S2E30: Zero Percent Graduation Rates - How Schools Ignore Dyslexic Students

Hey there, parents of dyslexic children! Are you tired of feeling like you're going around in circles, not getting the right support for your child's education? Have you ever been told to just hand over the neuropsych evaluation and expect everything to magically fall into place? It can be incredibly frustrating and disheartening, leaving you feeling like you're on an isolated island, struggling to advocate for your child's needs in the education system. Sound familiar? Let's talk about how to navigate this and turn the tables in your favor.

In this episode, you will be able to:

• Explore the impact of dyslexia on the education system and unlock strategies for tailored support.
• Uncover the valuable insights gained from neuropsych evaluations and their role in shaping your child's education.
• Master the art of navigating IEP meetings to ensure your dyslexic child receives the tailored support they deserve.
• Advocate for your dyslexic child's education by discovering valuable school resources and support networks.
• Gain insight into the differences in dyslexia support across state laws and empower yourself to advocate effectively.

Transcript:

00:00:05
Welcome back to Word Blindness, Dyslexia Exposed. This is Juliet Hahn here with my co host, Brent Sopel. How are you?

00:00:16
The wheels on the bus go round and round. Isn't it like, is that Big Ben? Big Ben, Big Ben. What movie is that? Where they kept going around.

00:00:27
Chevy Chase was in it and it's like, oh, there's Big. I know, I'm, I'm. My words are. What the fuck are you talking. I said, you don't know what movie I'm talking about National Lampoon's Vacation.

00:00:40
Haha. Thank you. Thank you, universe. It's Chevy J. They literally go around and it's like Big Ben, Parliament, Big Ben.

00:00:47
And they can't get off this. It's almost like Groundhog Day. Like they can't get off this loop. That's right. Because you actually, I want to say three episodes ago, did this world in the bus and now what I want the listeners to kind of correlate Wheels on the Box when Brent is like, I don't even.

00:01:03
I can't say if I'm good, if I'm not good. I am going around in a circle. My mentality is about a, you know, a four year old right now fried with, you know. And that's what it refers to. I can't think much, you know, further than that over the last, whatever, seven weeks of, you know, from, you know, getting ready for the golf tournament and still literally haven't stopped.

00:01:27
So. And then the Stanley cup dinner and which we've recapped. So we are in November now we recording at the end of October, just for reference. Mind blowing.

00:01:40
It's more than mind blowing. It really is. Wait, you need to fix your screen. You're like a little person again. And I know you already did it a little bit, but that's much better.

00:01:49
Okay, so little. No, but I looked like giant human. So. Yes. And I am struggling today as well.

00:01:58
So this is going to be an interesting conversation. But I have to say time and time again, the last couple weeks, people just coming and asking questions and things that we're learning, which I want to go back to like one of the episodes way in the beginning when someone asked you or we were talking about how do you educate yourself? And you're like, I don't educate myself. And I went, wait, no, that's not true. And you said it.

00:02:28
It was like a. There was like a flippant thing there. And I was like, okay, first of all, that's so not true. You know more about this world. You might not be Reading it in a book like you went back to reverting to school.

00:02:39
Like, no, I don't do it that way. You learned so much from people, from doing your own research. And that is kind of what we wanted to talk about today. Because the conversation that you had with a family in Illinois. Is it Illinois or Illinois.

00:03:03
Illinois. That's what I thought, but I wanted to, I wanted to put an S on it. I mean, I know there isn't. Oh, Harris Airport. Everyone's like, what's O hairs?

00:03:17
Is it a bar? I'm sure there is a lot of bars. Oh, hairs. Yeah. Every dyslexic.

00:03:25
Totally. Yeah. My brain is not firing correctly today, and we're just going to leave it at that. But you had an interesting conversation after a child. I mean, because again, you guys, if you're jumping in right now, a lot of times people will reach out to Brent to ask for help on kind of decoding their iep.

00:03:51
I mean, I'm sorry, their neuropsych. And then be asking like, what accommodations have you seen that have helped We. That, that is one of the things that, like, we get asked all the time, okay, what helped your kid? And we're always like, well, okay, it's interesting that the teachers. What did they say?

