Mississippi Screens Every Child for Dyslexia. Then the Help Runs Out

Last updated: July 29, 2026

For many families, the hardest part of a reading struggle is not finding out something is wrong. It is what comes after: a screening result, a waitlist, and a long drive to the nearest specialist. In Tylertown, Mississippi, two parents who lived that gap are closing it themselves. Shannia and Thomas Dozier open Dozier’s Academy of Dyslexia on August 6, a small school built around the structured, explicit reading instruction the science has favored for decades. The opening is worth celebrating, and the reason it has to exist is worth examining.

TL;DR

Dozier’s Academy of Dyslexia opens August 6, 2026 in Tylertown, Mississippi, an independently funded special purpose school serving kindergarten through 4th grade with small-group, research-based literacy instruction.
Founders Shannia Dozier (Head of School) and Thomas Dozier (Dean of Students) are parents of children with dyslexia and plan to add one grade level per year.
Mississippi has required dyslexia screening for every child between spring of kindergarten and fall of first grade since 2012.
Mississippi’s dyslexia therapy scholarship, the only program of its kind in the nation, follows students in grades 1-12, but only five approved special purpose schools exist statewide.
Mississippi Free Press reporting in 2025 found 154 educators with the state dyslexia endorsement and 57 dyslexia therapists working in public schools.

A new school for children with dyslexia opens August 6 in Tylertown, Mississippi, built by two parents who lived the gap between screening and help. Here is what their story means for families everywhere, and the questions to ask your own district.

Common questions

What is structured literacy, and how is it different from regular reading instruction?

Structured literacy is explicit, systematic, cumulative teaching of how spoken sounds map onto print: phonological awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension, taught in a planned sequence with constant practice and immediate feedback, often through multisensory approaches such as Orton-Gillingham. The difference from much classroom instruction is that nothing is left to discovery or guessing. The National Reading Panel concluded in 2000 that this explicit, systematic approach is how reading should be taught, and it benefits all beginning readers, not only children who struggle.

A school screener flagged my child for dyslexia risk. What happens next?

A screener is a starting point, not a diagnosis. It tells you where to focus and which questions to ask, beginning with what changes in your child’s instruction now. If your child might need formal accommodations (an IEP or 504 plan), access to a program like Mississippi’s scholarship, or if you suspect a vision, hearing, or medical cause, pursue a professional evaluation too. That is the only route to those supports. In the meantime, ask the school which evidence-based reading program it uses and what structured literacy training its teachers have.

Does Mississippi help pay for dyslexia schools?

Yes. The Mississippi Dyslexia Therapy Scholarship, created in 2012 and expanded in 2017, follows eligible students in grades 1 through 12 to an approved special purpose nonpublic school or a neighboring public district. It is worth up to the total state and local per-student funding amount, with families covering any tuition difference, and it requires a formal dyslexia diagnosis plus prior public school enrollment. As of 2025, five approved schools operate statewide, in Madison, Ridgeland, Petal, Hattiesburg, and Ocean Springs. The Mississippi Department of Education posts the current application and school list.

Will my child learn to read as well as classmates who find it easy?

The evidence points in an encouraging direction. Brain imaging studies at Yale and Stanford show that children who struggle with reading develop the same reading pathways as typical readers after intensive, appropriate instruction. Timelines differ from child to child, and progress often comes in stretches rather than a straight line. A screening result or a diagnosis describes where your child is today. It does not predict where they will be after a year of the right kind of practice.

Mississippi screens every kindergartner for dyslexia. Reporting counts 57 dyslexia therapists in its public schools. So two Tylertown parents built their own school. That teaching belongs in every classroom. Tweet Now Follow Learning Success

Two parents, one new school

Dozier’s Academy of Dyslexia opens its doors in Tylertown on August 6 as an independently funded, non-public special purpose school serving kindergarten through 4th grade. Head of School Shannia Dozier and Dean of Students Thomas Dozier built it after watching their own children fight for reading help. “What inspired us to start this school is to have a place where students can thrive with dyslexia. We are parents of dyslexia students, and the vision really runs deep when it comes to that, because we just experienced first hand on how students with a disability can have challenges in the educational setting,” Shannia Dozier told WJTV.

The academy enrolls students with a primary diagnosis of dyslexia or characteristics consistent with it, and teaches through a structured pilot program of research-based instruction in small groups. After-school and summer sessions extend that support to students working on reading fluency, comprehension, written expression, and confidence. Enrollment is underway, and the long-term plan is to add one grade level each year and serve families across the region.

Thomas Dozier framed the stakes in bigger terms than one town: “The root issue of a lot of problems with our youth is literacy. Literacy impacts a lot of things. It impacts your economic. It also impacts self-esteem, dropout rates, things of that nature.”

