Straight answers, in plain language.

We connect parents of children with dyslexia to the resources, rights, and community that already exist, and we do it in plain language. That means a free guide called First Steps, a national resource hub we are building with parents, and screenings of our documentary Left Behind. We are the organization that tells you what to ask for, who to ask, and what your child is legally owed, so you are not assembling that picture alone at midnight.

No. Imagine Reading is a connector, not a service provider. We do not tutor, we do not evaluate, and we are not a law firm. What we do is point you to the vetted tutors, evaluators, advocates, and programs that already exist near you, and give you the language to get the most out of them. That distinction matters: it keeps us honest about who we send you to, because we are not competing with them.

We connect, we do not endorse. We will tell you which methods have evidence behind them, structured literacy approaches like Orton-Gillingham and Wilson, and we will share what other parents in your area found useful. But every family should evaluate a provider independently before committing money or time. Anyone who promises a guaranteed outcome for a fee deserves more scrutiny, not less.

Parents. Imagine Reading grew out of the documentary Left Behind, made by people who watched their own children struggle and found the system slow to respond. We are a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit, Tax ID 99-5139425. The film has screened at DOC NYC, the Woodstock Film Festival, SXSW EDU, and the Black Literacy Matters Conference, and has reached more than 15,000 families to date.

Yes, and this is the moment First Steps was built for. You do not need a diagnosis, a referral, or a label to start. First Steps walks you through recognizing the signs at your child's age, opening the conversation with the school, and requesting an evaluation in writing. It is 100% free, with no sign-up and no paywall. Most parents who write to us are exactly here: something feels wrong, and nobody has given them a straight answer yet.

Earlier than most families are told. Some teachers still say dyslexia cannot be diagnosed until after fourth grade. That is not true, and waiting that long is too late. Children can be screened as early as preschool, where the signs look like trouble rhyming, difficulty learning the alphabet, or persistently mispronouncing familiar words. The earlier the right instruction starts, the better the outcome, which is why we push so hard on the word early.

They change with age. In kindergarten through second grade, look for a child who cannot match letters to sounds, reads very slowly and with great effort, guesses at words from the first letter, or complains of stomach aches on school mornings. By third to fifth grade it often looks like avoidance, strong talking skills paired with weak written work, or a child who starts saying "I am stupid." One or two signs does not confirm anything. A cluster is worth acting on.

It does. If you, your partner, or a close relative struggled with reading or had a dyslexia diagnosis, your child has a significantly higher likelihood. This is worth saying out loud to the school, because it strengthens the case for early screening. Many parents realize during this process that they were the undiagnosed child in their own family.

None of those. Dyslexia is a lifelong language-processing difference in how the brain connects letters to their sounds. It is neurological and hereditary, not a result of screen time or how much a child reads. It is not a measure of intelligence: dyslexic children are frequently bright, creative, and highly verbal. And it is not something a child grows out of. Without the right instruction it does not resolve on its own.

Put your request in writing. Under the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, a school is legally required to evaluate your child when a parent requests it, and the written request starts a 60-day clock. "Wait and see" is not a legal response to a written request. First Steps includes a letter template you can copy, fill in, and send today. Ask for confirmation of receipt in writing, and keep a copy of everything.

More than most parents are told. IDEA requires the school to evaluate within 60 days of a written parent request. Section 504 can provide accommodations such as extra time and audiobooks even when a child is not eligible for an IEP. Prior Written Notice means any school decision, including a refusal, must be given to you in writing. And if you disagree with the school's evaluation, you have the right to an Independent Educational Evaluation at public expense. Most families have never heard of that last one.

Six questions cover most of it. Has the school done a reading assessment, and can I see the results? Has my child been screened for dyslexia, and does our state require it? Does the school use a structured literacy curriculum such as Orton-Gillingham or Wilson? What early intervention is available right now, at this grade level? Can we schedule a full evaluation, and what does that process look like? And what would an IEP look like for a child with reading difficulties?

A private neuropsychological evaluation is the most thorough option and the most useful document to bring to an IEP meeting, but it typically runs $3,000–$8,000. There are real ways to reduce that. You can request an Independent Educational Evaluation at public expense. University training clinics often evaluate at reduced fees. Insurance sometimes covers it with a referral from your pediatrician. And every state has a federally funded Parent Training and Information Center that helps at no cost.

That is precisely who we are building for. Most resource directories are assembled from whatever is easiest to find, which is why families outside cities open them and see nothing within a two-hour drive. Our national hub is being built with rural coverage from the start, including remote evaluation options and lower-cost routes to assessment. Our pilot work is focused on upstate and rural New York, and the hub itself is designed to cover all 50 states.

Not yet. We are building it now, and we are building it with parents rather than for them. If you have been through this, the single most useful thing you can do is tell us what actually helped and what you most needed and could not find. That goes directly into the hub the next family will open. If you are at the beginning, tell us what you are looking for, because that shapes what we build first.

Yes. Imagine Reading is a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit, Tax ID 99-5139425, so your gift is tax-deductible to the full extent allowed by law. Donations are processed through Bloomerang on a secure page, and your card details never touch our servers. We never sell, rent, or trade donor information.

In priority order: building the National Resource Hub, keeping First Steps and our parent resources free permanently, keeping Left Behind traveling to new communities with a stocked screening kit, and the unglamorous cost of running a nonprofit properly. We would rather describe those honestly than publish a tidy percentage split we have not yet verified against a closed budget. Audited figures go in our annual report, and our 990 is public once filed.

Request a screening kit and we will walk you through it. The kit includes the film license and streaming link, a facilitation guide with discussion questions, a parent advocacy handout, a state-by-state rights one-pager, and a QR code linking to our resources. Expert Q&A support is available for some events. Screenings work: audience understanding of how race and class affect access to dyslexia support rose from 34% to 74% after a single viewing.

Tell us what you know. We are looking for evaluators, tutors trained in structured literacy, speech and language pathologists, advocates, and teachers who are willing to be part of a hub families can trust. We would far rather list a resource vouched for by the people who actually use it than one scraped from a directory. Share what you have, and tell us what you wish parents understood before they walked into your office.