DecodeDeskThe lesson cockpit for Structured Literacy.
Plan an explicit, systematic lesson in a minute. Teach it from one screen. Every tap becomes progress-monitoring data, so reports for IEP and 504 meetings and for families are ready when you need them.
The demo needs no signup. The trial needs no credit card. Works on iPad, Chromebook, Mac and PC.
One app instead of the binder, card deck, stopwatch and spreadsheet.
DecodeDesk knows which sound–spelling patterns each student has learned, so every drill, word list and passage uses only those patterns and nothing you haven't taught yet.
Built around how Structured Literacy is actually taught
Scope & sequence engine
A 55-skill cumulative sequence in 9 phases, from consonants through schwa, suffix rules, and Latin and Greek roots. Each skill has prerequisites, rule text, articulation cues and original word lists. The app checks prerequisites before you teach a skill.
9-step lesson planner
Visual, auditory and blending drills, phonological awareness, new concept, guided practice, decodable text, red words and dictation. Every step is generated from the student's taught inventory.
Live Session cockpit
Large display for each item, and one-tap + / ~ / − scoring with optional error types. Keyboard shortcuts let you score without looking away from the student.
Fluency timer (WCPM)
Tap mis-read words as the student reads, stop the timer, then tap the last word read. Words correct per minute is calculated and logged for cold and hot reads.
Student screen & manipulatives
A second window for a tablet or external display. Includes digital letter tiles, sound boxes (Elkonin boxes) and a syllable splitter with vowel/consonant labels.
Diagnostic alerts
Spots error patterns across sessions, such as vowel-team confusion or repeated b/d reversals, and suggests remediation. It also tells you when a skill is ready to mark Mastered.
Goal tracking
Write goals in IEP format, e.g. "85% accuracy across 3 consecutive sessions". Streaks update automatically from session data.
Family conference packets
One click builds a printable packet for a conference or IEP meeting: cover page, family letter (English or Spanish), progress and goal reports, assessments, attendance and home practice.
Phone & desktop alerts
Know the moment a family messages, books, cancels or signs a form. Each teacher picks their alerts, and no message content ever passes through the push services.
Your data stays yours
Download everything at any time as spreadsheets, printable notes and signed forms, and a complete data file. Close your account whenever you like, with 30 days to change your mind.
Business dashboard
Money collected and owed, lessons and missed lessons, each teacher's week, how long students stay, and how many new families enroll, from the records you already keep.
Camps & group classes
Summer camps and small-group classes with a public sign-up page, payment by card at sign-up, seats and a waitlist, a roster and daily attendance.
Home practice assignments
Assign exact words, games and passages with a due date. Families see the list in their portal with a read-aloud voice that highlights each word; you see what got done, and families get a reminder the day before.
Supervision & co-signing
Associates' and trainees' progress notes wait for a supervisor's co-signature, and supervision hours are logged and totaled for practicum and licensing records.
Team hours & payroll
Lessons, teaching hours, no-shows and late cancellations for every teacher, for any dates, with an optional pay estimate from each teacher's rates and CSV exports for your payroll.
Intake forms & e-signatures
Intake questionnaire, policies and consent, photo permission and online-lessons consent, filled in and signed in the family portal (English or Spanish) or in person. Edit every form to fit your practice, or build your own. Signed forms are locked and printable.
Signed progress notes
Structured Literacy, SOAP or brief session notes, filled in from the lesson data. Sign and lock each note, add dated addenda, and print a student's notes for any dates alongside the insurance superbill.
One-click progress reports
Printable, PDF-ready reports with goal charts, accuracy by skill, fluency trend, error analysis and recommendations, ready for team meetings.
Home practice sheets
After each session: a one-page sheet for families with that session's 5 words, the rule and the red words.
Activity library & templates
72 multisensory activities with directions, differentiation ideas and data to record, plus 10 lesson templates: full lesson, fluency focus, small group, virtual, assessment day and more.
Universal screening & reports
Record DIBELS 8, Acadience or district screener scores by subtest, see benchmark levels each season, and print screening reports and a caseload summary for your dyslexia-screening records.
Small groups & real voices
Teach 2–6 students at once with per-child scoring, readings and records, using only patterns the whole group knows. Record letter sounds and words in your own voice for lessons and home practice.
