SB 73 - This act modifies current law regarding reading intervention programs. Each local school district and charter school shall have on file a policy for reading intervention plans for any pupils of the district in grades kindergarten through four, rather than through grade three. Authority to develop guidelines to assist school districts and charter schools in formulating policies for reading intervention plans is transferred from the State Board of Education to local school districts. Under this act, each school district and charter school shall administer a reading assessment or set of assessments to each student within the first thirty days of school for grades one through four, and by January thirty-first for kindergarten.
This act removes the requirement that school districts and charter schools design a reading intervention plan for the student's fourth-grade year if the student's third-grade reading assessment determines the student is reading below second-grade level. The provision is replaced with a requirement that school districts and charter schools offer a reading intervention program to each K-4 student who exhibits a reading deficiency or has a formal diagnosis of dyslexia. The reading intervention program shall be provided in addition to the core reading instruction provided to all students, and shall meet criteria set forth in the act.
Any K-4 student who exhibits a deficiency in reading at any time, based upon local or statewide screening assessments, shall receive an individual reading intervention plan no later than thirty days after the identification of the deficiency. Such plan shall be created by the teacher and other pertinent school personnel, and shall describe the evidence-based reading improvement services the student shall receive.
Under this act, beginning with the 2020-2021 school year, students who are not reading at grade level by the end of the second grade shall receive intensive reading improvement to remedy the student's specific reading deficiency. Each school district and charter school shall conduct a review of student reading intervention plans for all students who are not reading at grade level by the end of the second grade, and shall address additional support services needed to remedy the areas of deficiency. School districts and charter schools shall provide improvement and support services set forth in the act.
School districts and charter schools are required, under this act, to establish an intensive acceleration class for any student not reading proficient or above on the third-grade state assessment, and shall meet certain criteria set forth in the act.
This act allows school districts and charter schools to provide summer reading camps to all third-grade students scoring below proficient. Such camps shall be staffed with highly effective teachers of reading. Summer reading camps shall include at least sixty hours of instructional time in reading.
This act extends the mandatory process of additional reading instruction from grade six to graduation from high school. Each school district and charter school is required to offer summer school reading instruction to any student with a reading intervention plan. Districts may fulfill the requirement through cooperative arrangements with neighboring districts or virtual schools.
The parent or legal guardian of any student who exhibits a deficiency in reading shall be notified in writing no later than fifteen school days after identification of the deficiency. The written notification shall meet certain requirements as set forth in the act.
This act requires the board of each school district and charter school to post, by September first of each year, by building, the number and percentage of all students in grades 3-8 scoring at each proficiency level on the English language arts statewide assessment; by building, the number and percentage of all students in grades 3-8 in each demographic category scoring proficiency level on the English language arts statewide assessment; by district, the number and percentage of all students in grades 3-8 scoring at each proficiency level on the English language arts statewide assessment; and by district, the number and percentage of all students in grades 3-8 in each demographic category scoring at each proficiency level on the English language arts statewide assessment.
The Department of Elementary and Secondary Education is also required to report the information in a state-level summary to the State Board of Education, the public, the governor, and the Joint Committee on Education by October first of each year.
This act also repeals provisions of law relating to mandatory retention for reading deficiencies.
This act is similar to HCS/HB 464 (2019), HCS/SS/SB 218 (2019), SCS/SB 349 (2019), HCS/SCS/SB 949 (2018), and HB 1417 (2018).
JOSIE BUTLER