The UC/CSU California Collaborative for Neurodiversity and Learning represents a historic and critical investment in our state’s children with dyslexia and other literacy challenges.
The California Collaborative was launched in January 2020 aimed at improving literacy in California over the next four years through strategic work. Established by legislation in June 2019 through AB 1703, and then funded in the June 2019 state budget, the California Collaborative’s goal is to carry out five sectors of work as outlined in AB 1703. The legislation declared the following as the reasons for pursuing this work:
- About 20 percent of children in every classroom have some type of learning difference that is not adequately being identified and/or supported.
- New research in the neurosciences informs us that diversity of learning types represents natural and important brain wiring variation and that each learner’s brain is both uniquely wired and shaped by educational practice.
- Without early identification and effective intervention, the impact of learning issues can be significant and long-lasting not only for the learner, but for California at large. The long-term effects include school failure, depression, and an increased risk of suicide, delinquency and reoffending.
- A true diversity of brains is needed in California’s innovation economy. Therefore, California has an inherent need to work together toward improving the ways it supports neurodiversity in K-12 classrooms.
- The Legislature believes this to be one of the civil rights issues of this generation and that Californians must work together to secure equal access to quality learning for neurodiverse children.
By setting aside $6 million to establish the UC/CSU California Collaborative for Neurodiversity and Learning, California’s leaders are creating the foundation for cutting-edge teaching and learning that will prepare our next generation for successful lives.
This Collaborative is unique in bringing together top experts from the University of California and the California State University to re-imagine teacher education to better focus on the science of reading, with the shared goal of exponentially increasing literacy for our next generation.