00:04:07
And then when they sometimes, you know, with child study teams or whatever, we're always interested in like, huh, okay, well, you're going to add this because this is what you need. Well, you know that neuropsych is basically a doctor's report. Exactly. You know, I, I always say, you know, you need help understanding what that neuropsych is. I can take it out of the doctor terms and talk and put it to normal person terms.

00:04:35
Yo. Yes. Yes. You're sitting in a doctor's office. They're using all these big words.

00:04:39
No matter if it's north, you know, you know, ortho or no. What is that? What I don't understand those words are. So you, you take these word doctor terms and you go to school and you hand it to people that still don't know what they are. Probably the results aren't going to be good.

00:04:58
So I take, you know, read that and try and take out a doctor terms and put them into normal person terms. Because you always have to remember, schools of business, they don't care about your kid.

00:05:15
It hurts. It hurts. It really hurts. They do not care about your kid. You know, business first.

00:05:27
They've got X amount of dollars to work with. And if they need to lie to save dollars, 100%, they will now. I just found out, you know, In Illinois in 2022, they passed.

00:05:48
I can't remember what the hell it's called. But now here in the state is if you go outside of the school and get a neuropsych, when you bring it back to the school, again, this is only in public schools, private schools. No matter what kind of private school it is, they have the option to do whatever they want. They're not getting funded by the federal government, so they have control to do whatever they want with your kid. They don't have to listen to you.

00:06:23
They don't have to give them the resources. They can do whatever they want. So this is only with public schools that you bring that neuropsych. And before the neuropsych had, you know, had weight. Is, you know, I got a doctor.

00:06:37
You go to the doctor if you're sick. Oh, here's a doctor. Don't they listen to it now? They don't now that's. Now the school special ed team, school psychologist has to administer six or seven tests, evaluations, and then they'll take a look at their neuropsych and they'll make their determination on what your kid will get for resources in the state of Illinois.

00:07:17
Nice. Thanks.

00:07:21
I appreciate the encouragement. Can you. And I know we've talked about this, but just remind me, can you use the word dyslexia on. In the words. Okay, but now it doesn't matter, you know, because again, a lot of the schools, again, this, you know, this just came up, one school, they're like, nope, we need to do our tests.

00:07:46
You know, this is it. You know, we need to do our evaluations before we make any determination. You'll get some that will work with you, you know, with. With what that is. Okay.

00:08:02
No, you know, because they're trying to save money. But, you know, the biggest thing here is the school psychologist, special ed. None of them have these learning disorders, so they have zero clue what you're talking about. You know, Second of all, now they're overriding what a doctor is saying, which is contradicting what everybody else is talking about in the sex world, because all you talk about is research, research, research. We got our PhD.

00:08:39
We're a doctor. We're a doctor. We'Re doctor. This is what it is. That's what it is.

00:08:43
Oh, but now you're not listening to us. So which one do you want? Which cake? You want your cake and eat it too. Yeah, it's.

00:08:53
It's very interesting. And I will. I'm going to clarify. When Brent says not anyone has it, remember, he's very black and white. So he is saying the majority of the individuals don't have the learning style.

00:09:06
And. And so it is like, okay, it's what they read out of a book and stuff like this. My question, and I would love for someone, if you're listening and you know this, so we've talked about in the past about the neuropsychologist, what it takes to get to be a neuropsychologist. It's like a little bit more than some of these other practices. When you're in school, you don't make as much.

00:09:29
And so we had dove into that a little bit on one of the episodes and we were really surprised by it and was like, okay, this is so interesting because some states you have to have and outside, like in Connecticut, and this is again when Montgomery was in third grade. He's now a freshman in high school. So I have not looked. If someone's like, that's wrong. I'm saying what it was back in the day, he had to get a neuropsychologist to give him the diagnosis of dyslexia, dysgraphia, dyscalculia and ADHD for him to get any services in Connecticut.

