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HB 3928 & the Dyslexia Handbook: What Texas Teachers Need to Know

• Team Bertolino • Season 1 • Episode 58

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Paperwork doesn’t teach a child to read. We dig into how to turn dyslexia policy into real progress by aligning instruction with brain science and holding ourselves to clear, measurable outcomes. Our guest, Russell Van Brocklen, is a New York State Senate-funded researcher who overcame severe dyslexia. Russell shares a framework that helps districts meet HB 3928 requirements, avoid legal pitfalls, and, most importantly, move students toward grade-level reading and writing.

We explore what “evidence-based” really means in practice: documented training, fidelity logs, and interventions designed to leverage the dyslexic brain’s strengths. Russell explains why general-to-specific instruction backfires for neurodiverse learners and how flipping the sequence: specific questions first, then broader synthesis, using writing to organize thought. He shows how to build intensity without breaking budgets by anchoring instruction in each student’s specialty, turning deep interest into daily stamina, vocabulary growth, and rapid skill gains.

Data is the heartbeat of this approach. We outline how to monitor progress every four to six weeks with reliable measures, use those checkpoints to adjust instruction, and set a bar that demands gap-closing growth rather than stagnant percentiles. Russell also maps the legal landscape: the cost of delayed screening, the risks that drive private placements, and why “trying something” isn’t enough if impact isn’t documented. Along the way, you’ll hear a parent-led case study of a student jumping from the single digits to the 60th percentiles in months, plus a pragmatic roadmap for training teachers quickly and partnering with families effectively.

If you’re a Texas educator, administrator, or advocate looking to meet the letter of HB 3928 while honoring the science of reading and the lived reality of dyslexic students, this conversation offers a practical playbook you can use tomorrow. Subscribe, share with a colleague, and leave a review with the one change you’re committing to implement next week!
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Learn more about Russell, his research, and more! - 

https://dyslexiaclasses.com/

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Get more information, details and resources on Know Your Regulator - https://www.belolaw.com/know-your-regulator




SPEAKER_01:

This podcast is for educational purposes only, does not constitute legal advice, and does not create an attorney-client relationship. If you need legal assistance about a legal problem, contact an attorney.

SPEAKER_00:

Thanks for having me.

SPEAKER_01:

Absolutely. So, Russell, let's start with how you got into dyslexia research. You're a New York Senate funded researcher. Talk to us about that for a second.

SPEAKER_00:

Well, I was not supposed to do this. This is the last thing in the world I was supposed to be doing. I was supposed to be a bureaucrat for the New York State government. But I signed up for the Assembly internship and I had a first grade reading and writing level. So they accommodated the heck out of me. As a result, they submitted back to the State University of New York Center at Buffalo, political science department. They looked at these accommodations, which were extraordinary, and the recommended grade of 3. But they said they didn't like the accommodations. Even though literally the New York State government made these, and they said, so here's your 15 credits of F. All right. And it's still there 27 years later. And the only person it's ever happened to. So I said, I'm tired of the discrimination. So I asked my professors how I can teach other dyslectics to read and write. And they said, go to law school. So I audited a class with Professor Warner, who was the dyslectic contracts professor. Second day of class, he calls on me. And unlike the rest of the students, I argued with him for 15 minutes. He raised his hand and said, We can't, we ran out of time. You couldn't be any more correct. Thank you. I learned to read within a month. Writing took a couple of years. And I went back to the New York State government. I said, okay, I want the Senate to fund my research. And that created a whole host of things I had to go through with the State Education Department, everything else. They eventually did it. And what we did is we took a bunch of highly motivated, intelligent high school juniors and seniors in a public school and we increased their writing from the middle school level to average eventering graduate school students. So I'm telling you all this because of the laws we're going to be discussing. It has to be based on the science. This is the top book in my field, Overcoming Dyslexia by Sally Shea, what's real? This is dyslexia. Do you see how the back part of your brain has all this massive neuroactivity and mine has next to nothing? Now, do you see how the front part of my brain is about two and a half times overactive?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Okay. Now that two and a half times overactive is important because that's how I'm going to tell you how to comply with your rules in your handbook. According to Yale, that deals with articulation followed by word analysis. I use the graduate records exam analytical writing assessments. Do you see how analytical and articulation are essentially the same thing?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

That was the connection that allowed these students to jump seven, eight grade levels at a cost of New York State of under$900. They all went on to college, they all graduated for under$900.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, that's amazing.

