SB 747 - This act requires, beginning July 1, 2017, all public schools in the St. Louis City School District and Kansas City School District, including charter schools, to use a response-to-intervention tiered approach to reading instruction for students determined by their school to be struggling readers. At a minimum, the reading levels of students in kindergarten through tenth grade must be assessed at the beginning and middle of the school year. Students who score below district benchmarks must be provided with intensive, systemic reading instruction. Beginning on January 1, 2017, and each January thereafter, each public school in the St. Louis City School District and Kansas City School District, including charter schools, must prepare a personalized learning plan for any kindergarten or first grade student whose most recent school-wide reading assessment result shows the student is below grade level. Certain exceptions exist from this requirement for students with an IEP or a Section 504 Plan.
Any student who is not reading at the second grade level in the St. Louis City School District and the Kansas City School District by the end of second grade may be promoted to third grade only if one of three conditions is satisfied. First, a student may be promoted if the school provides additional reading instruction during the summer and demonstrates the student has the abilities and the knowledge to successfully learn in third grade at the end of summer school. Second, a student may be promoted if the school provides a "looping" classroom in which the student remains with the same teacher for multiple years. If the student is in a looping classroom but is not reading at the third grade level by the end of third grade, the student must be retained. Third, a student may be promoted if the student's parents or guardians may sign a notice that they prefer to have the student promoted. However, the school will have final determination to retain the student.
The St. Louis City School District, the Kansas City School District, and each charter school located in them must provide in the annual school accountability report card the numbers and percentages by grade of any students at grade level who have been promoted but who have been determined as reading below grade level.
School districts and charter schools subject to this requirement may provide for a student promotion and retention program and a reading instruction program that are equivalent to those which are described in this section with the oversight and approval of the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.
This act is substantially similar to a provision contained in CCS/HCS/SCS/SBs 493 et al. (2014) and HB 2214 (2010).
JOSHUA NORBERG