Ohio entrepreneur pushes for state legislation to better screen for dyslexia

From The Columbus Dispatch in Ohio:

Today she is a successful central Ohio entrepreneur, having already created and sold an information technology company before starting a new firm that focuses on helping companies hire top-notch talent.

In the 1970s, Janis Mitchell's (pictured) school placed her into a class for students with mental disabilities after her dyslexia was diagnosed in the first grade. "They thought that I was lazy and stupid," she said.

The president and CEO of Precise Resource in Westerville, Ohio, is now pushing for new legislation, introduced by a bipartisan pair of state lawmakers, that would better define dyslexia. It also would create a pilot program in three Ohio school districts designed to screen early for the disability and get students needed help.

An estimated 8 to 15 percent of the population has dyslexia, a language-based disability that causes difficulties with reading, writing and pronouncing words.

"We've got some work to do both to identify as well as teach folks how to deal with it," said Rep. Ted Celeste, D-Grandview Heights. "In particular, to do that in a way that will help them read and learn so they are not feeling stigmatized."

Celeste is co-sponsoring the bill with House Minority Leader William G. Batchelder, R-Medina, who has been heavily involved with the Masonic Order's dyslexia learning center in Cleveland.

"Dyslexia causes a child to have reading problems, and those problems are not endemic in any way to intellectual capacity," Batchelder said.

"It's unfortunate that some schools don't recognize what these problems are. We have found that by working with schools, when they get the message, they do make an effort to identify these young people."

Screening and additional tutoring needed to help students with dyslexia is not cheap, Batchelder said, noting the Masonic Order spends about $5,000 per child. But bill supporters say the long-term savings would outweigh the upfront costs.

The goal of the pilot projects would be to evaluate the effectiveness of early reading assistance and determine whether they can reduce future special-education costs.

Mitchell said her mother, a teacher herself, fought to keep her out of the mentally disabled classroom. She had extra tutoring and assistance all through school and into college.

"If you can teach them the proper way to read before fourth grade, you can stop all that extra tutoring," she said.

"If by fourth grade they haven't screened that, that's when we get into the heavy cost in Ohio schools that adds up way beyond the $5,000."