Parents searching this phrase usually expect a price list. Here is the honest map: the expensive route is often bought before the free one is even asked for.
Two hard lines run through this whole page. First, nothing here diagnoses a child, and no home check can. Second, we will not talk in scores or percentiles, except to refuse them: a home tool without proper testing conditions and comparison groups cannot honestly produce numbers that look like a clinician's numbers, and any site that gives your child a percentile from a short online quiz is inventing precision.
A full private evaluation by a licensed professional is reported to cost thousands of dollars, with figures of $5,000 and more commonly reported for comprehensive testing in large cities. Prices and insurance coverage vary, and no single national price exists. Ask any provider, before you book, the full fee, what the report includes, and whether the school will consider it. It can be useful — but it should not be the first door you pay to open.
Every state must find, locate, and evaluate children who may have a disability and need special education. That duty is child find, in 34 CFR §300.111. Dyslexia is named within specific learning disability in 34 CFR §300.8(c)(10).
A parent may request an initial evaluation at any time. Put that request in writing, date it, and keep proof you sent it. Once a parent consents to an initial evaluation, federal rules set the timeline at 60 days or the state's own timeframe, under 34 CFR §300.301(c) — ask the district to state its timeline in writing.
The school may not delay the evaluation just because interventions are unfinished. A 2011 memorandum from the federal Office of Special Education Programs states that response-to-intervention strategies may not delay or deny a timely initial evaluation. If the school refuses, it must give prior written notice under 34 CFR §300.503 — ask for it. The school evaluation costs the parent nothing, by design in §300.111.
Several states now require screening for reading risk at school, for free. In California, schools must annually screen every student in kindergarten through grade two for risk of reading difficulties, including dyslexia, under Education Code §53008, with screening information to parents no later than 15 calendar days before screening under §53008(j) and results no more than 45 calendar days after it under §53008(k). In Texas, students must be screened under Education Code §38.003, with kindergarten screening by the end of the school year and first-grade screening by January 31, under the state's current implementation of that section. In Florida, the statewide progress-monitoring system under Florida Statutes §1008.25 must identify students with characteristics of dyslexia, and a student so identified must undergo further screening under §1008.25(9).
Before you pay anyone, ask in writing: was my child screened, when, and may I have the result?
A home risk check can organize what you have noticed — sounds, letters, spelling, slow reading, family history — into a clear picture to hand the school with your request, and can say in plain risk words that requesting the free evaluation is a reasonable next step.
It cannot diagnose dyslexia. It cannot give a score, a percentile, or a reading age. It cannot decide eligibility for an IEP or a Section 504 plan. Only a full evaluation, reviewed by the proper team, can do those things. If any home tool promises otherwise, do not trust its price — or its result.
Go to the checker: My child can't read
Every letter, checklist, and worksheet for this fight, filled with your state's rules — yours to keep, no subscription.
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Rules checked October 2026 — every rule on this page is cited to its source. Verify day counts against your district's official calendar.