MARTHA DALTON

JAN 2, 2019

The committee also heard from Sally Shaywitz, a leading expert and researcher at the Yale Center for Dyslexia and Creativity.

Committee chair Sen. Fran Millar, R-Dunwoody, said convincing Shaywitz to come to an October committee meeting was akin to securing an appearance by Beyonce.

“She’s sort of the rock star in all of this,” Millar said.

Shaywitz told the committee that schools generally fail to identify students with dyslexia. On average, schools report between 0 and 4 percent of their students have the learning disability.

According to Shaywitz, studies in which every student is screened for dyslexia show about one in five students have it. Shaywitz said schools can’t know how many children are dyslexic if they don’t screen for it.

“To be counted, you have to be identified first,” she said. “If you’re not identified, you can’t be counted.”

Read the full story from WABE here.