Document Analysis of State Dyslexia Legislation Suggests Likely Heterogeneous Effects on Student and School Outcomes

Abstract

Previous studies of K–12 dyslexia legislation have described broad trends in legislative content, such as the presence or absence of screening and intervention requirements. This study uses document analysis to provide a finer-grained description of the laws to highlight critical variation in policy that will directly affect (a) the number and type of students identified as having or being at risk for specific reading disabilities, including dyslexia, (b) the types of supports they receive, and (c) the implementation of the laws. Results of the study indicate that differences in legislative content across states, and ambiguity within states, may lead to heterogeneous effects on student and school outcomes. Areas needing special analytic attention by researchers and policy implementers are discussed.