Dyslexia Evaluations

A Few Things to Know

Request an Evaluation
How to Work with Your School District

Before You Begin

First Step - Reach Out To Your Local Public School

If you or your child is in Pre-K–12th grade, we encourage you to first explore evaluation and support options through your public school district. This process can often be started by speaking with your child’s teacher, counselor, advisor, or administrator and requesting an evaluation or going through Child Find.

Helpful Resources

We also recommend reviewing our Frequently Asked Questions and Provider Directory below to help determine whether the Alliance is the best fit for your needs, timeline, and financial circumstances.

Insurance Considerations

We encourage you to contact your insurance provider to understand what coverage may be available. While the Alliance does not accept insurance, there are other providers in our area who do.

Our Model

We operate on a “donate what you can” model and do not accept insurance. For evaluations, we suggest a donation of $1,000–$1,300. A donation of $850 covers the cost of providing an evaluation, while anything above that helps support our Client Assistance Fund (CAF), expanding access to care for others in our community.

Our Evaluation Process

Get Started

  • Submitting an inquiry form kicks off the process and adds you to our waiting list.

    Our "donate what you can" model supports families of all income levels.

    If you are not in a position to give the suggested donation, we ask you give what you can. The CAF - built up by donors, grantees and fundraisers - is an instrumental part of providing financial assistance to families.

  • An Alliance staff member will be in contact shortly after an inquiry form is submitted on our site to talk through next steps.

  • A licensed and clinically certified Speech Language Pathologist (SLP) will take you through the ~3 hour dyslexia evaluation using the Test of Integrated Language and Literacy Skills (TILLS) model. This can be done either virtually or in-person.

  • Based on the result of the TILLS evaluation, the clinician will meet with you to walk through results and discuss recommend next steps. This 1-hour session can be done either virtually or in-person. After this meeting you will receive your written report as well as additional resources.

Provider Directory

Helping You Find the Right Support

Finding the right provider is an important step in getting effective support for dyslexia and related areas of need.

This page is designed to help families identify providers who best fit their situation, whether based on insurance, scope of services, or areas of focus such as literacy, language, attention, or other learning-related challenges. Our goal is to support strong matches between families and providers so each individual receives care that aligns with their unique needs.

View Directory

Frequently Asked Questions

  • Speech-Language Pathologists (SLPs) are uniquely suited to diagnose dyslexia. In graduate school, SLPs receive strong foundational training in language development and language disorders, including literacy disorders. Their coursework also includes evaluation and statistics, providing them with the knowledge to administer and interpret norm-referenced standardized testing.

    At the INW Dyslexia Alliance, our SLPs undergo additional training with Alicia Weeks, M.S., CCC-SLP—one of our board members and owner of Niche Therapy, a private practice in Spokane. Alicia is an experienced practitioner and mentor specializing in dyslexia.

    Our SLPs don't just administer standardized tests; they also analyze clients’ behavior, body language, effort level, fatigue, and other performance factors that standardized testing alone might miss. As language experts, they can assess all five levels of language (phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, and pragmatics) and conduct in-depth error analysis, identifying patterns associated with dyslexia.

    Dyslexia is a language-based learning disability, so who better to diagnose it than language experts?

  • Not all SLPs are trained to evaluate for dyslexia, as it is not part of the standard required coursework. If you are considering testing with an SLP outside of the INW Dyslexia Alliance or our provider list, we suggest asking about their specific training and certifications related to dyslexia.

  • We do not provide a diagnosis without first conducting extensive testing, including a case history review, standardized testing, and error analysis. Since we screen and refer clients who may not meet the criteria for a dyslexia diagnosis or who have needs beyond what the INW Dyslexia Alliance can provide, most of our testing does result in a diagnosis of dyslexia.

  • Dyslexia is included in the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA, 2004) as a specific learning disability (SLD). Legally, you can talk about dyslexia at school.

    Schools are NOT required to name a student's learning disability dyslexia. They can meet federal and state standards by identifying a student as having a Specific Learning Disability (SLD).

    SB 6162 went into effect in Washington state in the 2021–2022 school year. This law requires all public schools SCREEN K–2 students for dyslexia and other literacy challenges, not diagnose.

  • This official medical diagnosis from a licensed Speech Language Pathologist (SLP) can be given to your school to initiate 504 and IEP plans. It cannot be used for accommodations on SAT or ACT testing.

  • If we conduct testing, we will either confirm or rule out a diagnosis of dyslexia. If we identify other potential challenges, such as difficulties with focus and attention, social skills, voice, articulation, vision, hearing, or other language or medical issues, we will refer for additional testing, either in a school or medical setting.

  • No, if you have dyslexia in 2nd grade you still have it in high school. Students with dyslexia should have access to accommodations whether they are academically struggling or not. In our opinion, the only reason to reassess would be if they were going to receive some intervention, and you wanted to know what areas to provide intervention for.

    In high school and college students typically will sit down with their academic advisor and discuss what accommodations are appropriate for each academic school year. You just have to have proof of that original diagnosis.