Legislation


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Legislation


SB 488

Wonderful news!! On October 8, 2021, Governor Newsom signed Senate Bill 488 (Rubio, Baldwin Park) which will require the Commission on Teacher Credentialing (CTC) to do the following:

  • Revise and strengthen teaching standards for licensure for new teachers that incorporate both the Science of Reading and the California Dyslexia Guidelines;
  • Ensure that  accredited teacher preparation programs meet these higher standards including  preparing new teachers in evidence-based reading instruction, particularly with respect to teaching foundational reading skills;
  • Certify that all existing approved teacher preparation programs are aligned with the new teaching standards;
  • As of July 1, 2025, replace the Reading Instruction Competence Assessment (RICA) with a new Literacy Teaching Performance Assessment (TPA) that new multiple subject and ed specialist teaching credential candidates are required to pass to obtain licensure;

You may recall that during the 2019-2020 legislative session, DDCA worked really hard to defeat a bill (SB 614) that would have eliminated the RICA and removed the definition of comprehensive reading instruction from statute.  Therefore we recognize the need to let you, as part of our grassroots movement, understand why we supported SB 488.  

As part of our research into the history of California teaching standards, we learned that over the past two decades, the CTC has eliminated many of its teaching standards with respect to reading instruction and recently revised the RICA. The revised RICA is now easier to pass, and it appears that the test weighting on the teaching of foundational reading skills has also been decreased with this latest revision. While DDCA is concerned that a (yet to be created) Literacy TPA may not be a sufficient replacement for the RICA, we do feel that strengthening teaching standard requirements with respect to the Science of Reading, including incorporating the CA Dyslexia Guidelines, with increased transparency/accountability in ensuring that these standards are being followed by teacher preparation programs, is more critical.  

We need to remain vigilant in ensuring that the CTC sufficiently amends California’s teaching standards and Teacher Performance Expectations in a manner that explicitly conforms to this new law and that it holds teacher prep programs accountable as part of the accreditation and accreditation review process.  To translate into improved teacher prep programs and improved student outcomes, this new law needs to be enforced. 



AB 1369

GREAT NEWS!  On August 18, 2017, the California Dyslexia Bill, AB1369 (Frazier, D-Oakley) passed the Assembly and the Senate and was signed by Governor Jerry Brown. Thank you to all who supported this along its trip.  You can read the final bill here.

This bill required the Superintendent of Public Instruction to develop by the 2017–18 academic year, program guidelines for dyslexia to be used to assist regular education teachers, special education teachers, and parents to identify and assess pupils with dyslexia, and to plan, provide, evaluate, and improve educational services, as defined, to pupils with dyslexia. The bill required the Superintendent to disseminate the program guidelines through the State Department of Education’s Internet Web site and to provide technical assistance regarding their use and implementation to specified persons.    Click here for the Complete Guidelines.

On August 14, 2017, the California Department of Education released the California Dyslexia Guidelines

You can also read the Top 10 Dyslexia Guidelines – taken from the State of CA Guidelines.

Read more about the bill by Decoding Dyslexia CA (click here).

The California Association of School Psychologists issued a position paper.

The California PTA Association has written a Position Paper.  CHECK IT OUT!

You can watch the video of the Work Group for the regulations of this bill.

IDA has printed a booklet, Dyslexia in the Classroom: What Every Teacher Needs to KnowDownload Here
This booklet covers topics such as what dyslexia is, signs and symptoms, social and emotional connection, classroom strategies, multisensory structured langauge, screening, evaluation, and diagnosis.  It also provides additional resources and further reading.

For information about the national efforts to promote dyslexia, check out this review by the Shaywitz’ — shaywitz-january-2017

 


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