Author Quote "

What inspired us to start this school is to have a place where students can thrive with dyslexia. We are parents of dyslexia students, and the vision really runs deep when it comes to that, because we just experienced first hand on how students with a disability can have challenges in the educational setting.

What the coverage gets wrong

Local coverage frames a new specialty school as a feel-good story about one family’s journey, and it is one. What the frame leaves out is why the demand for such schools exists at all. The core reading science has been settled since the National Reading Panel’s 2000 report: reading must be taught explicitly and systematically, and imaging studies at Yale and Stanford show struggling readers build the same reading pathways as typical readers when instruction reaches them with enough skill and intensity. When a state screens every kindergartner yet reporting counts 57 dyslexia therapists across its public schools, the story is not a charming startup. It is a system that treats settled instructional science as a specialty service. For a parent, the takeaway is to celebrate the new option and ask the district why the default classroom is not already teaching this way.

The state that proved the science still rations the teaching

Mississippi moved earlier than most states on reading science. Since a 2012 law, it has screened every child for signs of dyslexia between spring of kindergarten and fall of first grade, using state-approved screeners. It requires four hours of dyslexia awareness training for licensed educators every three years, and it runs the nation’s only school choice scholarship created specifically for students with dyslexia. On paper, a struggling reader in Mississippi is identified earlier than almost anywhere else in the country.

Then comes the after. Reporting by the Mississippi Free Press in 2025 counted five special purpose schools statewide approved to accept that scholarship, in Madison, Ridgeland, Petal, Hattiesburg, and Ocean Springs. The same reporting found 154 educators holding the state’s dyslexia endorsement and 57 dyslexia therapists working in public schools across Mississippi. Identification is mandatory and statewide. The instruction that identification points toward is scarce, clustered, and often a long drive away. That is the gap the Doziers are filling with a building in Walthall County.

Here is what the science says about that gap. Reading is not a natural skill the brain absorbs the way it absorbs speech. Stanislas Dehaene’s research shows reading repurposes brain circuits built for other jobs, and the National Reading Panel concluded back in 2000 that reading must be taught explicitly and systematically. Brain imaging studies at Yale and Stanford show that children who struggle with reading develop the same reading pathways as typical readers after intensive, appropriate instruction. Notice what none of that describes: a medical procedure. It describes teaching, delivered with skill and enough intensity to matter. A specialty school is one honest way to deliver the kind of instruction families keep driving hours to find. A classroom that teaches this way from the start is another, and that one scales to every child, including the ones a screener flags and a waitlist forgets.

Key Takeaways:

A new option: Dozier’s Academy opens August 6 in Tylertown, teaching grades K-4 through structured literacy.

The gap: Mississippi screens every kindergartner, yet reporting counts 57 dyslexia therapists in its public schools.

The frame: Specialty schools deliver skilled teaching, not medicine, and skilled teaching belongs in every classroom.

What to do with a screening result, wherever you live

If a screener has flagged your child, in Mississippi or anywhere else, the result is a starting point and not a verdict. The first question belongs to the school: what changes in my child’s instruction on Monday? Ask which evidence-based reading program the school uses, whether instruction is explicit and systematic, and what specific training the reading teachers have in structured literacy. Those questions cost nothing, and the answers tell you quickly whether the default classroom is doing the teaching or outsourcing it.

Mississippi families have one more lever. The dyslexia therapy scholarship follows students in grades 1 through 12 to an approved nonpublic school or a neighboring public district, and it is worth up to the total state and local per-student funding amount, with parents covering any difference in tuition. It requires a formal dyslexia diagnosis and prior public school enrollment. That evaluation route is also the one to take if your child needs formal accommodations such as an IEP or 504 plan: a screener points you in a direction, and a professional evaluation opens those doors.

And if the nearest approved school is a county away, the work still starts at home. The International Dyslexia Association’s 2025 definition names environmental influences, including language and literacy support in the early years, as part of what shapes reading outcomes. That is official recognition of something the Doziers understood: parents are not spectators here. Daily practice that builds sound awareness, letter-sound mapping, and confidence moves a child forward while the system catches up. The Doziers plan to grow their academy one grade at a time. The finish line worth rooting for is the day schools like theirs are a choice, not a rescue.

Author Quote "

The root issue of a lot of problems with our youth is literacy. Literacy impacts a lot of things. It impacts your economic. It also impacts self-esteem, dropout rates, things of that nature.

Two parents looked at a system that identifies struggling readers and then strands them, and they built the missing piece themselves. That is parent power, and it proves the point underneath every story we cover: children who struggle with reading are fully capable of learning, and the adults who love them are capable of moving first. The villain here is not any school or any state. It is the idea that evidence-based reading instruction is a specialty to be rationed instead of a default to be taught. You do not have to open a school to act on that. Learning Success All Access puts structured, science-backed skill building in your hands at home, starting today.