00:10:09
And you were allowed to put those on the iap. So, like, on his iep, it was allowed. And then we moved to New York and they're like, we're taking all that away. And from my understanding, they took it all away in New York is because if you have those on your IEP and on your diagnosis, then it means you have to have a certain amount of reading specialists, you have to have a certain amount of accredited teachers to be able to teach those kids. So New York as a whole, you can't say it.

00:10:36
It just says, specify learning disability. And as you guys heard me as we talked about a couple weeks ago, we just found that out. Yeah, there's tons of states that do that. And that just hurts the kid. It hurts the teacher.

00:10:49
Right. Because it's like specified learning disability. What is that like? Yeah, what. What is that?

00:10:54
What? What do you mean? Like, oh, they are. Do they have the five Ds or is it something complaining? Yeah, so it, the whole thing, as Brent said, it is a business.

00:11:06
This is being thought about in the upper echelon or whatever. Upper businesses, again, I can't speak today, but, like, up the top, I always say, like, who is sitting there going, that's a good idea. I don't feel like people are really, they don't. It seems so simple. Like what it and not.

00:11:28
And this is the thing, those people up there, I'll give them credit, are trying.

00:11:38
They don't have it right. Yo, I've never come across as a special ed teacher. I've never come across any of them to myself as come across interaction with any of them that have had the 5Ds, right. And I have. And so that's why we.

00:11:59
I always say to him, well, there are. Because I have, but you have not, right? No. So we're talking very small percentage, right? You know that habit y.

00:12:09
You go up top. Everybody that you're talking about, they don't have these. So they think they're doing, you know, doing something good. It's simple to us and we got ways to simplify things and break things down to make it better. But they don't understand what we are saying.

00:12:36
We're talking gibberish.

00:12:42
But it's costing money, it's costing kids self esteem, it's costing kids lives, it's costing the world when it could be very simply changing again. Not simply, but it could be changed for something so much better if there's just more understanding, compassion from that top. They weren't getting feed fed bullshit from these people that are trying to make money off kids. Yeah. And the business part, it's.

00:13:28
It doesn't matter the relationship you have with your school. We've, you know, you've heard my story. I was like, no, they're gonna totally. What are you talking about? They love Montgomery.

00:13:37
That's all I hear. We're like pillars of the community. Why wouldn't they help us? And that was very eye opening. That like, as I said, that hurt my feelings really bad.

00:13:47
And it takes a lot to hurt my feelings. Yeah, that was. And that happens all the time. And when parents are not educated because they don't know what to ask or they don't know what to do, it's. It's a frustration.

00:14:00
You feel like you are on an island by yourself. No one really seems to understand. Even if people are like, oh yes, this is what you need to do. It is like a fire hose being sprayed at you as you're going through this journey. And it's not comfortable, it's not fun, it is awful.

00:14:18
Lots of mental health happens with parents as they're trying to help the kids. And you know, just last weekend I had a, a mom asked me because of the podcast. Okay. I heard that your son went to a dyslexic school. She's like, I've heard mixed things.

00:14:34
And I said, oh, have you been talking to Brent?

00:14:39
And I said to her, listen, I said, there's so many different things. I also had another call with a dyslexic school that was asking me about funding or something like this. And it's not specifically a dyslexic school, but it is someone that started a school, realized there was a need, and all teachers are asking. It was like, we just need the resources to be able to help these kids. Now, if the school that Montgomery went to, it was brilliant for him.

00:15:10
And so I can talk about my experience, but my experience is not everyone's experience, because I have friends that they spent the money and it wasn't the right place for their kid. I mean, that was when we were looking at schools. There was two different schools that we were choosing from. And we really listened. Montgomery's like, I feel so much better in this one school.

00:15:30
I really don't feel better in this one. And we were like, okay, let's do that. We were just very fortunate. It's not for everyone. And so everyone has to do it because it is very.

00:15:43
I mean, we had to sue the school district because of the amount of money that the. I mean, there's so much that goes behind it. And so in certain public schools, if there's the education, the understanding of the parent and the teacher and the. And there's something that. And again, this happens for some people, right?

