District 742 Specialist Focused on Helping Students with Dyslexia

ST. CLOUD -- There is a new staff member in District 742 who has a full-time job to find -- and help -- the students who suffer from dyslexia.

It was really exciting this year when our district decided to move forward with hiring a dyslexia specialist.  I am pretty sure we're the only district in the state that has hired an actual specialist to make this their full-time job.

Director of Student Services Shannon Avenson says in previous years the district has relied on special education teachers to help the students who have dyslexia. But, with as many as one in five people having at least some level of dyslexia, the number of students is pretty high.

I believe it's about 20 percent of the population has some form of dyslexia characteristics.  So it's a spectrum.  Our students who have these characteristics they [the characteristics] may look very different in the classroom.

District 742 Dyslexia Specialist Susan Keranen has been busy since the start of the school year visiting every school in the district and working with the students based on teacher recommendations.

October is Dyslexia Awareness Month.