STATEN ISLAND — A school specifically for children with dyslexia is being proposed for Staten Island.
Borough President James Oddo is asking the city for the school after parents complained of a lack of options which has forced some to send their children to New Jersey.
Oddo asked the Department of Education to build a standalone school to teach students with dyslexia or, at the least, increase dedicated programming in current public schools.
He is also planning to meet with the heads of various charter school to explore bringing one to the borough specifically for students with the learning disability.
"When you get a little 7-year-old girl sitting in your office and explain to you how difficult it is for her, the educational aspects alone and then the social components with it, it’s heartbreaking," Oddo said.
"These kids are going through this and they're always going to be up against a seemingly insurmountable challenge in the traditional setting and we need to find a better way of teaching them."
At a town hall meeting last month with Schools Chancellor Carmen Fariña, parents complained about the lack of programs for students with language-based disabilities like dyslexia, which affects an estimated five to 10 percent of the population, according to a study by Michigan University.
Some sued the DOE to foot the bill of sending their kids 45-minutes away to a specialized school in New Jersey, Oddo said.
So far, Oddo said the DOE hasn't been open to creating a standalone school.
“We share the Borough President’s goals of ensuring all students with print based disabilities have the tools they need to succeed, and we will work closely with him to achieve that goal," Harry Hartfield, a spokesman for the DOE, said in a statement.
This year, the DOE opened the first program using the Orton-Gillingham method for teaching students with language-based disabilities in P.S. 57 in Clifton, the Staten Island Advance first reported.
The DOE also partnered with the Rose Institute for Learning and Literacy at Manhattanville College to open up seven "lab sites" in schools across the city, according to the DOE.
In each school, around four staff members — including reading teachers, classroom teachers and coaches — will receive mentorship from the Rose Institute. The pilot is designed to help the DOE build capacity within the school for helping dyslexic students, the DOE said.
Aside from pushing the DOE, Oddo has reached out to several charter school groups to pitch them the idea of getting a standalone school to teach students with language-based disabilities in the borough.
He said three groups have already reached out with interest and he plans to meet with them soon to talk about the proposal.
"There's no inability to learn here, these are really smart kids," Oddo said.
"We have to, as adults and as educators, figure out the best way to help them tap into their potential."