SPEAKER_00:

Right. But now, how now what I'm going to do after I discuss the rules with you, I'm going to tell you how to implement things. So basically, what we're kind of running into is a problem here. So today we're discussing HB 329-28 in the 2024 dyslexia handbook. The problem is most school districts treat this like a compliance exercise. They check boxes, fill out the forms, and they just hope they don't get sued. But the handbook actually requires evidence-based intervention. So here's the three biggest things that the schools run into problems with. Number one, it must be evidence-based with documented fidelity of implementation. Okay? You're not just buying a program with research behind it. You need proof that your intervention is delivered correctly with training logs. I cannot emphasize that enough. Well, did you implement it correctly? Well, you know, it's not going to cut it.

SPEAKER_01:

Right. I think it's important that teachers and regulators, you know, or anyone who's really going to be implementing this in, recognize that scientific evidence right there. The dissectic brain is fundamentally different, that it's thinking differently. And that's kind of where it starts with this.

SPEAKER_00:

Yes. I'll get to more details on how to implement this much better. But number two, you must include monitoring at regular intervals using reliable measures. A lot of times, teachers will try to get away with observation. He's trying really hard. It's not going to cut it. You need to standardize scores about every four to six weeks to show qualifiable growth. Any questions on that one?

SPEAKER_01:

That makes sense. I would want to see that myself.

SPEAKER_00:

The thing is, a lot of schools will try to get away with maybe I'll do it once a semester, maybe twice a semester. No, really, the number I found when I was researching this in Texas, it's four to six weeks, is the recommended process, is the recommended amount. Number three, you must deliver significant intensity and impact to actually close the gap. This is probably the one that you're going to be dealing with most lawyers. You must the school that must deliver sufficient intensity, impact that actually closes the gap. Note the word actually and closes the gap. The handbook doesn't just want some improvement, it expects interventions with kids towards grade level performance, not keeping them stuck in the same percentile year after year. It's not a money thing. It's how to actually find the right program and to implement it correctly. All right. So what I want to do now is I want to go in and I want to explain precisely how we can do that. All right. So first, based on the dyslectic brain that I showed you before, remember the back part. Because here's what's going on the school system is fundamentally designed to make these kids fail. They're not doing it on purpose, but they're fundamentally doing this to make them fail. Why? Because 80 plus percent of the student population is not neurodiverse, which dyslexia is the most severe for, generally. Okay. They're doing this because the back part of the brain that you saw that massive neuroactivity, what they do is they found that works really well, is they'll go. Do you remember in high school English you did book after book after book?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Do you remember how you were taught generally from the big picture to the specific?

SPEAKER_01:

Sure. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Okay. That is the exact wrong thing to do with the selections until they get to grade level. Let me be very clear. Once you get a child to grade level, you can put them in with their typical students and they will be a little slower with reading and writing, but the teachers can work with that. But until they get them to grade level for reading and writing, you can forget trying to teach that way. So let me give you an example. What after I did my original research, I'm presenting this to New York City public school teachers. They asked, Does this work for typical students? I said, Absolutely not. It works for the elite, the most motivated, the most intelligence. They said, Well, come back after you know how to deal with normal students, which took eight years. So what I did is I went back to the overactive front part of the brain and I switched it from articulation followed by word analysis to word analysis followed by articulation. Okay. But I couldn't get the kids to actually do the work. So then what I found is I had to find out about their speciality, their area of extreme interest and ability. For example, the most requested book I have when I do this personally is Walt Disney, The Triumph of the American Imagination. It's a thousand pages designed for high school juniors or seniors, minimum. And I will give that to a 10-year-old. Why? Because the kids are so incredibly interested. So for example, have you ever been to a Disney park?

SPEAKER_01:

I have, yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

You go into Main Street USA in Disneyland in Disney World or Disneyland.

SPEAKER_01:

Mathical.

SPEAKER_00:

What's that? Yeah, did you feel the Disney magic?

SPEAKER_01:

Totally. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00:

Okay. The kids want to know about the Disney magic.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

You walk in, and that's the Main Street USA. Well, that's Marceline, Missouri. That's where what was between five and ten, he's tried to spend the rest of his life there. The kids want to know desperately what it is. What and it's two universal themes. Why am I spending so much time on this? Because I will have a 10-year-old reading the book designed for 17-year-olds, even though she's reading at like she's seven years old, you know, because she's at the second grade level, and we will focus on that book until she can read the book. And that might take two years. One book for two years.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

