U.S. schools might be falling behind in screening students for math disabilities despite growing awareness and new treatments for other learning disorders.

Dyscalculia, a learning disorder akin to dyslexia except that it hinders the brain’s ability to learn math, has remained largely under the radar even though as much as 7% of the population could have it.

Seattle-area resident Laura Jackson first noticed her daughter’s struggles with arithmetic in the third grade and grew increasingly frustrated when math tutoring sessions had little effect. Then she learned about dyscalculia from a friend.

“For so many parents, they assume the school would let them know there’s an issue, but that’s just not how it works,” said Jackson, according to the Associated Press.

Even after she approached her daughter’s school about dyscalculia, school officials were allegedly dismissive because her daughter still achieved high marks in other subjects. She ended up taking her daughter out of school for part of the day to give her one-on-one math lessons at home instead.

“I am not a math teacher, but I was so desperate,” Jackson said, per the AP. “There’s no one who knows anything, and we have to figure this out.”

Jackson started teaching her daughter math at home in 2019. The home lessons went on for two years, with Jackson penning a book on the experience. Ultimately, her daughter rejoined math classes as a high schooler and achieved good grades.

“When you really understand what it is to be dyscalculic, then you can look around and decide what this person needs to succeed,” she said, according to the AP. “It’s not just that you’re ‘bad at math’ and need to buckle down and try harder.”

While research on dyslexia has improved over the years, few parents or educators know what to look for when it comes to dyscalculia. Indicators include having difficulty recognizing numbers and math symbols, counting money, remembering directions, or doing mental arithmetic.

Developing more effective treatment strategies — such as emphasizing repetition or incorporating multisensory exercises — to teach students with dyscalculia math could have a broader impact.

“If it works for the students with the most severe disconnections and slower processing speeds, it’s still going to work for the kids that are in the ‘middle’ with math difficulties,” said Sandra Elliott, chief academic officer at TouchMath, a multisensory math program, per the AP.

Ultimately, arithmetic skills among U.S. students went from bad to worse during the COVID-19 lockdowns.

Just this past summer, 13-year-olds logged record-low math scores on a federal test known as the National Assessment of Educational Progress. Reading scores did not fare much better, showing critical learning loss, as covered by The Dallas Express. Overall, average scores clocked a four-point drop in reading since testing was performed in 2020 and a nine-point drop in mathematics.

Dallas ISD’s student achievement scores have also been lackluster, with only 41% of students scoring at grade level on the 2021-2022 STAAR exams and almost 20% of the Class of 2022 failing to graduate in four years, according to the latest Texas Education Agency (TEA) accountability report.

This summer, several nonprofits came together to help bolster student outcomes at Dallas ISD ahead of the 2023-2024 school year, as covered by The Dallas Express.

Meanwhile, special education programs at Texas public schools continue to labor under increased demand and alleged staff and funding deficits. In the 2020-2021 school year, 604,973 students in Texas were enrolled in special education, representing a 37% increase since 2013, according to the TEA.