00:16:03
We've talked to some people that are like, my elementary school is okay. It's all of the different severities of your 5Ds. There's so much that goes into it. So the more knowledge you have, the more power you have, the more understanding, the more questions you can ask. But there's no right or wrong for every kid.

00:16:22
And that's what's really. That's what is difficult. Even though sometimes we're like, it seems so easy. That's what's difficult, you know, And I always talk about trying to get both sides right, you know, to this. You know, my.

00:16:38
My kids never went to. I never went to, obviously, you know, a school specific for. Or, you know, dyslexia or, you know, school for specific. You know, specific for learning disorders.

00:16:53
But again, the communication, the contact, the conversations I've had with people to the same thing as the. As the special ed teacher. A lot of those principals, deans, call them whatever you want. Teachers still don't have the five Ds. So people think I'm spending X amount of dollars on the school, my kid's gonna be okay.

00:17:29
It's not that cookie cutter right, yo that I had one story from another parent, they don't have it. So it's just not that easy. They're gonna go there and be okay. No, you have to understand that there's a good chance that whoever's leading that school called whatever principal or the district or that teacher, doesn't have that same learning disorder that your kid has. So they don't have that full understanding now.

00:18:10
They learned it out of a book, right? So it's. As I talk to parents about, you know, about this, it's, you just have to understand because everybody falls in that same trap as you just mentioned. Oh, they love my kid. They're gonna, they're gonna help me.

00:18:28
It's even more of a business when you're going to a school like that. Then you don't go into a public school, right? They don't have to abide by anything. They abide by their rules. And your kid is not number one.

00:18:49
And the other problem I have with them is a lot of those schools, you have to fall in between a certain threshold for them to accept you. If your kid is below that or above that, they're not going to take your kid because they want the numbers to keep saying we're graduating X percent or we're doing this at X percent. If you don't fall in there. So again, your kid doesn't matter. It's, you know, are they in between those numbers?

00:19:26
You know, that's why I, that's why when I talk about, you know, these kind of schools that people know that because they don't know. They don't know why they, you know, they didn't know these, they never heard any of these. So it's, you know, going into a situation with information, you know, that's, that's no knowledge is powerful. I always say you want to walk in that situation, no knowing or if your kids in that school always having that in your back, your mind. So when they ever come to you with a problem or something's going on, at least you're, you're thinking about that.

00:20:04
You're able to hear. If you're thinking about that, you're able to hear things in a few different ways than you would if you didn't know what that information was. And I think what you said is really important for parents to hear because a lot of times they don't know. This is that like your kid has to test in some of the schools actually even talk to the. The.

00:20:32
The public school. They want to talk to the teachers. So like if your kid is a little bit of a behavior problem. If like, you know, this is something that happened later. And I had this with a friend in the town.

00:20:44
I was. And her kid was really struggling. Was a little bit later diagnosed and he couldn't get into any of the schools. And she was like, oh my. Like heartbroken.

00:20:55
I felt so badly because it was. There's so many things that go into it. I mean finances. It is ridiculous and it's a tiny percent. So then all of the people for the most people cannot afford these schools.

00:21:14
And. And if they can, it's. It's again it's a have and have nots that the things that's happening with the world, it just keeps making it bigger and bigger. And then not only as you said, sometimes okay. You're like, okay financially I can.

00:21:30
But then your kid maybe doesn't get in because they. You do have to take tests. And it is. It is a stressful. So stressful.

00:21:39
I mean I remember when Montgomery. And again, I thought this was our only option. But you know, the. He couldn't. The public school was failing him and it was like very obvious.

00:21:48
It was like, okay, you guys, I know you keep saying he's making. He's making jumps, but these kids are all now reading to learn. He's still learning to read. And what. What Great.

00:21:57
Like what are you talking about? And I just. It was this, oh my God. I just need a place that. That can help.

00:22:03
Right? I. I don't. And all you want to do is save this child's self esteem. And that's all you want to do.

