Kansas City · Blue Springs · Independence
The help ex·ists.
The money doesn’t.
Qualified dyslexia tutors already practise here. Proven methods already exist. Clinics already operate. What stops a child from reaching them is cost — so we pay for it.
Fig. 01Structured literacy instruction is explicit, sequential and cumulative. It is also, in this metro, expensive.
01The gap
Two different problems, routinely confused
Most children in our districts are not reading at grade level. Separately, dyslexia affects 15–20% of the population — the most common learning disability in the country. The two overlap but are not the same, and they call for different responses.
Dyslexia does not resolve with more reading practice. It responds to explicit, systematic instruction from someone trained to deliver it. That instruction exists in Kansas City. It is simply priced beyond the families who need it most.
of Kansas City Public Schools third graders read at grade level
Missouri DESE, 2024
of the population has dyslexia — about 30,000 children in this metro
Shaywitz, 2020
cost per child for an effective course of private tutoring
Care.com, 2025; Wyzant, 2024
of Independence School District students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch
Missouri DESE, 2024
02The model
We fund. We don’t duplicate.
A direct-service charity must hire tutors, lease space, build curricula and administration before it helps one child. We take a different route. Families apply to us, we determine eligibility, and we pay approved providers directly for approved services.
That means when donations rise we fund more children immediately — no hiring lag, no buildout. And because we purchase services rather than employ instructors, we can hold providers to outcome data without the complications of managing staff.
≥90%
of funding targeted to direct student services
≤10%
administrative cost ratio target
≤48h
from a family’s first enquiry to intake consultation
03What we fund
Five things we pay for
Every award is matched to the child rather than fitted into a standard programme. One family receives tutoring. Another receives an evaluation first. A third receives both, in sequence.
Dyslexia is not a reading problem you can practise your way out of. It is a decoding problem, and it responds to one specific kind of teaching.
04Start here