similar things and this is unfair and it perpetuates educational inequity in Vermont. It's time to vote in favor of a literacy bill that supports struggling readers and recognizes dyslexia. All students, not just the privileged, deserve equal access to appropriate and early detection and intervention services. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for providing us this opportunity. I'm Mary-Lynn Strackin. My nine year old daughter was a bright and confident toddler. A little boy explained that she would be the CEO of the company one day. You're at a kindergarten first and second grade. My husband and I watched without confidence, we were disappointed. Ren had received reading intervention since kindergarten. We have one too many notes that she is writing over the course of two years to herself that she is stupid, not smart, that she hates herself and some that she wants to die. The school doesn't see any of this. They just keep reassuring us that she's fine and making progress in reading. She is incredibly smart and incredibly amazing at compensating. One morning I watched her then four year old sister seamlessly execute our morning routine while Ren, then seven, just couldn't get out of her own way. I requested a comprehensive evaluation and they're much pushed back, mostly saying that she was too young. They did agree. Ren came back with a math disability but not a reading disability, even though there was so much variation in her sub-test scores and there were red flags for dyslexia. I'm lucky enough to have school psychologists as friends and they reiterated that Ren's scores were very concerning. So I requested an independent evaluation from the Stern Center. The report was completed this September and Ren is in the third grade. The variation between the Stern Center and the district report is alarming. The Stern Center diagnosed Ren with double deficit dyslexia. The evaluation was very explicit in reviewing with the IEP team what programs Ren should be receiving and what programs she should not be receiving. Even with the hard data, showing that Ren is reading at a first grade level in third grade, I had to fight for reading services to get on her IEP. She's getting a quarter of the time the Stern Center recommended and with the program the Stern Center and the maker of the program explicitly stated should not be used for her profile. I want to thank you for considering the bills and want to emphasize the importance of H668. Without professional development, the educators that want so badly to help our children cannot understand how beautiful but complex their brains are. Without saying the word dyslexia, the stigma will continue to exist and the complexity ignored. Without building the ramp that you've all spoken of, the lowest tiered children will continue to struggle and fall behind. Structure literacy is that ramp and it will benefit all children. The data here is clear and it cannot be refuted. My husband and I love Vermont. We're active in our community. I'm a member of our school board. I can't tell you the desperation that I'm feeling right now. Knowing my five-year-old will soon be diagnosed with dyslexia too. It runs in my family, my husband's dyslexic. We are considering moving back home to Massachusetts. Even if they were to offer the bare minimum services there, it would be exponentially better than what I can provide for her here in the current public school system except for going to the Stern Center where I have to privately pay. The legislation in Massachusetts worked in forced districts to realize that they had to make some changes and I urge you to join the other 43 states that have made these changes. I just want to read you one quote that I've given to my team. Special needs parents should not have to argue like prosecuting attorneys in an IEP meeting. We shouldn't feel we need to evidence to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that our children need accommodations. Our system should support us as their parent advocates and our children. Thank you. Thank you. Jessica. Hi. Jessica, I'm a parent of a child with dyslexia. So my daughter started speech services at age two for the Vermont family infant and toddler program because she was slow to develop her speech. In first grade she was granted an IEP when the school evaluation determined she had a specific learning disability. School had a great reputation and I put my trust in faith in them believing they would make informed decisions about what approaches would work effectively for her. Over the next four years they provided my daughter with rigorous services by most public school standards. As they implemented numerous different programs and methods of instruction, services were provided to her one-on-one by both special educators and paraprofessionals. However, after several frustrating years, though literally no progress, I had an independent evaluation done by the Stern Center. Their report came back with a diagnosis of dyslexia and they offered very detailed program recommendations. This report was ignored by the school. I pleaded with the IEP team to provide my daughter with trained instructors and to use the programs recommended by the Stern Center, a structured literacy program, specifically Orham-Gillingham. They refused to acknowledge the word dyslexia and continued to offer her services with their in-house programs by staff with little to no training or understanding of dyslexia. By the time my child was about to enter sixth grade, she was still a non-reader, struggling to read at a first grade level. She had developed deep anxiety and an intense hatred of school. The school went up on their position, maintaining