I’m not writing this to spread news of my financial woes, just my confusion on why it costs so much. I understand it's a specialized training for professionals and my husband and I have been working with our state legislators to pass laws that would bring this specialized training right into our public schools so that children like ours can receive the help they need. My family made the financial sacrifice last fall so that I could go through 60 hours of Orton-Gillingham training. I now volunteer to go into schools to reach the children whose parents cannot afford specialized schools, just like us. However, that’s just a tiny dent in what is a massive amount of children waiting for and needing tutoring, it’s like poking a giant with a toothpick.
So, here’s the point of my post today. I’m asking as a volunteer Orton-Gillingham Tutor, a parent who volunteers to help other parents with their IEP Meetings, I’m asking as someone who is taking action to make a difference, not someone trying to just wish the problem away and a I’m asking as a parent who understands the frustration of not being able to send her child to a school that sees the potential in dyslexic/SLD students. I’m asking specialized schools/organizations, can you do more?
If you have community outreach programs, thank you! If you don’t, why and would you please consider it? If you do, can you do more? If you bring in 4 teachers and donate multi-sensory training to them, next time can it be 5 or 6? Will you consider adding a few more trainings a year? If you offer free or reduced tutoring to students can you fit in just a few more?
Thank you.
*So that you can see what we as parents are up against while trying to make a change for our dyslexic children, here is a copy of North Carolina HB 420 which was introduced this year to try to start making positive change for children like ours in North Carolina. Check out the pictures below or read here:
http://www.ncga.state.nc.us/Sessions/2015/Bills/House/PDF/H420v1.pdf
After the bill, you will see a letter that was sent to the legislators we were working with that called the bill aimed at helping dyslexic students, redundant. The bill specifically addresses dyslexia, not just learning disabilities. I’m getting rid of all of the identifying information because it’s the content that is important, not so much where it came from.