All right. Not a bunch of books, one book in their area speciality. This even works for ADD and ADHD kids. One of the biggest complaints you're going to get is my dyslectic kids will, the ADHD kids, I can't get them to concentrate. Get them in their specialty, they're hyper-focused. So what you essentially need to tell the school districts, and they don't want to hear about this, but you have to tell them this. I'm going back to the third step, where you really have to focus on making sure you're implementing something that actually works. So during the intervention period, we have them focused on their speciality. Next, during the intervention period, this is critically important. We don't teach from the general to the specific. So we don't teach what effect did Martin Luther King have. Famous speech, I have a dream speech have on the American Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s. It's like grabbing fog. Dyslectics can't deal with it. But if we ask what personally compelled Martin Luther King to give his speech, you're going to find you get the answer by looking it up. That answer gives you a question. We answer that. We keep doing that. That forces the brain to organize itself by using writing as a measurable output.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Okay. Now, this is so critical. Why does that work? Because dyslectic full professors of major research universities tell me that's how they learn, specific to the general. So if you ask a dyslectic in their speciality, do you have ideas flying around your head at light speed? Key question, but with little to no organization, they're going to say yes. So then what the best thing to do is to force the brain to organize itself by using writing as a measurable output. I've been teaching this in New York State, New Jersey for the past 10 years. How effective is it? People kept asking me that. So I'm writing a book now called Literacy and Reading Dyslexia Turnaround. It's about Kimberly. I met her last December 27th in 2024. Her son Reed, she was homeschooled, the state of Ohio just tested him. He was at the beginning of third grade reading and writing level. He's a year and a half behind. If he was in public school for the rest of the school year, he was supposed to increase by two to two and a half points. That didn't happen. He increased by 20 points, over seven times faster. His mom worked with him an hour and a half a week. I worked for her a half an hour a week. At the end, he was scoring, his reading and writing went from the fourth to the 64th percentile and the 11 to the 65th percentile. Why is this important? His friends wanted him in public school for social reasons. If it was January, he would have been placed in special ed and not be with him. Unhappy kid. Now he's in Gen Ed classes doing just fine. A mom did this. So when I teach this process with Evelyn Whitebed, she was one of the few teachers on the dyslexia task force for New York State. We can go in and show elementary schools how to do this in about three hours. To take them to for K through high school, we can do it in about six.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

That's it.

SPEAKER_01:

That's my son. I mean, you said you were working with the mom for 30 minutes and she was working with her son for you said an hour 30.

SPEAKER_00:

An hour and a half a week. Plus, that was her working with him. He had a lot of homework outside of that.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

But that was it solved.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Okay. And that's a homeschooling mom who did not finish an associate's degree, but she successfully taught his four brothers and sisters to read well using conventional methods because they're not dyslectic. But that's, and this is, and the reason the data that I'm using is not the data that she gave me from the end of the school year. I waited until August because in August they start early in Ohio. I had the data is from when he actually sat down in school. Mom wasn't within miles of it. And that's the results I'm giving because I think it's just a stronger data set.

SPEAKER_01:

That's great.

SPEAKER_00:

But yeah, so what I'm just saying is what I said they actually want to see results. The problem you're going to run into is if a kid is dyslectic and they're in kindergarten, for goodness sakes, contact Yale. How do we diagnose dyslexia in kindergarten? They will tell you it's cheap. Get it done. And then they say, here are all these federally funded programs. You do this, the kid will be at grade level by the end of third grade or close to it. What I can tell you is if your clients don't do this, federal judges in New York State have said, and I quote, gross negligence. Because once it's fourth grade, now they're in a$75,000 a year Orton Gillingham private school for four to five years. And they force the school to pay for it and to pay the legal fees. That's the big one. All right, these things can run a million bucks, no problem. And it happens all the time because the school didn't bother to spend 30 bucks or 40 bucks to get the kid tested in kindergarten.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. Sounds like a whole lot of heartache for both sides. Could have been saved for sure.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, very simply. But if they wait and you're at fourth grade, my material really is designed for fourth grade and above. I designed it that way because that's where the real need comes in. I'm not competing with Yale K3. You just Google Yale and Dyslexia and you'll find it. But above that, the older the kid is, the quicker they pick up my material, which is different. And we said, I train, I train moms to do this.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

So right now in school districts, they get a little offended that I come in and say, a parent did this and she's teaching, she's getting results part-time, because remember, they had the kid 30 hours a week. She's teaching this at seven times faster than typical in this example. And I said, Well, if you teach it this way, you can uh I'm sure you can get even faster results, but I'm this is nothing that I created that's based on the continuous Orton research from the 1950s. This was created because I overcame this personally, and then I just hooked it up to current research.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. That's great.

