42 U.S.C. § 1862r–1: Dyslexia

Summary

The National Science Foundation must fund competitive, multi-department research on specific learning disabilities, including dyslexia. The work should lead to real-world uses, like finding kids early, training teachers and school leaders, making curricula and tools, and spreading proven intervention models. NSF must give priority to early-career researchers and must work with other federal agencies, including the Institute of Education Sciences and the National Institutes of Health, to avoid repeating work. For each fiscal year 2017 through 2021, NSF must set aside at least $5,000,000 for this research, with at least $2,500,000 each year for dyslexia research, if funds are provided. The money should come from NSF’s Research and Related Activities account or its Education and Human Resources Directorate and use funds appropriated after February 18, 2016. The law also authorizes $5,000,000 for each fiscal year 2016 through 2021 to carry out these activities.

Title 42, §1862r–1

The Public Health and Welfare, Source: USLM XML via OLRC

(a)In general

Consistent with subsection (c), the National Science Foundation shall support multi-directorate, merit-reviewed, and competitively awarded research on the science of specific learning disability, including dyslexia, such as research on the early identification of children and students with dyslexia, professional development for teachers and administrators of students with dyslexia, curricula and educational tools needed for children with dyslexia, and implementation and scaling of successful models of dyslexia intervention. Research supported under this subsection shall be conducted with the goal of practical application.

(b)Awards

To promote development of early career researchers, in awarding funds under subsection (a) the National Science Foundation shall prioritize applications for funding submitted by early career researchers.

(c)Coordination

To prevent unnecessary duplication of research, activities under this this section and section 1862r of this title shall be coordinated with similar activities supported by other Federal agencies, including research funded by the Institute of Education Sciences and the National Institutes of Health.

(d)Funding

The National Science Foundation shall devote not less than $5,000,000 to research described in subsection (a), which shall include not less than $2,500,000 for research on the science of dyslexia, for each of fiscal years 2017 through 2021, subject to the availability of appropriations, to come from amounts made available for the Research and Related Activities account or the Education and Human Resources Directorate under subsection (e). This section shall be carried out using funds otherwise appropriated by law after February 18, 2016.

(e)Authorization

For each of fiscal years 2016 through 2021, there are authorized out of funds appropriated to the National Science Foundation, $5,000,000 to carry out the activities described in subsection (a).

Notes & Related Subsidiaries

Editorial Notes

Codification Section was enacted as part of the Research Excellence and Advancements for Dyslexia Act or READ Act, and not as part of the National Science Foundation Act of 1950 which comprises this chapter.

Statutory Notes and Related Subsidiaries

Definition of Specific Learning Disability Pub. L. 114–124, § 5, Feb. 18, 2016, 130 Stat. 121, provided that: “In this Act [see

Short Title

of 2016 Amendment note set out under section 1861 of this title], the term ‘specific learning disability’— “(1) means a disorder in 1 or more of the basic psychological processes involved in understanding or in using language, spoken or written, which disorder may manifest itself in the imperfect ability to listen, think, speak, read, write, spell, or do mathematical calculations; “(2) includes such conditions as perceptual disabilities, brain injury, minimal brain dysfunction, dyslexia, and developmental aphasia; and “(3) does not include a learning problem that is primarily the result of visual, hearing, or motor disabilities, of intellectual disability, of emotional disturbance, or of environmental, cultural, or economic disadvantage.”

§1862r–1 Dyslexia