T.C.
I understand your frustration and concern about the school system. Amy C. had some good points in her comments, but was off about some others. I am a school counselor in FWISD.
ALL PUBLIC SCHOOLS are REQUIRED to service dyslexia students, which is a physical disability -- it's a FEDERAL LAW. There's even accommodations for your child with the TAKS test.n He/she would receive oral testing in math/science/social studies, for reading they receive 2 days to test, reading the questions/answers for them (not the reading passages though), and read through a list of proper nouns for the students (while they look on their own proper noun list).
Dyslexia can show up in many different forms -- there are highs and lows in different areas for each student (i.e. good in spelling but poor in comprehension).......it isn't reversing letters as some may have taught in the past. All/most children reverse letters to some extent when they are young.
As some others have posted dyslexia can run in families as well, so if one child has a diagnosis, I would test others asap................and the FWISD program doesn't start testing until the 2nd semester of 1st grade so that the school can see the difference between a learning/reading difficulty and someone just starting out a little slower or behind. And it can take a while to get to the point of testing your child because we need to collect information prior to sending him/her to test.......i.e. work samples and giving the student accommodations to see if it helps him/her.
I am my school's coordinator for 504 and dyslexia. I have to ensure that they receive the proper help, testing, and accommodations once they've been identified as dyslexic by the district. Having outside testing doesn't guarantee a qualification, but it should guarantee the school will test your child to see if he/she qualifies.
It's important for the teacher to know about the qualification, regardless of whether or not the school tests him/her...........the teacher (if a good one) will accommodate appropriately and you as the parent should help inform the teacher/school of appropriate accommodations if none are offered because of a lack of knowledge on their part. Your private teacher should be able to give you accommodations that would be appropriate for his/her needs. You are not entitled to TAKS accommodations though without the school classification............TEA will not allow it.
I don't know what district you live in, but here's probably where you ran into problems. If your child doesn't strongly show signs of dyslexia or that he/she has a problem academically, or your person responsible doesn't know the signs well enough, then the school will be reluctant to test your child. FWISD has a response to interventions plan that is ran by the counselors. Going through that can/should identify those that need testing.
You as a parent has a right to request testing...........we won't test unless we see a need, partly because of costs, but mostly because of time wasted if all parents requested it without there truly being a reason. Now that you have an outside source that has tested him/her and he/she qualified, that's even more reason for your child to be tested by the school and receive help...............the help can be on top of the private help your receiving as well.................FWISD uses a program developed by the Scotish Rite children's hospital near Plano.
Besides the TAKS and classroom accommodations, they have a 2 year pullout program in the el. schools. Where the child basically learns how to read all over again from a dyslexic point of view. They are supposed to be pulled from regular reading classes so that they don't miss out on their other subjects..........though scheduling can be difficult for this.
Once your child has been identified by the schools they cannot be denied services -- or they can be sued for it. Having a program for dyslexia students is mandatory for ALL districts............though some are just now coming up with one and don't have a way to identify them yet. If your district doesn't have an identification process, you need to show them the law and get them on board with the Federal Mandate for students with disabilities act.
If you'd like more info, please email me at ____@____.com .