Thanks so much for all the replies.
I contacted our school's principal, and she said she confirmed my son's involvement in Title 1 services last year. We did sign a consent that our son "may" receive services last year, but were never told, and it was not on his report card. The principal did acknowledge that this would be a surprise to a parent, that communication should have been more intentional than it was, and she took my suggestion of more direct contact from the Title 1 teachers, and to not rely on the prior year's involvement as notification for subsequent years.
I also contacted the Title 1 teacher. She indicated that decoding is their main area of focus now, and has provided some fluency practice for DS that we can work on at home. I feel that the open dialogue has put my mind at ease.
Right now DS is getting one on one instruction 3x per week from this teacher. I am very thankful that our school has the resource and that he was identified. I was also told that DS scored above needing the additional summer and before school help, so that's positive too.