Michigan parents and lawmakers want to help teachers help dyslexic kids

Getting Michigan’s teachers more concrete resources to help students with dyslexia—through new legislation. 

When her daughters’ school found out that Julie Tobin was a speech pathologist, they asked the East Lansing mother of four to spend her volunteer hours helping teachers assess student reading. So Tobin ran small groups to find out who was struggling, then made recommendations to the teachers for how to support the kids.

“Our school district just switched to a new reading curriculum last year,” Tobin said. “You can see the differences and the changes in how kids are learning, and that the different teaching styles are benefitting everybody.”

Including, Tobin added, her daughter.

“It has been cool to see my daughter improve to the point now that she’s in third grade and she no longer needs any [support] services. She’s a great, fluent reader now, ” she said.

Studies show that 20% of students nationwide have dyslexia. It’s the most common neurobehavioral disorder in children and young adults, and it can profoundly impact a child’s ability to learn to read and write. Researchers now understand that interventions and support are most effective when they happen before the third grade, yet most kids with dyslexia aren’t identified until the fifth grade. 

Here in Michigan, Democratic lawmakers say they want to do better for our kids. Senator Dayna Polehanki (D-Livonia)—a former teacher with nearly 20 years of experience and two Teacher of the Year Awards under her belt—and a number of her Democratic colleagues co-sponsored legislation that would help ensure future educators have the tools they need to teach students with dyslexia.

The bill package was recently signed into law by Governor Gretchen Whitmer on October 10.

“These commonsense, bipartisan bills will help us build a brighter future for Michigan by making key investments in our schools, students, and teachers,” Gov. Whitmer said after passing the legislation, which is set to take effect by the 2027-28 school year.

“I’m proud to sign these bills into law, giving our schools, students, and teachers the flexibility they need.”

Advocates of the bills say that legislation like this is long overdue. 

“There have been efforts over the last 40 years,” said Marsha Chance, the executive director of the Michigan Dyslexia Institute (MDI), in an interview last month. Those efforts haven’t resulted in broad support for teacher trainings, she added—but such training would make a big impact. Over the last several years, the Michigan Dyslexia Institute has worked with many teachers to learn how to better serve students who are struggling with dyslexia.

“The vast majority of them say that this is information they’ve never learned. This includes individuals who have been teaching for over 20 years—some of them have master’s degrees in reading or are reading interventionists in their public schools. They say that they have never received instruction like this and that it’s a game change for their students.”

But not every teacher can access such opportunities. A recent study of more than 2,500 public school teachers across the country found that most have too much work on their plates to take on extra training. The nationwide teacher shortage has forced educators to juggle non-teaching duties (like lunch duty or hallway monitoring), helping students outside of class, and covering for other teachers when they’re not available—in addition to having more kids in their classes than ever and helping them catch up on COVID learning losses. 

“Teachers, especially those who are teaching at elementary schools, have to really go out of their way to do training outside of school hours and professional development days in the summer,” said Nichole Martin, a Michigan mom and dyslexia advocate. She believes that the first step to making sure all Michigan teachers have the tools they need to help ensure their students succeed—and prevent teacher burnout—is having legislation that requires school districts to give them those tools.

“When you put that legislative backing on it it becomes important to people.”

This story has been updated following the passage of Senate Bills 567 and 568.