We often talk about literacy in terms of curriculum, screeners, and statutes. But walk into any classroom, and the reality is much more human.
It’s January 2026. You are back at school, your inbox is overflowing, and your budget is likely frozen. But amidst the administrative noise, there is a quieter, more urgent reality: the student in the back row who is quietly giving up. For students with dyslexia, reading often isn’t just difficult; it is a “silent struggle”.
Teachers wake up every morning wanting to be the ally that student needs. They want to help struggling readers. But heroism is exhausting. When educators lack a clear system, they burn out trying to bridge the gap with sheer effort. They don’t need another platform, another login, or another weekend spent planning.
To truly be an ally to these students, we have to move beyond heroism and move toward empowerment. We need to make literacy instruction consistent, data-driven, and scalable.
From Good Intentions to Measurable Outcomes
Being an ally means ensuring that access to learning—which is a civil right—is actualized in the classroom. It means moving from “trying hard” to “proving it works.”
That is why we created Your Ultimate Field Guide to Increasing Reading Support. It is more than a document; it is a narrative for how your district can change the story for struggling readers. It is a working tool designed to be printed, marked up, and used to align your entire team around four clear mileposts.
Here is how this roadmap empowers you to become the ally your students need:
- 1. Allies Start with Science
The newly revised 2025 IDA Dyslexia Definition confirms that dyslexia is a persistent disability requiring specific protections. Being an ally means engaging in proactive intervention rather than waiting for years of failure. This guide helps you audit your systems to ensure you are screening for risk in Pre-K through 2nd grade and measuring fluency—because automaticity is the key to comprehension. - 2. Allies Build a Village
Literacy cannot live in one department. When it is siloed in Special Ed, students lose out. This roadmap helps you “Rally Your Community” by assembling a Literacy Equity Circle that includes principals, librarians, and tech directors. When the whole community owns the mission, support becomes visible, sustainable, and celebratory. - 3. Allies Empower, They Don’t Overwhelm
The most critical part of this story is the teacher. To be an effective ally, a teacher needs tools that fit their actual workflow. This guide focuses on equipping educators with “one tool they can use Monday,” whether that is ready-to-use IEP templates that save 30 minutes per meeting or structured literacy resources that don’t require overhauling the core program. - 4. Allies Measure Impact
This is where the story shifts from “hope” to “results.” When accommodations are normalized, students with dyslexia don’t just catch up; they participate, contribute, and choose harder books.
But how do you prove it? The roadmap creates a framework for measurable success. It guides you to:
- Audit your Accommodations: Track exactly what percentage of your IEPs include audiobooks or human-read text.
- Track Engagement: Move beyond compliance to analyzing usage data. Are students using their audiobooks weekly? How many books are they reading?
- Report Success: Use this data in IEP meetings to prove what is working, proactively showing compliance with IDEA and Section 504.
Write Your District’s Success Story
24,000 schools are already using this approach to turn struggling readers into engaged learners. They are seeing the results: 14.9 million books read by students who once struggled to decode them.
You have the desire to help. Now, get the plan to make it happen.
- 1. Download Your Ultimate Field Guide Here This free resource is your 90-day map. It includes a 2-minute system snapshot to score your district’s current status and role-specific checklists so every member of your team knows their part.
- 2. See the Solution in Action Learning Ally provides the “connective tissue” to bring your roadmap to life. Schedule a 15-minute demo today to see how our Audiobook Solution turns your literacy goals into reportable victories with access that is simple, secure, and measurable.