Senator Collins Introduces Special Educator from Maine at Dyslexia Roundtable

Jessica Belvill of Union, a special educator in Tenants Harbor, is the parent of a son with dyslexia

Click HERE and HERE for individual photos.

Click HERE to watch and HERE to download video of Ms. Belvill's testimony

Click HERE to watch and HERE to download video of Senator Collins' question for Ms. Belvill on obstacles to early diagnosis of dyslexia

WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Senator Susan Collins participated in a Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee roundtable on dyslexia yesterday, where she introduced Jessica Belvill of Union-a special educator at St. George Municipal School Unit in Tenants Harbor whose son has dyslexia-who took part in the discussion as part of a six-member panel of teachers and parents of students with dyslexia. Following Ms. Belvill's testimony, Senator Collins asked her to describe the obstacles parents face when attempting to get an early diagnosis of dyslexia for their child, which is a critical step to allow for additional support and intervention at an important stage in the child's development.

A transcript of Ms. Belvill's testimony is as follows:

Jessica Belvill: My name is Jessica Belvill. I'm from Union, Maine, and a mother of two. My son, Chase, just turned 15, and he has dyslexia. I thank everyone for the opportunity to speak today, and I'm here as a parent who has spent more than a decade trying to get my son the help that he needs for dyslexia in our public schools. His story is not unique, but it should be unacceptable.

When he entered kindergarten, school stopped being a joyful place. He was terrified of writing, often hiding under the table during class. Because dyslexia runs in our family, we asked about screening, and we were told that kindergarten entry screening covered everything. We later learned that Maine had required mandatory dyslexia screening since the very year that he started kindergarten. It simply had not been done for him.

From that point on, instead of receiving support, my son was repeatedly punished and sent to the principal's office for not doing his work. He was removed from class because the school did not have enough staff to help him. Often, I was called early to pick him up because they didn't have anyone to watch over him while he was at school. His fidgeting, tipping in his chair, and avoidance were treated as defiance. And we now know they were signs of a child struggling to make sense of words that wouldn't come together on the page for him. For years, I begged for evaluations, and I was told that he wasn't trying enough, that he didn't care, and that he was deliberately disrupting the classroom.

It wasn't until third grade, after years of lost instruction and emotional harm, that the school finally evaluated him and confirmed dyslexia. We found him a private tutor trained in the Orton-Gillingham Approach to teach reading. For the first time, he had made progress. He was happier. His confidence grew, but when I asked the school to help cover the cost, as other districts nearby had done, I was told it was not an option. And unfortunately, when COVID hit, we lost that support entirely, as the tutor closed.

The school then suggested a perfect program for him, a small group instruction, one-on-one help with a teacher trained for dyslexia. However, what they didn't tell us was that they were placing him in a day treatment program designed for students with severe behavioral challenges. At the time, he was surrounded by chaos, with furniture being thrown at the teachers and students removed for safety. My son began refusing to go to school. He would cry, lay on the floor, and begged not to get on the bus and refused to go to school.

Only after persistent advocacy was he moved back to a general education classroom, where his anxiety eased and he began to smile and make friends again. Everything changed when he transferred to a small public school outside our district. There, he received one-on-one tutoring, access to audiobooks, hands-on learning, and most importantly, respect. He thrived. He became a valued member of the school community, and he graduated eighth grade with confidence and hope.

But entering high school brought us back to the beginning. He is now a freshman, and his IEP lists his disability as emotional disturbance, not dyslexia, because we were told dyslexia cannot be included. So, he is placed in study halls because they can't find classes where he fits. He is suspended for not doing his work. And he was given speech to text tools but is embarrassed to use them because he is the only one in his class using that in front of all the other students. He wants to attend a vocational school to learn welding, and instead of supporting the goal, the school tells him that he probably won't be accepted because of his grades.

My son is bright, capable, and extremely talented with hands-on work, but the message he has absorbed for years is that he is inadequate, he is stupid. We are working every day to undo that belief. His story illustrates a national problem. Dyslexia is the most common learning disability in this country, yet it is the least consistently identified, supported, or understood in our public schools. Families should not have to fight for years, pay privately, or watch their children suffer emotionally just to access appropriate instruction. We need federal leadership to ensure early screening, proper identification, and evidence-based reading instruction and accountability.

No child should lose years of learning and self-worth because a system fails to recognize and support dyslexia. Thank you for listening and for your commitment to making sure no other child has to walk his path.

A transcript of Senator Collins' question for Ms. Belvill is as follows:

Senator Collins: First of all, I thank all of you for being here and sharing your personal stories. One of the issues that really comes through to me is how important diagnosis is at an early age. And yet, we hear the struggles that you had in getting an accurate and early diagnosis. And Jessica, I wanted to ask you a question of, based on your experience, does it vary greatly within the State of Maine? In other words, if you're in a small rural school, are you far less likely to receive that early diagnosis? Or does it not matter what the size of the school is?

Jessica Belvill: I think it depends. If you're in a smaller school, like where my son started, I don't think they knew as much as bigger schools knew about the early screening and how important that is to get done. There are schools designed specifically for dyslexia in the State of Maine, but because of the area and how rural it is, they're all like two hours away from where we live. So, getting the services is the hardest part, and that's what we're still struggling with.

Senator Collins: Thank you. I think that is a real issue. And I don't mean to imply that larger schools necessarily do a better job, because there are examples where that clearly isn't true. But it seems like we should be able to get those basic tools to every school so it doesn't matter where you live. Because what I'm taking away from this is, when you got an accurate diagnosis, and then the skills, that it was transformative for them. And that they went from pulling their hair out to being "max happy." And that's what we, obviously, want for every child.

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