Dyslexia IEP accommodations that route around print in every class
Dyslexia turns reading into the slowest part of nearly every subject, so the accommodations that help most route around print: speech in place of text, files a screen reader can open, and extra time wherever a passage sets the pace. None of that changes what the child needs to know, only how the words reach them going in and how they answer back going out. You can check your own IEP against this list today: open its accommodations page and ask, line by line, whether it says where, how often and by whom.
By The Advocate Ally, checked against the rules it cites. Sources checked September 17, 2026.
The accommodations, line by line
Grade-level text delivered as speech
Classroom
Software converts the assigned chapter into audio, so your child hears the content instead of decoding it word by word.
IEP wording
Put the coverage in writing: “text-to-speech access to all grade-level reading material, in every class and for homework, on a device the school provides.” 34 CFR 300.105(a)
Check
Open the reading software under your child’s login at home and see whether the read-aloud button is on for the assigned chapter.
Assigned books available as accessible files
Classroom
A digital file of the same book or worksheet reaches your child’s device the day the paper version goes home.
IEP wording
Commit to the timing: “an accessible digital copy of any assigned book or handout, delivered the same day the printed version reaches the class.” 34 CFR 300.172
Check
Watch the class portal for a same-day digital upload whenever a new packet or novel goes out on paper.
Added time wherever reading sets the pace
Classroom
Wherever a task is built around a passage, your child keeps working after classmates put their pencils down, on quizzes and state tests alike.
IEP wording
Name the added share: “fifty percent more time whenever work is organized around a reading passage, in class and on state and district assessments.” 34 CFR 300.320(a)(6)(i)
Check
Request the paperwork filed for the last state assessment and confirm the extra-time line matches the IEP.
Written answers produced by speaking
Classroom
When a paragraph is due, your child speaks the sentences and software turns them into text, so spelling is no longer the bottleneck.
IEP wording
Anchor it to length: “dictation software available for any written response beyond a single sentence, across every subject and for homework.” 34 CFR 300.105(a)
Check
Pull a recent paragraph from the portal: dictated text arrives spelled correctly, a draft typed by hand carries the usual errors.
Content tests kept separate from reading tests
Classroom
On a science or social-studies exam, the questions get read aloud, so a wrong answer reflects the subject and not the printed word.
IEP wording
State the boundary plainly: “questions read aloud on every content-area test, excluding passages on a reading assessment where decoding itself is the skill being scored.” 34 CFR 300.320(a)(4)(ii)
Check
Borrow a recent science or history test and look for a mark showing the questions were read aloud.
Vocabulary previewed ahead of the reading
Classroom
Before a unit opens, the unfamiliar words show up on a sheet or in the portal, so your child meets each word once before class introduces it.
IEP wording
Fix the sequence: “a short list of the unit’s key vocabulary posted to the class portal before the reading assignment is given out.” 34 CFR 300.42
Check
Search the portal for a vocabulary list dated ahead of this reading unit.
What the rule says
“A statement of the special education and related services and supplementary aids and services … to be provided to the child, or on behalf of the child”
Here the rule makes the audio version part of the service, so a chapter handed out only on paper is a service the school did not deliver.
If it is written but not happening
Note the missed accommodation and its date, then send it to the case manager and request that the gap close.
Put in a request for an IEP meeting that adds, by name, who loads each file and launches each tool.
Each of your child’s teachers has to be told the specific accommodations the IEP requires (34 CFR 300.323(d)(2)); a refusal to fix a gap owes you prior written notice (34 CFR 300.503).
A list is a starting point: it does not replace an evaluation of your child, or advice from someone qualified to read your file.
Have the accommodations in your IEP read back to you, free.
The review reads every page you upload, names the accommodation wording that is vague or missing, and gives you its page number.
