The RC6 is supporting the GaDOE in their implementation of a three-year pilot with seven districts who are conducting K-3 screening and intervention for students with reading problems such as dyslexia. The pilot will inform the GaDOE support needed for a 2024 mandate for all districts to provide early intervention for reading problems. Applying Multi-Tiered Systems of Support (MTSS) processes for identifying and providing evidence-based supports to students with early reading difficulties was a Georgia state priority as outlined in SB 48, passed in 2019. Through the three-year Dyslexia Pilot and 2024 statewide mandate, the GaDOE aims to enhance the quality of school supports in this area of early reading difficulties.

RC6 support involves developing a “Descriptive Implementation Analysis” Brief each year of the three-year Georgia Dyslexia Pilot Program. The RC6 conducts interviews with Special Education Directors or others in the seven GaDOE Dyslexia Pilot districts to gather information on their progress in implementing the required MTSS and dyslexia components. In Year 3, the RC6 is collecting pilot district interviews on the 2021-22 school year and will generate an Implementation Analysis Brief for the GaDOE in summer 2022. (region6cc.uncg.edu/resources/)

Year 3 of this RC6 project also includes the development of RC6 informational resources/products (Rapid Response documents) to respond to the needs of the GaDOE and the pilot districts as they conduct the pilot and plan for statewide implementation of MTSS processes (e.g., screening for reading problems, selecting evidence-based interventions, and monitoring progress). Also in Year 3, the RC6 has done extensive work in identifying GaDOE policies that intersected with the Dyslexia policy in the areas of screening for reading problems, providing evidence-based interventions, progress monitoring, coordinating Tier 1, 2, and 3 activities in support of improved reading instruction, etc. The RC6 developed a detailed policy map document that showed elements of different policies side by side and helped the GaDOE understand where policies aligned and conflicted.