Giving Compass' Take:

• Kelly Ragan shares the stories of families and educators working to help students with dyslexia keep up with their peers. 

• How can philanthropists help ensure that all dyslexic students get the support they need? 

• Learn more about what dyslexia looks like. 

Melissa Raguet-Schofield watched her son, Will, struggle as soon as he started kindergarten. He just couldn’t pick up reading. Extra help didn’t seem to make a difference.

Will was officially diagnosed with dyslexia in third grade, which is kind of a cut-off point, Melissa said. That’s when kids start reading to learn rather than learning to read.

About 1 in 5 people have some symptom of dyslexia, according to the International Dyslexia Association. At its core, people with dyslexia struggle with word recognition, reading fluency, spelling, and writing.

Rob, Will’s dad, said they went to Bennett Elementary School to see if Will needed an individualized education plan — a written statement for a child with a disability that allows for extra accommodations depending on the child's needs.

The school advised against the IEP. Rob said it was because Will didn't score low enough on screening tests to qualify for extra help.

But Melissa and Rob think Will could excel, rather than just get by, if he had proper support.

Joy Short is the director of the NOCO Dyslexia Center in Fort Collins. Before she started the center, she was a teacher in Denver.

The center now has 50 students enrolled in regular tutoring, she said, and has screened 150 students in the last two years.

NOCO Dyslexia Center has a list of PSD schools it deemed to have the proper support available  — such as specific curriculum and tutoring — to help kids with dyslexia, Short said. They give it to parents who come in, but she declined to give the list to the Coloradoan in fear of flooding the schools with prospective students.

Read the full article about helping dyslexic students by Kelly Ragan at Coloradoan.