00:22:09
You want to save this child's self esteem. And so you think, okay, this is good. And I will say one of the things and we. I'm going to hold him to it because now I'm even saying it. Montgomery is going to come on with my nephew Bradley in the winter, after winter break after their first year.

00:22:26
We had a really great conversation. I had a really great conversation with both of them like the first couple weeks of school. And I was saying like, how is it going? And they were like, oh my gosh, okay. We are, you know, we were kind of ahead of our dyslexia.

00:22:40
They both have had tutoring and Montgomery with the school and all of these different things. And they were like, holy crap. I was like, right. Like I knew this was going to happen. Right?

00:22:48
It's going to happen. So they were telling Me things that they remembered about their dyslexia, their describe what all these different things. And so I said to them, I want you guys to come on and talk to Brent and I. And they both said, yes, they were going to do it together, so they're going to be able to talk kind of about their young journey. But one of the things we did, Montgomery touched on, and he said, I do remember realizing when I was in the lowest reading group in this school, but the girl that I was with couldn't read, and she was there since kindergarten, and I got in at third grade.

00:23:19
He goes, I remember realizing, oh, my gosh, okay, I'm not. And I, you know, he didn't use this word, but I'm not the dumbest. There's someone else. And then he felt bad about it. He's like, mom, she can't read it all.

00:23:32
Like, I didn't realize that someone can't read at all. So there was a familiar familiarity. I think I said that, right? Knowing that you weren't trying to hide from other people because everyone kind of struggled the same way. Everyone was talking in the hall.

00:23:48
Everyone was doing things. So there is that part, but then there's parts that like, once he started jumping and was like, okay, I'm, you know, because it is so much work, you know, he was so tired. So many different things that parents have to think about. And so if we can educate the parents, right? And if the parents can educate and know that this is a business, what do you need?

00:24:11
But like the states, this is where it's hard, right? The states, like Illinois is like, well, guess what? We're going to make this determination. And so do you even know, like, can they. Can a parent get an attorney?

00:24:24
Again, costs money. What, you know, if the teachers are saying or if they. I shouldn't say. If the child study team or your IEP team, whatever it's called, is saying, well, okay, you have your neuropsych. This is the diagnosis.

00:24:38
We've now tested the kid again, which again, we all, when you get tested, it's just like, all the time, like, this is what you suck at. This is what you suck at. It's really fun when they come up with that. Is the parent allowed to say, well, no, I'm going to fight on this, or do we not know, like, well, further details than that? Because I'm very curious about that.

00:24:58
You're given to them. They made it up. Made up their own test. What's. What does this mean?

00:25:05
You know, so you can fight them, but now, but it's. It's a state, you know, it's part of the state law, you know, so you can always, you know, you can always go after them. But it's makes it, you know, obviously makes it tough. It was put in there to make sure this. Yeah, we're in Illinois, too, right.

00:25:35
Y'all right. The state is as up as you get. You know, I used to think New York was. Right. Well, you know, it's.

00:25:47
We'll leave it at that. You should see the fights that are going on here in Chicago Public Schools. Well, didn't you have. Oh, go ahead, finish. No, it's.

00:25:58
Yo. And the Chicago Public Schools, right? The teachers union, you're asking, you know, 700 billion, you know, was it $70 billion total package for the teachers, but we're ongoing with this. Never. The kids have never been mentioned once they are walking into, you know, an iep, especially the kids are never mentioned.

00:26:25
It's never the kids, you know, those, you know, they're the best teachers in the world. What about the kids? You know, kids. You know, there's. We got some schools in Chicago that is zero percent graduating.

00:26:41
I know, it's crazy. Zero, you know, what about the kids? The kids are the future of this world. What about them? That's what's.

00:26:55
Yeah. So hard that. That's what's so hard about when I say stuff about the special Ed. That's what's so hard about when I say stuff about these schools, for specific. It's not ever about the kids, ever.

00:27:09
It's about that teacher. It's about that school. It's about that dollar. And the kids are on the bottom of the totem pole every single time. And that's what frustrates me.

00:27:23
That's what pisses me off. That's what angers me.

