When Emily Hellstrom’s son didn’t take to reading, she figured he would outgrow it.

But as the years ticked by and her son continued to struggle, she and her husband grew increasingly alarmed.

“We went down the classic path that I guarantee most parents do, which is the ‘wait to fail’ approach,” she said, “which is basically the [education department’s] approach.”

It turned out her son had dyslexia. After her son grew increasingly disillusioned with school and developed behavior issues, Hellstrom reluctantly fought for him to attend a private school with tuition paid by the city.

Now Hellstrom and three other mothers who have faced similar challenges are vying to open a public elementary school of their own in Manhattan focused on students who struggle with reading. The group submitted an application in November through a city competition to open or overhaul 40 schools and is among 90 teams invited to come up with more detailed plans.

If given the green light, the school would be only the second in the state to recruit specifically students with dyslexia and other language-based learning disabilities, a group that traditional public schools often struggle to serve.

The proposal represents the latest grassroots push to do more for students with reading challenges. A group of parents helped lead a successful campaign to open a charter school this school year on Staten Island geared toward students with dyslexia. (Hellstrom and other parents visited that school, Bridge Preparatory Charter, to learn more about its approach and solicit advice for opening a district school of their own.)

[Related: A reading ‘crisis’: Why some New York City parents created a school for dyslexic students]

Similar to Bridge Prep, the proposed school would have smaller classes and train or hire teachers familiar with approaches to reading instruction such as Orton-Gillingham or Wilson, which emphasize phonics. Those specific approaches, focused on the relationship between sounds and letters, are crucial for struggling readers, some experts say, but they are not deployed consistently across traditional public schools.

“It’s now time for the DOE to have a public school” geared toward dyslexia, said Jeannine Kiely, a member of Manhattan’s Community Board 2 and who was involved in submitting the proposal.

The application already has key backers, including the superintendents of Manhattan Districts 2, 5, and 6. Donalda Chumney, the superintendent of District 2, said she met with more than a dozen parents who have wrestled with decisions about whether to send their children to private schools, including the parents involved in the current proposal.

“They felt powerless. And they felt, to a large degree, excluded,” said Chumney, whose district includes much of Lower Manhattan, Midtown, and the Upper East Side.

Given that many parents don’t have the resources to pursue private options, “this seems like an equity issue of the highest magnitude,” she added, noting that the school could be an important proof point to show the district can serve struggling readers within existing funding strictures and the teachers contract. Read the full article here