K-12 Dive

Between 3% to 7% of all children, adolescents and adults have dyscalculia, according to an estimate published in 2019 by the National Institutes of Health. The CRPE brief describes dyscalculia as “one of the most common learning disabilities.” Up to 60% of students with dyscalculia also have co-occurring challenges — most commonly dyslexia and ADHD.  This learning disability is more than “struggling in math,” CRPE said. Dyscalculia is defined by “severe and persistent” difficulty in processing numbers, among other issues, that is separate from intellectual disability and cannot be explained by inadequate instruction, sensory difficulties, or other conditions.

There is currently a lack of consensus on how to define, identify and support dyscalculia and other math learning disabilities, according to CRPE’s national scan of states’ math policies and bills. While a handful of states, including North Carolina and West Virginia, refer to the learning disability in recent bills, they don’t include provisions requiring screening or diagnosis. Some states — Alabama, Florida, Iowa, Kentucky, Mississippi, Oklahoma and Rhode Island — have proposed or enacted mandates for universal dyscalculia screening of students within typically younger age ranges…