History
In the 2000 executive summary of the Educator Supply and Demand in Washington (April 2000), the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction identifies special education and reading as professional roles in which there are shortages of qualified teachers.
In practice, this shortage puts K-12 students with special needs at a disadvantage. In schools without reading specialists, the responsibility for supporting struggling readers often falls to special educators.
In many cases, the special educator's preparation has not included specialized work in literacy development, instruction and assessment. In those schools, students who do not qualify for special education services may be supported only by their classroom teacher -- again, who may not have a specialized understanding of literacy. When a school has both a reading specialist and a special educator, often their roles are isolated from each other. The special educator may know little about literacy, and the reading specialist may know little about special education.
The Literacy for Special Needs program is designed to bridge the gap - - to provide reading specialists, special educators, and general education teachers with the specialized, research-based literacy preparation that will enable them to effectively support struggling readers.