SPEAKER_00:

So basically, if if you would like to know more about how to implement this or have any questions about it, the best thing to do is go to dyslexiaclasses.com. Uh, that's within as dyslexiaclasses.com, and just hit the contact me form and I can get back to you right away with answering any specific questions that you may have.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, that's awesome, Russell. Thanks for that resource. I do want to recap. Let's review real quick those three major pain points when it comes to that first one. You said it's gotta be science and evidence-based, right?

SPEAKER_00:

Yes. Uh, and when you're looking at that, the problem that people have is they're really thinking, well, this was this pass somewhere, was the and then they'll find the cheapest thing, or because honestly, the things out there are really expensive. This Orton Gillingham, the reason why it's and this is why you can't, this is what just so you people know what happened in New York State. We tried to implement this. We can't afford it, even though we spend more on per kid than anybody in the country. And number two, the teachers rebel because it's going to take so long to learn. Like literally, the teachers' unions went crazy on this. We had our best come up with the report in you know one year.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Okay. So if you want to know about it, it's the New York State Dyslexia Task Force report. And the other things that work, like Wilson Reading, I was on a podcast with a former school administrator. She said, I spent$100,000 with them to teach 20 teachers over a week. And I'm like, Are you kidding me? It's just so expensive. The schools just don't have the budgets for it. But you have to find that it's evident-based. Okay. Number two, you must include progress monitoring, regular intervals using reliable measurements. And I actually spent quite a bit of time looking into this in Texas. And what I found is a lot of times people were trying to get away with maybe we'll do it once a semester, a couple times a year. You have to really do it. The ones that are here that were doing it what was perceived to be correctly. For a survey I did was about four to six weeks. They want to see some check on that. And it doesn't have to be elaborate. There are ways that you can do this so that it's relatively quick, but it should be done on a monthly to every month and a half, typically. Okay. And the big one, it must be sufficiently intense. So in New York State, what they wanted to do was to have the kids who needed this to spend an extra 45 minutes a day until they got caught up. Okay, that was literally in the legislation that they couldn't pass because, you know, cost issues, that was really pressing it. But you have to find something where the intensity and the impact actually closes gaps. So, regardless of where you go into the country in the country, but in Texas specifically, they don't want to see the kids saying they're behind, they're behind, they're behind. Here's the problem you're going to find with traditional methods. Let's take a random nine-year-old. I'm going to call him John. John is two grade levels behind. Not only is John supposed to be learning what he's learning now, he has to make up those two years.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

And the older he gets, the longer this takes. I think you can see the problem here.

SPEAKER_01:

Right.

SPEAKER_00:

That's why when, because this is where the this is the problem that I find I've been dealing with this for over 20 years. And this is where people get in trouble. And this literally goes federal, where they say the intensity is not there and certainly the impact isn't there. So with the process I designed, it's the it's it's to use the quite frankly, the front part of the brain that's two and a half times overactive, where the dyslexic has massive strength.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

At the back part of the brain, we got virtually nothing going on. The best thing that I recommend is the partnership between the parents and the teachers. And then literally, you can knock this out generally within 12 to 18 months and get the kid out. And what does this mean financially? A lot of the times across the country, you're spending about double the amount to educate a dyslexic kid. Now imagine if you can get them out of special ed, not all the way, but most of the way. And you say five, 10, 15 grand per year per kid.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

You do that when John's 10, but you got another seven, eight years of school. Saving 10 grand a year, five grand a year, times that by thousands of kids, tens of thousands of kids. Totally. You could tell your clients, how would you like to have sports back more? How would you like to have music back? That's what we're talking about.

SPEAKER_01:

No kidding. Yeah, absolutely. I can see it. That's great.

SPEAKER_00:

And it's that simple. If you use the part of the dyslexic brain, and I'm sorry, yes, I am the only one that actually does this because I did that original research project and I had to extend it from there. By doing that, you can have the intensity with something that you can afford. And here's the other thing the kid actually likes what they're doing during the intervention period. So let me give you an example. With Reed, he did X-Men during the intervention period. But then when he went to public school, he found out he has to do a bunch of stuff that he doesn't like to do. His parents just said, You're doing this, so did his teachers. His biggest flare-up was math class. He says, I don't like to write during math class because he's slower at it. Yeah, he can do it, but he's slower. So I told his parents and the teacher, just be a rock, be a wall. You're not budging. And when a well-raised kid runs into that, they go, Okay, I'll do it, and then they're fine. They like to test their boundaries.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

And besides that, he had one other problem. He forgot to turn in his Google, his um memoir, his diary for something to Google something or other. He missed two, and so he got a C. And then he figured that out, and now he's back up to the B range. That's all they want. Once you get the kid into normal classes and they pass the state assessments, even if it's a D, if the state doesn't care. Well, they would like better, but really they just want them to pass.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Okay. And that's the key thing. The intensity and the impact have to be real. And that's what's going to capture you most of the time. That's what happens to most of the federal cases that I keep track of.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, that makes sense. Because it has legislators questioning the whole thing. That's the whole goal, right? To really bridge the gap and get these kids up to par and then able to be successful in the future. So can definitely see that that's probably the biggest one for sure.

