Effective July 1, 2017, in accordance with Miss. Code Ann. § 37-173-15, each local school district must screen students for dyslexia in the spring of Kindergarten and the fall of Grade 1 using a State Board of Education approved screener. The screener must contain the following components: Phonological Awareness, Phonemic Awareness, Sound Symbol Recognition, Alphabet Knowledge, Decoding skills, Encoding skills, and Rapid Naming. If the student fails the screener, the parent or legal guardian will be notified of the results of the screener.
Proposed screeners were reviewed by a panel with expertise in reading, dyslexia therapy, and speech-language pathology. Screeners that met all required components of the law were approved for inclusion on the Mississippi Department of Education Approved List of Screeners.
The following additional Dyslexia Screeners were approved on June 11, 2020, by the State Board of Education for use during the 2020-2021 school year:
- Amplify Screener mCLASS with DIBELS 8th Edition, RAN, and Spelling
- DIBELS 8th Edition University of Oregon Center on Teaching and Learning
- FastBridge Learning Illuminate Education
The following screeners were previously approved by the State Board of Education:
- Amplify Screener mCLASS DIBELS Next and Early Literacy Measures
- Lexercise Mississippi Dyslexia Screener
- Mississippi Dyslexia Therapy Association Dyslexia Screener for Kindergarten and First Grade, 2017 Edition
- Mississippi College Dyslexia Screener for Kindergarten, First, Second and Third Grade
A description of each of the approved screeners is available on the MDE website. Districts are required to complete the First grade Dyslexia Screener by October 23, 2020 and the Kindergarten Dyslexia Screener by April 9, 2021. In addition, districts are required to submit the District Dyslexia Screening Report to the Office of Student Intervention Services at dyslexiadata@mdek12.orgby April 23, 2021.
Contact Laurie Weathersby at lweathersby@mdek12.orgfor questions concerning the completion of the form.