Hawaiʻi is the only state that does not have laws that address dyslexia, a condition that impacts roughly 20% of people. Some literacy advocates believe this lack of legislation has led the state’s Department of Education to not properly support keiki with dyslexia in school.
Dyslexia is a language-based learning disability that can cause trouble with spelling, writing, pronunciation and especially reading. Research shows it is not an indicator of intelligence or effort, but rather people with dyslexia process letters, sounds and words differently.
Coco, a third grader at Le Jardin Academy, made it clear her dyslexia is not an excuse to view her as lesser.
“I have dyslexia and it wouldn’t be fair if some teacher said, 'Oh, I don’t know what dyslexia is, you’re probably just stupid,'” Coco said.
“If someone thought they were dumb, I would just be so sad. It wouldn’t be fair if some kids get the help that they need and some kids don’t.”
How it works in Hawai’i
Students from kindergarten to third grade take three literacy screenings each year — at the beginning, middle, and end of each school year, which has been required since the DOE adopted universal literacy screenings in 2019. Advocates believe early screening fights the practice of “waiting to fail,” or waiting for students to fall behind before intervening and providing appropriate support.
David Sun-Miyashiro, the executive director of HawaiiKidsCAN, a student success advocacy organization, said the longer learning disabilities go undetected and without support, the harder it is for children experiencing them to catch up with their peers.
“That means understanding that every kid is different, and being able to diagnose and really have that deeper understanding of where a kid is at,” Sun-Miyashiro said.
“So that as soon as they start struggling, they get the help that they need, (which) is really critical, so we don't keep pushing that can down the road and you have high schoolers or young adults who still can't read proficiently.”
Many elementary schools use screenings that give general literacy scores without defining areas of struggle. Because of the broadness of the scores, keiki with learning disabilities, like dyslexia, can go undetected.
While a majority of elementary schools have dyslexia-sensitive screenings, less than 20% use the sensitive screenings on all students from kindergarten to third grade, according to the DOE’s Learning Support Team Administrator Lauren Padesky.
“In order for it to be dyslexia sensitive, it has to have really specific items around phonological awareness, which is understanding the sounds of language and how they function,” Padesky said. “So some screeners are going to give us a more holistic reading score that's accurate and very helpful instructionally, but just might not have that specific criteria.”
What are lawmakers doing?
House Bill 1891 would mandate dyslexia sensitive screenings across the DOE – a move that Padesky said the department is already looking to complete by the 2027-2028 school year.
But Sun-Miyashiro believes the bill would hold the department accountable, keep it on track, and require it to provide proof that the screenings were implemented universally and on time.
“We celebrate the intention and direction the department is going, but in order for accountability to be there, we need that other level,” Sun-Miyashiro said.
“I think the intent of the bill is giving families that level of granularity and transparency, so it would really help layer on top of the positive efforts already being done by the department, and it's also a recognition that there's still a lot more work to be done.”
The DOE was awarded a five-year, $60 million Comprehensive Literacy State Development Grant in 2024 to improve literacy practices across the state. Schools and complex areas applied to be a part of the grant, which has since provided training, programming and instruction to further literacy practices in the classroom.
Padesky said with the grant, the department has focused on multi-tiered literacy support by filling any gaps in learning before moving to new lessons. She added that the move toward universal dyslexia-sensitive screenings is a part of the DOE’s attempt to approach literacy systemically.
But she raised concerns about how the rush to implement standardized screenings proposed in the bill could negatively impact Kaiapuni schools, the state’s Hawaiian language immersion schools.
She said there are some Kaiapuni schools that are a part of the CLSD grant, which she hopes will allow more culturally-guided decisions to be made. But she feels the department needs more time to properly implement screenings that would work across both English and ʻōlelo Hawaiʻi mediums.
“We can't assume that it's identical to a child learning to read in English,” Padesky said.
“We're constantly trying to reorient ourselves as a department around dual language, dual cultural decisions. We'll continue to have to do that because we're a multilingual, multicultural and biliterate DOE. Everybody benefits when we think about our system that way.”
But Sun-Miyashiro says all students should still get the same screening and support no matter what language they learn in.
“Regardless of their medium of instruction, there's still going to be kids who are dyslexic,” Sun-Miyashiro said.
“So is it fair, should your family choose to go with a Kaiapuni school — does that mean that you don't get access to the same high-quality screening that kids and other schools do? So that still feels like an equity concern.”
The bill passed through the House committee on Ways and Means and will be heard next by the full Senate.
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