SPEAKER_00:

Right. And what this does is this will keep you out of federal court.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Okay. And what and when I mean that, let me give you an example. There was one case in the Northern District of New York State. There was a very wealthy public school called the East Greenbush Public School District. They had 400 applicants per spot. Okay. And the teachers are in the top 1%. They were brilliant. And a kid graduated with a reading and writing skill of early elementary school. So they sued him in federal court. They were asking the sun, the moon, and the stars, because remember, he's now out of high school. Okay. Very different when that happens. The head federal judge of this district voted him down twice. And the Court of Appeals of the Second Circuit overrode him twice. Okay. This doesn't happen that often. This judge was very compassionate towards people with disabilities, but the kid wanted way too much for being out of high school. He was overridden in part twice. And the law firm didn't collect a dime for like, I don't know, eight years or something. That legal bill was about a half a million. Sure. And the school had to pay it. So the key thing here is and they tried everything that they could realistically afford. These Orton Gillingham multi-sensory approach that you're going to hear about constantly. I'm going to give you a school to check out. It's called the Windward School in the Upper East Side. Why am I pointing it out? Because on their website they say they have a 98% success rate of taking kids in and then sending them back. They're there for four to five years at$75,000 a year, and the teachers get paid crap.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Because there's four to one to five to one. Compared to public education teachers, they're getting paid minimum wage. Because the student-to-teacher ratio is so low. Okay. So even if the parents win, that means they might be sending kids to a private school that's out of state.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

All right. So the one that people most use is the Gowel School, G O W dot O-R-G. It's 86K a year. Why am I mentioning them? Because they celebrate their 100th anniversary next year. All right. But even if the parents can do that, they don't like sending their kids away to boarding school. So this is how you can keep them in the public school here. I just gave you the basic process.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

All right. And it's not, and as I said, in the training time for teachers, Evelyn and I can come in and train your clients in about three hours online. And it's because the way that we've designed it, they already know what to do. We're just showing them in a different order. Why should you listen to Evelyn? She was three to four times more effective than the typical special ed teacher, and she was one of the three or four teachers for the New York State Task Force. Specifically, the State Education Department chased her down and did everything they could to pressure her to get on.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Any other questions I can answer for you?

SPEAKER_01:

Where can we get in contact with you? I think you mentioned it a little bit earlier in the episode, but I want to recap where could teachers go to learn more about your research?

SPEAKER_00:

Best thing to do is just go to dyslexiaclasses.com. That's within askdyslexiaclasses.com. There's a contact me form and just fill that out and we'll get right back to you. We don't charge for the initial consultation. We're just there to answer your questions. I've been really doing a lot of podcasting for the past several months. There's 40, we met on PodMatch. There's about 4,800 podcasters as for guests. I've been the number one in September. I've been the number one in October. I advise from anything from things like this to wine tasting to medical instructions for patient sleeping. It's a process I developed using the craft of research, context, problem solution that applies to just about everything. So there's nothing really you're going to ask me that I'm not going to be able to tell you.

SPEAKER_01:

Love it. Love it. Love it. And I'll have that linked in our episode description below, too. Thank you so much, Russell, for joining me. I think we've given Texas districts, teachers, educators a really good comprehensive look at how they can make sure that they're staying in compliance. And like you said, stay out of federal court because that's not a place that anyone wants to find themselves in.

SPEAKER_00:

And especially if you have to pay the other side's legal bills.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

And I'm saying I've seen those go from a couple hundred grand to sometimes over a million. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01:

All right. Well, thank you again.

SPEAKER_00:

Thanks for having me.

SPEAKER_01:

And to our viewers, thank you so much for joining us on this special episode of Know Your Regulator. Texas teachers, your work makes a difference, and understanding laws like HB 3928 help ensure that every student with dyslexia gets the support that they deserve. For more conversations that bridge policy and practice, subscribe to Know Your Regulator wherever you see us. And until next time, stay inspired and continue engaging with your regulatory agency. Know Your Regulator, the podcast that inspires you to engage.