Dyslexia is the most common learning disability — affecting an estimated 15-20% of the population — and yet it remains one of the most poorly served in the IEP system.

The reason is often the goals. Vague, unmeasurable, easily-met goals that require no meaningful change in instruction and produce no meaningful change in reading. Parents sit through annual reviews hearing “adequate progress” while their child remains years behind grade level.

What Makes a Dyslexia IEP Goal Adequate?

A strong IEP goal for a student with dyslexia must be:

  • Specific to the area of deficit — dyslexia affects phonemic awareness, phonological processing, decoding, fluency, and sometimes reading comprehension. Goals must address the specific area(s) where the student struggles, based on evaluation data.
  • Measurable with a clear baseline — you cannot measure progress without knowing where the student started
  • Ambitious but achievable — not so easy that any progress meets the goal, not so difficult that it’s unrealistic
  • Tied to a specific evidence-based intervention — not just “will improve reading” but reading improvement through a structured literacy approach

Weak Goals vs. Strong Goals: Side-by-Side Examples

Phonological Awareness

Weak: “Student will improve phonological awareness skills.”

Strong: “By June 2027, given a list of 20 spoken words, [Student] will correctly identify rhyming pairs, produce rhymes, and segment words into individual phonemes with 90% accuracy across 3 consecutive probes, as measured by the Phonological Awareness subtest of the CTOPP-2.”

Decoding / Word Reading

Weak: “Student will improve decoding skills.”

Strong: “By June 2027, given a list of 50 nonsense words at the CVC and CCVC level, [Student] will correctly apply vowel-consonant and consonant blend patterns to decode with 85% accuracy across 4 of 5 weekly probes, as measured by the DIBELS Nonsense Word Fluency assessment.”

Reading Fluency

Weak: “Student will improve reading fluency.”

Strong: “By June 2027, given a grade 3 reading passage, [Student] will read at a rate of 90 correct words per minute with no more than 3 errors per minute across 4 of 5 consecutive weekly probes, as measured by curriculum-based measurement (CBM) oral reading fluency assessment. (Current baseline: 52 words per minute, 8 errors per minute.)”

Reading Comprehension

Weak: “Student will understand what they read.”

Strong: “By June 2027, after listening to or reading a grade-level fiction passage, [Student] will correctly answer 4 out of 5 literal and inferential comprehension questions, including identifying the main idea, key details, and making text-based inferences, as measured by bi-weekly teacher probes using grade-level texts.”

What the Research Supports for Dyslexia Intervention

The science of reading is clear: students with dyslexia need structured literacy instruction — systematic, explicit, sequential instruction in phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension, grounded in the Orton-Gillingham approach or similar evidence-based frameworks.

If your child’s IEP does not specify the instructional approach, ask: “What evidence-based reading program will be used to address [child’s] decoding deficits? Has the team reviewed the research on structured literacy for students with dyslexia?”

Programs with strong research support include:

  • Wilson Reading System
  • Barton Reading and Spelling System
  • SPIRE (Specialized Program Individualizing Reading Excellence)
  • Orton-Gillingham based programs
  • RAVE-O

Dyslexia-Specific Accommodations to Request Alongside Goals

Goals address what the student will learn. Accommodations address how they access learning right now. Both are needed.

Key accommodations for students with dyslexia:

  • Text-to-speech software (Read&Write, Learning Ally, Bookshare) for grade-level content
  • Audiobooks for all assigned reading
  • Extended time on all reading and writing tasks
  • Tests read aloud
  • Spell check permitted
  • Reduced copying
  • Word banks and graphic organizers
  • Speech-to-text for written expression

State Dyslexia Laws

Most US states have now passed dyslexia-specific legislation requiring schools to screen for dyslexia, provide evidence-based intervention, and use the word “dyslexia” in evaluations and IEPs. Check your state’s current law.

Notably: some schools historically avoided using the word “dyslexia” in IEPs, substituting vague language like “reading disability.” This practice is not legally required and you can request that the specific term be used.

In Canada

Canada does not have federal dyslexia legislation equivalent to state dyslexia laws. However, a diagnosis of dyslexia triggers the duty to accommodate under provincial Human Rights Codes. The Learning Disabilities Association of Canada (ldac-acta.ca) provides resources and advocacy support.

Are your child’s dyslexia goals strong enough?
Use IEP Navigator’s Goal Strength Scorer to grade your child’s current reading goals — and get rewritten versions you can bring to the next IEP meeting.

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