00:27:28
Why? Like, why? Right? It's. It's the dollar and it's the.

00:27:38
Something has gone very, very sideways, and not a good sideways. Dyslexia is the most corrupt business in the world. So that's why, you know, again, you. You talk about, you know, I'll call it prohibition, right? Who got what?

00:28:03
Promptness, Right? You know, that's. It's just the fact of the matter, you know, the government's corruptness, Right? And that's what dyslexia is. So that's why we've got to speak.

00:28:13
You know, that's kind of why we speak, the way we speak. That's why we talk. What we talk is so people have understanding that, you know. You know, dyslexia is one of the biggest, most corrupt businesses, you know, in the world. We're talking about billions and billions of dollars.

00:28:29
You know, it's probably close to bringing the same money as the drug industry.

00:28:37
Right? And there's organizations, you know, that have been around 7,500. I mean, word blindness, that's what dyslexia was referred to. You guys have heard us talk about this all the time. And yes, there's stuff that's been happening in the research world.

00:28:51
There's stuff that has been learned, but as Brent said, there's zero percent graduation rate at some schools now. I'm sorry, not every single one of those kids is dunce. Like, is dunce. Is that the word dunce? Dumb, dance, Dense?

00:29:07
Where would you come. Where would you try. I was going to say, because I don't like the word dumb and I don't like the word dense. I was trying to say. So I said dunce, whatever.

00:29:17
Oh, my God. Not everyone is like me today. Not every. I mean, there is just. It's like, you're in this area.

00:29:26
This is what you, your family is. This is your home life, whatever it is, and it's not okay, because that's not, it's not, not about the kid. It's. It is not about the kid ever. It's a number.

00:29:39
It is. I mean, we, we've talked to many teachers that have left the teaching in world because they were like. It like hurt too much, right? They're like, we couldn't, like, you can't do things. You can't say, hey, I think this kid is struggling, or, hey, certain places you can.

00:29:55
Certain places you can't. Certain states have a little bit more understanding, if that's the word, certain states. And I mean, they're better than Illinois. You know what I mean? Right.

00:30:06
So Illinois and, you know, and I've been a part of a lot of worlds. The education world probably has the biggest ego that I've ever been part of. You know, the heads of colleges, you know, you gotta be the heads of, you know, districts. They think that they're the smartest and they think that they're best and they know it all. They're.

00:30:41
They're number one. You know, I've been professional athletes. I've been with CEOs of Fortune 500 companies. By far. Education has the biggest egos of anybody in the world.

00:30:57
And that's another reason why, you know, they're number one. They know best. Never for the kids. Right? Because it's, it's the smarts well, I'm going to leave it there.

00:31:09
But that is. And as we, you know, learn these things, these are the things that we want to be able to share because we want people to have knowledge and understanding. When you have knowledge and understanding, you can go into a meeting a little different. You can ask certain questions, you can stand up for yourself a little bit. There's things that can be done that, you know.

00:31:32
So you're not like me going into the first Iap, man. No, they're going to help. What are you talking about? No, they're going to be there. What are you talking about?

00:31:40
I mean, you know, it's. It is the more knowledge you have, the more understanding you have, the more tools you have to be able to ask the right questions. Because maybe you're going to ask a question that they're like, okay, I don't know what to do here. And then they don't pull the wool over eyes, which we've seen time and time again happen. And then a parent goes in.

00:32:01
I mean, I had a family that they were like, oh, yeah. I started saying things, and they're like, who have you been talking to? And that's a lot of times, if you say certain things and you. And you form certain things in certain ways, you put them in their tracks right away going, all right, these people know what they're talking about. Talking about, we can't, you know, we.

00:32:18
We can't do this, you know, other ones. All right, you know, so it's now, knowledge is power. Exactly. We're gonna leave it at that. Thank you for joining another episode of Word Blindness.

00:32:30
Dyslexia Exposed. You know what I say every single time? Like, rate, review and share. Because you don't know who needs to hear this. We'll see you for another episode next week.

00:32:40
Thanks, Brandt.