💙 Dyslexia Awareness Month: Texas Parents Helped Change Dyslexia Law

During Dyslexia Awareness Month, we celebrate more than awareness. We celebrate advocacy, action, and the power of families to create lasting change for students with dyslexia.

Texas has one of the strongest and most comprehensive dyslexia legal frameworks in the country. A major reason is the passage of HB 3928, the Beckley Wilson Act, during the 88th Texas Legislature in 2023.

The legislation made something critically important unmistakably clear in Texas law:

Dyslexia is an example of and meets the definition of a Specific Learning Disability under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA).

That statement may seem simple, but its impact is significant.

For years, many Texas students with dyslexia received services outside of special education, often through Section 504. HB 3928 helped strengthen the connection between dyslexia and the federal protections already available to eligible students under IDEA.

The law also strengthened requirements surrounding dyslexia evaluation, identification, instruction, qualified personnel, and progress reporting—helping ensure that students with dyslexia are not simply identified, but receive the support and instruction they need.

And this legislation has an important story behind it.

HB 3928 was authored in the Texas House by Representative Steve Toth and sponsored in the Texas Senate by Senator Tan Parker, ultimately receiving broad bipartisan support and being signed into law by Governor Greg Abbott in June 2023.

But legislation like this does not begin at the Capitol.

It begins with parents.

Parents who saw gaps in the system.

Parents who learned the law.

Parents who organized, shared their children’s experiences, met with lawmakers, provided testimony, advocated for stronger protections, and refused to accept a system that did not adequately recognize the needs and rights of students with dyslexia.

Parent advocates and organizations, including the Texas Dyslexia Coalition, helped bring these issues before lawmakers and advocate for meaningful change.

The result was legislation that has helped reshape how Texas approaches dyslexia.

That is something worth recognizing during Dyslexia Awareness Month because it reminds us that parent voices matter.

Awareness is important—but awareness must lead to action.

When families, educators, advocates, researchers, and policymakers work together, we can create systems in which students with dyslexia are identified early, taught with evidence-based instruction, provided appropriate protections, and given every opportunity to become successful readers.

This Dyslexia Awareness Month, HBIDA celebrates the parents and advocates who have helped move dyslexia policy forward in Texas—and all those who continue working to ensure that strong laws become strong practices in every classroom.

Because passing a law is not the end of advocacy.

Implementation matters.
Instruction matters.
Teacher knowledge matters.
Parent voices matter.
And students with dyslexia matter.

💙 Awareness creates understanding. Advocacy creates change.

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