NJ Girl Who Helped Rally Support Joins State Senate for Vote

State Senate OKs Reading Disabilities Task Force Ocean City Girl Advocated

By DIANE D'AMICO
Education Writer
Press of Atlantic City
December 11, 2009

TRENTON - Not everyone gets a state senator to write their excuse for missing school.

But Sen. Jeff Van Drew, D-Cape May, Cumberland, Atlantic, was happy to accommodate Samantha Ravelli, of Ocean City, and her sister, Roseann, on Thursday when the two missed school to attend a Senate session during which Van Drew's bill to form a statewide Reading Disabilities Task Force was unanimously approved.

Before the vote, Van Drew said the Legislature often gets credit for passing bills, but it is people who inspire them.

"Ordinary people can become extraordinary through their advocacy and what they fight for," Van Drew told the Senate. "Samantha's work with her mother has advocated throughout New Jersey. She has achieved greatness."

Van Drew then asked Samantha to formally move the bill on the Senate floor. She also pressed the button to register Van Drew's vote. Samantha has dyslexia, a neurological disorder that makes it difficult for her to process language. She and her mother, Beth, began advocating for greater awareness of reading disabilities after struggling for years to find a program that would help Samantha learn to read.

After an article about Samantha was published in The Press of Atlantic City in 2005, the response from other parents in similar situations spurred Beth Ravelli and Samantha to begin a campaign to make sure all students get the help they need. Ravelli contacted local legislators and found a sympathetic ear in Assemblyman Nelson Albano, D-Cape May, Cumberland, Atlantic.

The Ravellis moved to Ocean City, which offers the Wilson reading system, when Samantha was in third grade and still could not read. Now in seventh grade at the Ocean City Intermediate School, Samantha is still tutored every week, but can read and has made the honor roll. She also started a Web site to help raise awareness of dyslexia.

Albano visited Samantha's school, and with colleague Matt Milam sponsored the Assembly bill in 2008 to create the task force. Samantha went to Trenton to testify, and Albano's bill, A880, was approved by the state Assembly in February. Van Drew picked up the Senate version, S2400, which was approved by the Senate Education Committee in May.

The Ravellis continued to lobby to get the bill to the full Senate before the legislative session ends, or they would have had to start over. As word spread around the state, more advocates contacted her and their own legislators to support the bill. After years of work, it took just minutes to get the bill approved. It must still be signed into law by the governor, which Ravelli said she was told could happen as early as next week.

Then the hard work of creating the task force begins. The new law calls for 13 members, including the commissioners of education and human resources, plus four legislators and seven members of the public. Ravelli said she would be interested in serving on the task force, and will be meeting with Albano early in 2010 to begin the process.

It is estimated that about 20 percent of the population have some type of reading disorder, and about 85 percent of students with learning disabilities struggle to read. The goal of the task force will be to identify practices and strategies to help those students, and spread awareness of them to teachers and school districts.

"Having the ability to read is vital to succeeding in school and getting a good job," Albano said in a release issued after the vote. "We need to redouble our efforts to ensure that every child is able to read and to overcome difficulties that can lessen their future prospects for success."

Samantha had no trouble reading the note Van Drew wrote for her school. In it he says that she was absent because she was with him in the Senate chamber.

"Along with the rest of the Senate, I am very proud of her," Samantha read. On Roseann's note Van Drew cited her support and assistance of her sister.

Beth Ravelli said she will make copies of the notes for the girls to bring to school today. The real notes will become part of the scrapbook she has made on how Samantha helped pass a law.

Contact Diane D'Amico:
609-272-7241

DDamico@pressofac.com

Samantha Ravelli's Web site to increase awareness of dyslexia:
www. sammiesmission.com

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