As Introduced

129th General Assembly
Regular Session
2011-2012
H. B. No. 157


Representatives Schuring, Letson 

Cosponsors: Representatives Derickson, Hall, Combs, Stebelton, Yuko, Hollington, Fende 



A BILL
To enact section 3319.80 of the Revised Code to 1
authorize educational service centers to provide 2
teacher professional development on dyslexia.3


BE IT ENACTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF OHIO:

       Section 1.  That section 3319.80 of the Revised Code be 4
enacted to read as follows:5

       Sec. 3319.80. (A) The governing board of any educational 6
service center may engage the services of a dyslexia specialist to 7
provide training for teachers of grades kindergarten to four on 8
the indicators of dyslexia and the types of instruction that 9
children with dyslexia need to learn, read, write, and spell. If a 10
service center provides this training, it shall make the training 11
available to local school districts within the service center's 12
territory and to other school districts, community schools, and 13
STEM schools that have contracted for the training from the 14
service center under section 3313.843, 3313.844, 3313.845, or 15
3326.45 of the Revised Code.16

       If a governing board of any educational service center does 17
not provide the training, a group of local school districts within 18
the service center's territory may engage the services of a 19
dyslexia specialist to provide training for teachers 20
independently.21

        A school district or school may require the training 22
authorized under this section for its teachers as part of the 23
district's or school's regular in-service training programs.24

       (B) As used in this section:25

       (1) "Dyslexia" means a specific learning disorder that is 26
neurological in origin and that is characterized by difficulties 27
with accurate or fluent word recognition and by poor spelling and 28
decoding abilities, which difficulties typically result from a 29
deficit in the phonological component of language.30

       (2) "Dyslexia specialist" means a person who is trained and 31
certified in a multisensory structured language program that meets 32
the level II specialist criteria set by the international dyslexia 33
association's knowledge and practice standards, or any subsequent 34
standards adopted by the association.35