Reading Specialists

What kind of training or background do reading specialists have?

J is still having trouble with the most basic decoding (2nd grade). It's coming, but painfully slowly. He is diagnosed with a language based learning disability and a reading learning disability, and I have a hunch he's dyslexic (he not only reversed things but pulls letters like M does, who is dyslexic). He also had childhood asparagus of speech, so it doesn't help that he's on his second language.

He's in a resource room most the day, for all language arts and math. The other day, his private SLP was trying to help me with some of my homework concerns (he confuses the short e sound and the long a sound), and asked what the reading specialist says. He doesn't see one, because all his language arts time is in a resource room with a special Ed teacher. She thought it may be helpful to have a reading specialist push into that time, because the specialist would have a better understanding of not just the sounds for reading, but whether or not he can produce and differentiate between them, and how to help him get over this hump.

I thought reading specialists were just regular teachers who studied a reading program like Wilson or Orton Gillingham, and that the special ed teacher would have more specialized training to help him. It seemed that the SLP seemed to think that the reading specialist could bring additional skills to the room to help J.

What's your opinion? Do you think a reading specialist has skills that the special ed teacher might not? Could a reading specialist work as a bridge between the special ed teacher and the SLPs (both private and school) to help with the obvious gap we are struggling with?