summer reading programs

I may misread your post but as it reads it seems to suggest a difference between “reading specialist children” and LD students. What are “reading specialist children”? What students work with your district’s reading specialist other than children with learning differences?

Our school district in Michigan gets reading grants for summer reading instruction and usually only the children who receive
Title I services during the year are ‘invited’. When I questioned this policy I was told that we couldn’t ‘double-dip’ services since our son was receiving LD services from the district during the school year. I made calls and let it be known that I was going to do my best to get my son in the summer program. Our son was ‘invited’ to participate only after the district failed to get enough Title One students to enroll. I later found out that first year teachers and substitutes had been hired to work in the summer program. Knowing how much formal reading training is offered at university in teacher training programs (one or two general classes that teach nothing—my husband and I are teachers) we decided to decline the invitation and go to the nearest Phonographix tutor. Long story made short: summer programs provided to general ed poor readers may do more harm than good to our LD students.

The lD students go to the learning resource teacher and any child who is behind in reading goes to the reading specialist teacher