Baesler: Project grants will help students with dyslexia

 

North Dakota schools are looking for the best ways to discover whether young students have dyslexia.

North Dakota School Superintendent Kirsten Baesler says 19 school districts will share almost 230-thousand dollars in state grant money. The Legislature set aside money for the dyslexia program.

The districts will be trying different ways to identify and serve young North Dakota students who have dyslexia.

Baesler says the goal is to find the best screening methods to find dyslexia and the best methods for teaching students who have it. Then those practices could be used across the state.

Dyslexia affects parts of the brain that process and interpret language. It influences a person’s ability to speak, read and spell.

The grants are going to the Kindred Consortium ($92,010), the Grand Forks school district ($87,390), and West River Student Services of Dickinson ($50,000).

The Kindred group includes the Kindred, Northern Cass, Lisbon and Enderlin school districts.

West River Student Services is a special education unit that serves 14 rural school districts in southwestern North Dakota. The districts are Beach, Belfield, Billings County, Bowman, Halliday, Lone Tree, Hettinger, Killdeer, Marmarth, New England, Richardton-Taylor, Scranton, South Heart and Twin Buttes.