she was happy, adequately progressing, and that they would continue the status quo. At this point, I knew the public school had failed her, so I pulled her out and developed a program with the Stern Center, requesting reimbursement from the district. We had spent thousands of dollars in the attorney's fees to persuade the district to pay for her services that she needed. My daughter's now 13 and has been at the Stern Center for two and a half years. Her anxiety about school, I'm happy to say, has melted away and she's now reading at a fourth to fifth grade level. She still has a long way to go, but she's no longer frustrated. She sees progress and she's proud to be a student. Her story demonstrates that dyslexia is an identifiable condition that was, in fact, reliably diagnosed. Her structure literacy program, or more, and is delivered by associate level trained instructors who are required to design and teach 100 OG lessons before certification. This was the key to unlocking access to her learning. This key was not available to her through the public school system. I hope you support this bill. So the other young students do not have to suffer and struggle like she did. Thank you. Jessica asked me to read this for her and I just would like to note that Jessica and I know each other because we both homeschooled our daughters together, so. So it's Jessica Diane with Melissa Culver. With Melissa Culver. Dyslexia has often been described as a weakness surrounded by a sea of strengths. Most dyslexic kids present as intelligent, articulate, creative, and quite capable of learning. When a child like this mysteriously doesn't learn to read on schedule, the child and family are often held responsible. We hear, read to your child every night. Make sure your child is reading every day. She or he should spend extra time reading over the summer. It's all a matter of finding the right book. If the child is motivated enough, she or he will learn to read. She or he needs to work harder on reading. Give it time, they're smart, I'm sure it'll click. For the one in five students who struggle with reading, this is not enough. Every year a new group of kindergarteners enters our school system. Will each of them have an equal access to education or will 20% of them not get the reading instruction they need? We have known about dyslexia since the 1800s. Dyslexia is a variety of human, a natural variation. We have decades of solid research data on how to strengthen reading and literacy skills for dyslexic kids. Most of these methods work very well for all children, making them easy to implement in the classroom. What we are doing now has a massive hidden cost. The population of American prisons has a disproportionately high number of people with dyslexia. Illiteracy is very expensive to society, far more expensive than implementing evidence-based early literacy education. In each Vermont High School graduating class, there's a group of individuals who struggle their entire academic life. They think they must be stupid because their dyslexia was never diagnosed, never recognized, or addressed in school. They were called lazy, unmotivated, incapable. We are doing a brave disservice to these students. Our failure to act, to implement science-based, evidence-based reading programs is crushing the spirits of these children and sending them out into life with a negative distorted perception of their abilities. There are also countless examples of people with dyslexia who have achieved great success as actors, investors, CEOs, authors, yay. Scientists, artists, lawyers, et cetera. Some of them succeed despite an arduous childhood of humiliation and shame. For the rest, early identification, strong support from family and schools, and appropriate evidence-based education made all the difference. Right now in Vermont, parents have to do their own research, pay thousands of dollars for independent testing, take time off work for private tutoring outside of school for their child to learn to read and write fluently. This means that only children from affluent families have the opportunity to close this gap. Reading is the gateway to learning. A delay in reading fluency compounds quickly. It is hard to recover from and impacts every part of a child's life. We must give every Vermont child a strong start in literacy instruction that is backed up by science. Thank you. Good afternoon. So I'm gonna start with something tad personal. I want you to know that I'm coming here with great passion, not great preparation. I was expected to be returning from Boston still, I was being tested for an allergy to chemo, which I'm between treatments right now. I am a parent and I am dyslexic. At age 32, I was diagnosed when I went to the Stern Center after communicating to a group of lying workers that they should really take in, take up on the literacy education being offered to them at the place I worked at, Med River, canoe at the time. And I realized, you know, it's time to walk the talk when they see what's going on for me. I knew, you know, I knew I had some struggles. So I was grateful to go to Stern Center and get this test years before becoming a parent. And jumping ahead when my boy was two and a half, I began thinking about what his needs would be, if he likely could be dyslexic as well. What joy and desire there would be and how would that look for learning for him? I started to consider what would be at the public school and how it would feel if he then is dyslexic and what kind of segregation there would be, what kind of frustrations there might be, how early they teach our kids to want to read. I chose Waldorf. I liked that they told stories. I liked that they delayed