Updates to New Hampshire's Dyslexia Screening Law - HB 377

As you may know, the last legislative session in NH saw the passage of HB 377. This bill is an update to the prior Dyslexia Screening law passed in 2016. HB 377 includes updates to the original bill, including:

• Widening the requirement for screening to all K-3 students in public and charter schools
• The screener must be given within the first 60 days of school and completed on additional time during the school year
• If a student is flagged as "at risk" by the evidence-based universal screener, then additional secondary assessments must be completed to determine the next steps, which could include:
• evidence-based literacy intervention 
• a referral to for special education testing
• Parents must be notified when their child is flagged as "at risk" by the universal screener and provided with assessment data and progress monitoring once a plan is developed with their input.
• Parents of students identified as "at risk" have the right to submit independent evaluations completed by a licensed reading specialist trained in dyslexia for consideration by the district. Parents can also refer their child for special education at any point without an outside evaluation as well.

While many of these requirements may be familiar, others are new. Most notably, the universal screener must now be completed for all students K-3. It is worth taking a moment to define what a universal screener is here. Universal screeners must be evidence-based, reliable, and valid. They are meant to screen a larger population for potential indicators of literacy difficulties, but they do not diagnose dyslexia or related reading disorders. Consider them as a thermometer when you are sick. It can detect that there's a problem by showing that you have a temperature. However, it will take further testing to diagnose the source of the temperature and treat it effectively.

Through this screener, students flagged as "at risk" need secondary assessments to help pinpoint their area of literacy need and guide responsive teaching and intervention. This is a new addition to the updated law; however, it is a practice many educators may have already had in place. In going through this process, it is essential to remember the areas identified by research and noted in the NHED Dyslexia Screening Implementation Guidance as the ten core components of literacy instruction (below). 

In preparing to implement these new additions to the Dyslexia Screening law, below are some resources that may be helpful for you. 

• The National Center on Improving Literacy - more information about why early screening for dyslexia is best practice
• NHED's Canvas page for Implementation Guidance
• Parent/Guardian letters that can be tweaked to meet the needs of your district. Click here, and you will be prompted to make a copy of the document so that you can adjust and make it your own.
• Flow charts (these are made using Google Draw, so a link to create a copy of the Google Draw file is included for each)
• Overview flow chart (Google Doc) (Google Draw for flow chart)
• Flow chart Example with assessments (Google Doc) (Google Draw for flow chart)

Remember, screening is just step one! Providing evidence-based interventions and being diagnostic in our teaching is how we help to move these students forward. If you have questions about any part of this, from assessment to implementation, please reach out! I'm always happy to assist and answer any questions I can. Together, "when we know better, we do better!"