Dyslexia Assessment at School in the UK: How to Get Your Child Tested

The school says your child is "a bit slow" or "just needs to try harder." You've watched your child cry over reading homework, hate themselves for not keeping up, and slowly disconnect from school. You know it's dyslexia. The school knows it too, but they're not moving.

Schools delay dyslexia assessments for one reason: they cost money. A formal identification means the school is obligated to provide Additional Learning Provision, which costs staffing hours and specialist resources they don't want to budget for. Understanding the legal framework strips away their ability to keep stalling.

What the School Is Required to Do First

Under England's SEND Code of Practice 2015, schools must identify and address special educational needs through a graduated response: Assess, Plan, Do, Review. If a child is falling behind in literacy, phonological processing, or reading fluency despite standard classroom teaching, the school's SENCO has a duty to assess the child's needs at school level and implement targeted interventions.

This school-level support is called 'SEN Support.' It should include a SEND Support Plan documenting the child's needs, the interventions tried, and the progress (or lack of it). If, after two or more cycles of targeted school-level intervention, the child is still not making expected progress, the evidence base for a statutory assessment — and potentially an EHCP — is building.

The key trap parents fall into is waiting for the school to initiate. You do not have to wait. You can formally request a statutory EHC Needs Assessment from your local authority at any time, independently of the school's internal process.

Requesting a Statutory Assessment for Dyslexia

A statutory assessment request for a suspected dyslexic child should make two things clear: first, that the child has or may have SEN (specifically a Specific Learning Difficulty in literacy); and second, that the school's existing interventions have not been sufficient to close the gap.

Dyslexia is recognised as a Specific Learning Difficulty (SpLD) under the SEND Code of Practice. It is characterised by difficulties with reading accuracy, reading fluency, and spelling that are unexpected given the child's general cognitive ability and appropriate teaching. This mismatch between ability and performance — called the discrepancy model in educational psychology — is a critical concept for parents to understand.

When an Educational Psychologist assesses a child for dyslexia, they typically measure:

• Full Scale IQ and Verbal Comprehension (general ability)
• Phonological awareness (the ability to identify and manipulate sound units in words)
• Processing Speed (the efficiency of reading-related mental tasks)
• Working Memory (the ability to hold information while performing a task)
• Reading accuracy, fluency, and comprehension standardised tests
• Spelling standardised tests

Results are reported using Standard Scores (mean 100, standard deviation 15) and Percentile Ranks. If a child has Average IQ (Standard Score around 100) but reading accuracy at the 5th percentile (Standard Score around 75), that discrepancy is clinically significant. It is the mathematical evidence that something specific is impeding literacy development — not a lack of effort or ability.

Private Dyslexia Assessment vs. Waiting for the School

Many parents reach the point where they consider paying for a private assessment. Private Educational Psychologists with HCPC registration charge between £670 and £795 for a comprehensive assessment, or specialist teachers with Assessment Practising Certificates (APC) charge less for dyslexia-specific assessments. A specialist teacher assessment is less comprehensive than a full EP assessment, but may be sufficient for school-level support.

Private reports carry equal legal weight to state-commissioned reports at SEND Tribunals, provided the assessor is qualified and the report complies with the relevant Tribunal's Practice Directions. The local authority must legally consider a private report; they are not obligated to automatically adopt every recommendation, but they cannot simply dismiss it.

If you commission a private assessment, the most important thing is to ensure the recommendations are quantified — specifying exact hours, frequency, staff expertise, and type of intervention. "Would benefit from literacy support" is not an enforceable recommendation. "Requires 45 minutes of specialist dyslexia intervention three times per week, delivered by a teacher qualified to Level 5 dyslexia practice, with fortnightly monitoring of reading age using a standardised tool" is.

Knowing how to interpret dyslexia assessment results and translate them into statutory obligations is the difference between a useful private report and a rejected one. The UK Assessment & Evaluation Guide includes an EP report decoder covering Standard Scores, Percentile Ranks, and discrepancy analysis — plus letter templates for requesting assessments and challenging refusals.

What Happens If the School Refuses to Act

If the school refuses to assess or dismisses your concerns, you have several escalating options:

1. Submit a direct request to the local authority. Write to the Director of Children's Services requesting an EHC Needs Assessment under Section 36 of the Children and Families Act 2014. Explain the school's failure to identify and address your child's needs. Attach any evidence you have: school reports showing below-age-expected performance, communications with the school, any private reports.

2. Commission a private assessment. If you can access funds, a private EP or specialist teacher assessment generates the quantified evidence a local authority must take seriously. Bring it to the LA assessment request.

3. Request a Subject Access Request (SAR) from the school. Ask for all records the school holds relating to your child, including any internal assessments, progress data, interventions tried, and SEND Support Plan documents. This reveals whether the school has been running undocumented support or has failed to run any support at all.

4. Contact your local SENDIASS service. SENDIASS (Special Educational Needs and Disabilities Information, Advice and Support Service) is a free, impartial statutory service funded by every local authority in England. They can attend school meetings with you, review correspondence, and advise on escalation. In Wales, SNAP Cymru performs this role.

Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland

The same principles apply with different terminology.

In Wales, dyslexia would be identified as a learning difficulty calling for Additional Learning Provision under the ALNET Act 2018. The school ALNCo has a duty to identify this and produce an Individual Development Plan within 35 school days of identifying ALN.

In Scotland, dyslexia falls within Additional Support Needs under the ASL Act 2004. Schools are required to have a plan for meeting those needs, though this will rarely rise to the threshold for a Co-ordinated Support Plan (CSP) unless other complex factors are present.

In Northern Ireland, a child with dyslexia can progress through the SEN Code of Practice stages. The Education Authority can be asked for a statutory assessment resulting in a Statement of SEN if school-based support has been inadequate.

The Attainment Gap You Are Fighting Against

The attainment gap for pupils with an EHCP in England at the end of primary school stands at 27.2 months behind neurotypical peers. By the end of secondary school, this grows to 39.6 months. Early identification and statutory support are not optional — they are the difference between a child who develops compensatory strategies and one who exits school with the reading age of a Year 5 pupil. Getting the assessment initiated, and getting it right, matters enormously.

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