the education until more being and self could be present. In that choice, it was in second grade when my son came home, biting his nails. And I said, that was exactly when they started teaching language arts. So upon that education, he was showing the signs to me of dyslexia. That's the first time I looked for that. I took him to Stern Center to get him tested because I learned that the school system does not test for dyslexia. So I paid that out of pocket money. It was expensive, but I made sure it was done. Jumping ahead three years later, I wanted to continue to get him tested, so I'm thinking ahead to prior to high school and in high school when he's doing his ACTs, SATs. So three years later, I took him to our school district, U32, to get him tested. And he's a bright kid, obviously. Won't move, most dyslexics are extremely bright. And in his brightness and how that testing worked and what feedback I got back as a parent was that he bridged his gap. He no longer needs an IEP. And I said, he's still dyslexic. He still needs instruction so that he can learn the foundation and excel from learning. And not just because he's bright and he can compensate and he could catch up and bridge a gap. So my lack of preparation is knowing how to tie this out. But just to say that you were not serving our kids, we're not serving them when they're not getting tested for their dyslexia through the school district and we can identify that there is a way that they learn and we're not teaching the way that they need. Thank you for listening. Thank you. My name is Katie Dollard. I'm reading a statement from Malachi of Belgium who is currently enrolled at Landmark down in Beverly, Massachusetts because he was not getting the services he needed. Hello, my name is Malachi of Belgium and I'm sorry I couldn't make it today but I want my voice to be heard so I'm sending my mom this so that you guys can hear my story. When I was younger, I would always get in trouble because the school district called me a behavioral issue but I wasn't really. The only reason why I was acting up is that I did not understand that they were giving me for work. Since I was considered a student who got in trouble all the time I got put on a lot of medicine yet the school couldn't really understand what I was going through. Then one day my mom told, my mom was like maybe he's dyslexic and truth be told, I am which is why I'm at a dyslexic school now. I've been going to Landmark High School in Beverly, Massachusetts for two years now and they've helped me learn and understand my learning profile. When I was younger I would get pulled out of periods that I really wanted to attend and had to go to other separate locations. I really wanted to go to my main classes because I felt like I wasn't learning like everyone else when I was pulled out. Therefore I decided not to go to class which got in even more trouble. The person that inspired me the most growing up was Kobe Bryant. I had to watch Kobe Bryant as a kid and he inspired me to do 10 times better because he was dyslexic too and everybody made fun of him for it. Kobe Bryant recently just passed away in a helicopter accident and yes I did cry because I strived to be on the level that he was. He's so successful and sometimes that's what you need to look up to people that are doing really, really good and look at them and be like, oh, one day maybe I can be like them or maybe one day I can be them. I play basketball because that's something that I feel like I can be actually good at. My biggest fear is failing. My biggest fear is failing that my worst fear ever I listen to people around me and when I was in kindergarten I got told by Mr. Wolfgang that I wasn't gonna be anything so now it's my time to excel. I wish this was a law back then because I feel like it would have helped me a lot but there was nothing some teachers didn't even know what dyslexia was so now I want every teacher in Vermont to know what it is and stop overlooking it because it's just sad. They are running kids differently that are learning differently. They just think differently and learn differently. Thank you for listening to my story. Thank you. Thank you, Malachi. Okay, that is it. Oh, is it was, is Cora Quinn still here? Okay, she cut her off. We do have her. I got her tested. Yeah, she's here. Kara? Yeah, yeah. Did you want to finish? Oh, yeah, I did. Was it you? No, it wasn't me. It wasn't me. It wasn't you for Bruce. It was. I was. You were, do you want to finish what you were saying? Cause we didn't want to go with us. I could read the whole letter. You could read what you, where you let's out. 13 minutes. She asked. She just, she read the whole letter. Maybe you wanted to read it. What I didn't get into was he lists specific research and gives specific guidance for language and human electrification as well as for what's needed for teacher training and instructional methodologies in school. I, I'm technical too, so I will be happy to review that. Which brings us to closure. Hi, we very much appreciate hearing your stories, hearing your thoughts and ideas. The committee will be taking this into account. Figure it out. And you can watch action on the website in terms of where we're going. I'm expecting that we're going to have, pretty soon we'll have what we call a committee bill. It won't have a, it'll have like a seven, seven number of numbers as opposed to a page on that bill. We'll put that up probably either at the end of this week or the beginning of next week. We'll have the starters of a bill where we're pulling together the information that we have rather than a three line bill. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you.