Families pay online
Connect your own Stripe account and every invoice gets a secure pay link. Families tap Pay now in their portal, the money goes straight to you, and the payment is recorded on the invoice automatically.
Staff profiles
Photos, credentials, experience and links for every teacher; families meet their child's teacher in the home portal; publish a "Meet our team" page with a booking button; get reminders before certifications expire.
Schools & districts
Sign in with Google, Microsoft or Clever; let teachers at your school's domain join automatically; import your roster from OneRoster or Clever files with display names only; a district console with aggregate numbers for every school.
Superbills, autopay & QuickBooks
Print insurance superbills with your NPI, service and diagnosis codes. Let families save a card for automatic payments on the due date. Export to QuickBooks Online or Desktop, or sync invoices and payments to QuickBooks Online. Bill every family for the month in one step, and let DecodeDesk remind families about unpaid invoices.
Online booking
Families book from your real openings: new families request a consultation from your public link or QR code (and can pick a teacher or “first available”), current families book, cancel or move lessons in their home portal under your notice policy. Families can book a weekly time or join a waitlist, and when a lesson is cancelled the time is offered to the waitlist automatically (first to confirm gets it). Require a card on file or a deposit, and skip times a teacher is busy on their own Google or Outlook calendar. Each teacher can have their own bookable hours; you accept or decline with one click.
Text reminders & two-way texting
Connect your own Twilio or Quo account to text families lesson reminders (English or Spanish) and quick notes. Families' replies land in the student's message thread, and you answer by text from the same place. Consent is recorded per family, STOP replies are honored automatically, and a monthly limit keeps the bill predictable.
Calendar sync & video links
Your lessons appear in Google Calendar, Apple Calendar or Outlook and stay updated. Add Zoom, Meet or Teams links, or connect Zoom to create a lesson meeting in one click. Families get a Join button.
Write passages, with optional AI
Write your own decodable passages with a live check against the scope and sequence, or let optional AI help draft passages, questions, parent notes, progress notes and goal-report comments from your lesson data. It's off by default, and student names are never sent.
Progress monitoring vs. national norms
Record grade-level fluency probes and see estimated national percentiles, a graph with norm bands, an aimline to the goal, the growth trend and a data-based decision guide.
Vocabulary & comprehension
143 vocabulary words with kid-friendly meanings, word cards, Frayer models and worksheets; 54 question stems in 9 question types, 10 graphic organizers, a comprehension kit for every passage, and comprehension scores recorded right in the lesson.
Word parts & morphology
121 prefixes, suffixes, Latin roots and Greek forms with meanings and examples, 21 word matrices with word sums, printable morpheme cards and worksheets with answer keys.
251 decodable passages & printables
Original stories and nonfiction checked word by word against the scope and sequence, each with comprehension questions: longer passages for older students, a passage for every Latin and Greek word part, and three dictation sentences for every skill. Print student and teacher copies, plus sound cards, word cards, Bingo and Roll & Read from any student's skills.
Materials inventory with QR labels
Track tile sets, card decks, sand trays and games down to individual pieces. Print Avery labels and scan with any phone camera to check items in or out. Each lesson gets a pull list.
Kit Builder & built-in help
Suggested starter and phase kits with DIY alternatives, added to your inventory in one click. A searchable help wiki covers every screen, with step-by-step walkthroughs and annotated screenshots of 43 screens, and room for your practice's own notes.
Customizable intake assessments
Screen prospective students with built-in benchmarks (Level 1 with an adjustable pass mark and re-test reminders, Level 2a, Level 3 and phonological awareness) or build your own, with timed sections and time rules. Score on screen, print record forms and student pages, and enroll with a recommended placement in one click.
Scheduling & attendance
Recurring weekly sessions, a teacher on each lesson with per-teacher views and overlap warnings, a Today agenda, and absent/cancelled/rescheduled tracking. Prints the week and exports to Google, Outlook or Apple calendars. Rooms and locations, with warnings when two lessons share a room.
Reports for every audience
Plain-language parent letters and assessment reports, IEP goal progress with status codes, attendance and service-hour logs, caseload summaries and CSV exports.
