Kentucky Dyslexia Screening Law and School Services: A Parent's Guide

Your child is in second grade and still struggling to connect letters to sounds. Their teacher says they're working hard. The reading interventions haven't moved the needle. And somewhere you've heard that Kentucky has a dyslexia screening law — but no one at the school has mentioned a screening, a plan, or what happens next.

Here's the practical answer to what Kentucky actually requires, what it doesn't, and what parents can do when the school system falls short.

What Kentucky's Dyslexia Law Requires

Kentucky enacted legislation — codified in KRS 158.305 — establishing requirements for dyslexia screening in public schools. Under this framework, districts are required to implement universal screening for characteristics of dyslexia for students in kindergarten through third grade. The intent is early identification: catching students who show risk factors for dyslexia before they fall significantly behind their peers.

The screening must be administered using a tool that is grounded in evidence-based research and that assesses phonological awareness, phonological memory, and rapid naming — the three core processing areas most closely associated with reading disabilities like dyslexia.

Once a student is identified as at-risk through screening, the school is supposed to provide additional diagnostic assessment and appropriate reading instruction. This is where the law's requirements begin to thin out and where districts have significant discretion — and where parents need to be most attentive.

What the Screening Law Does Not Guarantee

Screening is not diagnosis. Kentucky's dyslexia screening law identifies risk; it does not create a dyslexia "diagnosis" in any clinical or legal sense. A student who screens positive receives a flag — an indication that additional assessment and intensified reading instruction are warranted. What happens from that point depends heavily on the district, the school, and how proactively parents engage.

A positive screening does not automatically trigger special education eligibility. It does not automatically produce an IEP or a 504 plan. And it does not require the district to use the word "dyslexia" in any educational document, which is a source of genuine confusion for families.

Kentucky school districts are permitted — and in many cases required — to describe a student's reading disability in educational terms such as "Specific Learning Disability (SLD) in reading" rather than using the clinical term dyslexia. That educational label, SLD, is one of Kentucky's recognized categories for special education eligibility under IDEA. If your child qualifies under SLD, they are entitled to an IEP with specially designed instruction in reading.

What Services Schools Are Required to Provide

For students who qualify for special education as a student with a Specific Learning Disability in reading, Kentucky regulations (707 KAR 1:350) establish class size maximums for the resource room setting: no more than 10 students per period for primary-level SLD students. These limits exist precisely because students with reading disabilities require individualized, intensive instruction — not just a seat in a group.

The specially designed instruction should be based on evidence-based reading programs that incorporate structured literacy principles: systematic phonics, phonemic awareness, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension. The KERA-era commitment to evidence-based reading instruction in Kentucky has increased district adoption of structured literacy approaches, but implementation varies significantly by district and school.

For students who do not qualify for special education, a 504 plan can provide accommodations that support access: extended time, audio versions of texts, text-to-speech technology, reduced written output requirements, and alternative ways to demonstrate knowledge. These accommodations do not change the instruction; they change how the student accesses and demonstrates learning.

ASD and ADHD Accommodations: The Connection to Reading Disabilities

Dyslexia rarely travels alone. Students with ADHD frequently have co-occurring reading difficulties. Students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) may have hyperlexia — decoding words they don't comprehend — or may struggle with the language comprehension demands of grade-level reading. Kentucky school districts are required to address all of a student's educational needs in the IEP, not just the "primary" disability.

For students with ADHD in Kentucky schools, accommodations typically provided through an IEP or 504 plan include extended time, preferential seating, access to fidget tools or sensory supports, chunked assignments, frequent check-ins, and the option to take assessments in a lower-distraction environment. A student with both ADHD and dyslexia should have accommodations addressing both conditions in a single document.

For students with ASD in Kentucky, accommodations go further to address sensory processing differences, communication supports, social-emotional needs, and often behavioral supports through a BIP. An ARC team that focuses exclusively on cognitive/academic accommodations while ignoring a student's sensory environment or communication access is not writing a legally compliant IEP.

When the District Isn't Following Through

If your child screened positive for dyslexia risk and the district has not provided a diagnostic assessment, has not convened any formal process to determine eligibility, or has placed your child in generic reading interventions without any individualized plan — you have grounds to request an evaluation in writing.

Reference the dyslexia screening results in your request letter. State that you believe your child may have a Specific Learning Disability that requires special education services, and request a full and individual evaluation across all areas of suspected disability including reading, language processing, and phonological awareness. Under 707 KAR 1:320, the district has 60 school days from your signed consent to complete the evaluation and hold an eligibility meeting.

If the district evaluated your child and found them ineligible, but you disagree with the evaluation's methodology or conclusions, you can request an Independent Educational Evaluation (IEE) at public expense. The district must either fund the IEE or immediately file for a due process hearing to prove its evaluation was appropriate.

The Kentucky IEP & 504 Advocacy Playbook includes templates for requesting evaluations, demanding IEEs, and documenting the gap between what Kentucky's dyslexia law requires and what the school is actually providing.

Get the complete toolkit at specialedstartguide.com/us/kentucky/advocacy/

The Rural Access Problem

In rural Eastern and Western Kentucky, the dyslexia services problem is compounded by a severe shortage of qualified reading specialists and licensed special educators. Research on rural Kentucky education has documented that teachers in these areas frequently lack specialized training in structured literacy approaches, and that districts may implement the screening mandate without having the instructional capacity to do anything meaningful with the results.

If you are in a rural district and the school has acknowledged your child's reading difficulties but cannot provide qualified instruction, you have the right to demand that the district explain how it will deliver the legally required services. If the district lacks local providers, it may be required to bring in outside specialists, provide transportation to another setting, or deliver services through a contracted provider. "We don't have staff" is not a legal defense for failing to provide FAPE.

Explore the Kentucky IEP & 504 Advocacy Playbook

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