talking to a private school about reading interventions

[caedmyn]

Our church runs a small (30ish kids K-12) private school.  There are at least 5 kids in the school (that I know of, there might be more) that are struggling readers.  Two are believed to be dyslexic (family history of dyslexia but no testing done).  The school doesn't give any special help and, to the best of my knowlege, only one of the kids has received any outside help, and that was at a Sylvan-type place.  This year there's no kindergarten class so there's an extra teacher available who could potentially do some in-school reading tutoring for the struggling readers, and I'd like to suggest this to them, and offer them something to use also, but I'm not sure what to suggest.  I have both levels of Rewards, a couple levels of Abecedarian, some Dancing Bears, and Barton.  I know Barton would be ideal but it's so teacher intensive and idk if they'd be willing to use it.  Also, while I'd be willing to loan them whatever levels I'm not currently using (I own 1-5), I have a kid in 3 who probably won't be done with it in the amount of time other kids would take to get through 1 & 2, and he's going to be in 4 for a looong time, so I'd probably have to talk DH buying 3 &4 and donating it to them...I can't see them being willing to spend $300/level to buy Barton.  The other programs are more teacher-friendly and less time intensive but may or may not help the kids.  If it matters, three of the struggling readers are in 2nd or 3rd grade and 2 are in 7th grade.  I doubt the school will be willing to do reading tutoring for the older 2, so it's probably just the younger 3 that might get some extra help.

 

Anyhow, just throwing this out there for some feedback/thoughts/suggestions on talking to them and which program(s) to suggest.  My kids don't go to the school so it's not like I need to convince them, but I feel badly that these kids are probably dyslexic and no one knows enough to help them or suggest to the parents that they help them (and there's no independent tutoring for dyslexic kids here anyway).

[PeterPan]

I hate to mention it, but doesn't Barton upcharge for levels being used in a school or by a paid tutor? So you wouldn't even be able to loan them yours. 

 

However what they *could* do is send the teacher over to your house, hint hint, have her work with your kids once a week doing the lessons, and she would learn enough that she could go back to the school and work with those kids in a better way. A short time of that and she'd probably be convinced to buy materials or get some training.

 

It would actually be cheaper for them to do an online OG training course ($1000-ish) than to buy so many levels of Barton. Barton is great and open and go, but there are other ways. I don't know how they get around teacher-intensive, mercy. They could work with the ps and get IEPs and get the ps to send in reading intervention. There are cs around here that do that. 

[caedmyn]

I believe Barton's 2nd price tier is for multiple teachers, like a school with more than one reading teacher using it, not individual tutors.

 

They would never work with the public schools or pay for OG training, and like I said I don't see them being willing to buy any levels of Barton either. This would probably be a one-year deal because there's an extra teacher available this year. But I figure some help would be better than none for the kids, and maybe some of the parents would decide to pursue further help on their own if they see good progress.

[Heathermomster]

My son's former, private school kept O-G certified tutors on staff and used Wilson. My family paid extra money for the service.

 

It has been my experience that private Christian schools don't serve children with SLDs very well. They may talk a great line, but when push comes to shove, there tends to be non-compliance from the staff amd pressure to not accommodate. I came across a lot of hand wringing and concern due to ignorance.

 

Dyslexia accommodation requires more than just reading helps. You know this. I found that the teachers were significantly opposed to differentiated instruction for a variety of reasons; however, if you can affect positive change, good for you. It was always an uphill battle for me, and I began to deeply resent my son's school.

Edited August 24, 2017 by Heathermomster

[caedmyn]

Yes...but reading help alone could make a big difference, and Barton helps with spelling too.  In this case the teachers are entirely volunteer, no one is paid, and the parents only pay cost of curriculum,  so while it would be great if they offered more, I don't know that it's really unreasonable for the school to only offer the basics.  I know the teacher of the older kids is very...inflexible...but there's a new 1st-4th grade teacher who made some changes last year for a couple of the poor readers like switching math programs for them because their poor reading was affecting their ability to do the one everybody else was using, which never would have happened in the past with previous teachers, so she might be willing to push for reading help for them too.