Billing built from your sessions
Per-session rates, a 24-hour cancellation policy, prepaid packages and split payers (family + district). Invoices draft themselves from recorded sessions. Also covers payments, receipts, statements, aging and QuickBooks CSV.
Family home portal
A private link for each family with 5-minute practice games built from the child's own words, stars and streaks, progress, the schedule, invoices and messages. Every result comes back to you. Available in English and Spanish, along with parent letters, reports and practice sheets.
Teach online, built in
Share the lesson to the student's own tablet or computer. One click emails or texts the family the join link, and their home portal shows a Join lesson button while you teach. They type, build with tiles and tap words while you watch, lock or take over, with an encrypted video call alongside.
From placement to progress report
Place the student
Pick a starting skill. Everything before it is marked Mastered, and you can adjust any skill with one click in the mastery matrix.
Plan in a minute
DecodeDesk suggests the next skill and builds all nine steps. Remove, add or regenerate any item.
Teach & track
Run the lesson from Live Session. At the end, confirm mastery, save the session and print the home practice sheet.
Evidence that your intervention is working, without the extra paperwork.
Each tap during a session becomes a data point. Reports put goal progress, accuracy trends, fluency growth and error analysis into one printable document with space for your comments and signature.
- Goal streaks against IEP/504 criteria
- Accuracy by skill with prompted vs. independent attempts
- WCPM trend on controlled decodable text
- Automated observations and recommended next steps
Designed for student data from the start.
You work with children's disability-related records, and DecodeDesk handles them that way.
- Encrypted at rest. Every student record is encrypted with AES-256 before it reaches the database.
- Ready for schools. See the Trust Center for FERPA and COPPA details, subprocessors and incident response, plus a data processing agreement template.
- Two-step sign-in. Authenticator-app codes with backup codes. Owners can require it for the whole team and review an activity log of sign-ins and changes.
- Collects as little as possible. Initials or a nickname are enough. We never ask for birthdates, addresses or student ID numbers.
- No ads, no trackers, never sold. The app loads nothing from third parties.
- You own the data. Export everything as JSON at any time. Delete a student or your whole account permanently.
- Access logging. Every read, write and delete is recorded in an audit log.
- DPA available. Schools and districts can request our Data Processing Agreement.
Simple pricing for tutors and clinics
Every plan starts with a 14-day free trial of all features. No credit card needed.
Solo Tutor
For independent specialists.
- Up to 15 students
- Full scope & sequence
- Live Session + student screen
- Progress reports & home practice
- Offline mode
Clinic
For practices with 2+ specialists.
- Unlimited students
- Everything in Solo
- Practice name on reports
- Priority support
- Adjustable seats
Schools & Districts
Annual invoicing and purchase orders.
- Everything in Clinic
- Signed Data Processing Agreement
- Onboarding & training
- Volume pricing
Pay annually and get 2 months free. Cancel anytime from Settings.
Questions from specialists
Is DecodeDesk affiliated with Orton-Gillingham, Wilson or another program?
No. DecodeDesk is an independent tool aligned with Structured Literacy principles: explicit, systematic, cumulative and multisensory instruction. It is not affiliated with or endorsed by any branded program, and all word lists and passages are original. Use it alongside the training and materials you already have.
Can I follow my own sequence?
Yes. You can plan any skill in any order. DecodeDesk warns you about unmastered prerequisites but never blocks you. Mastery status is set per student.
Does it work without internet?
Yes. After the first load, Live Session keeps working if the Wi-Fi drops, and your changes sync automatically when you're back online.
Does it work on an iPad?
Yes. It's designed for tablets first. Add it to your home screen to use it like an app. The student screen can run on a second device or an external display.
What happens when my trial ends?
Your data stays safe and readable. You can export it or pick a plan to keep teaching. Nothing is deleted unless you ask.
Can I bring my current students in?
Yes. Paste them from Excel or Google Sheets, or upload a CSV. DecodeDesk matches the columns, places each student at their starting skill, links families for billing and lets you check everything before saving.
Where is my data stored?
On servers in our hosting provider's data center, encrypted at rest. See our Privacy Policy for details.
See a full lesson in two minutes.
The demo has three sample students with six weeks of session history. No signup needed.