This happened. My little sister called me from college with an emergency. She was having trouble reading. She did not know phonics and “sight words” was not cutting it. I bought tutoring for her. It changed her life.
Also my youngest was taught phonics by me before school. At school they did sight words - I called it guess words. He was terrible at reading but great at making up stories.
I'll never forget sitting there while one boy tried so hard and was so mortified in front of us all. It was the first time I realized that an adult could be so mean,