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Literacy Legislation
By Wisconsin School Administrators Alliance staff | June 9, 2023
Early yesterday, Representative Joel Kitchens and Senator Duey Stroebel introduced literacy and reading legislation that is tied to the $50 million set aside in the budget compromise also introduced later in the day. The proposal would focus primarily on our youngest learners in grades K-3. It directs schools to use phonics and the science of reading to instruct learners.
While funding is being advanced separately in the state budget to support some of the initiatives in the bill it is unlikely that the $50 million set aside would cover the requirements enumerated in this legislation. The two components are being advanced separately. You can view the co-sponsorship memo here. This bill is moving at a very fast pace and will likely be scheduled for public hearings in both houses next week. I encourage everyone to read the provisions below and take the opportunity to discuss the impact it will have on your district with your legislators.
WASB has provided a comprehensive outline of the provisions in the legislation which would require the following:
- Create an Office of Literacy inside the Department of Public Instruction to establish a program that would contract 64 Literacy coaches that would help schools statewide.
- Mandates that a Council on Early Literacy Curricula be created with a majority of members being nominated by the Senate and the Assembly. In total DPI would only appoint 3 members and the Senate and Assembly would appoint six members total. The council would recommend literacy curricula and instructional materials, if a school district wants to update their curricula, they would be required to choose from the approved list to receive funding at the rate of 50% of the cost of purchasing the new curricula. Any grants provided would be prorated if there is an insufficient amount of funding to support all schools.
- The purchase of materials that incorporate three-cueing would be prohibited going forward if the bill becomes law.
- DPI may not issue a teaching license that authorizes the license holder to teach reading or language arts in a prekindergarten class or in grades kindergarten to six unless the individual has successfully completed instruction to teach reading using science-based early reading instruction that includes phonics and that does not include three-cueing.
- School boards and charter school operators must ensure that all kindergarten to third grade teachers, principals of schools that offer grades kindergarten to three, and reading specialists receive professional development training in science-based early literacy instruction by no later than July 1, 2025.
- By January 1, 2025, DPI must establish, by rule, a model policy for promoting third grade pupils to the fourth grade. The model policy must include: 1) a requirement that a pupil who scores in the lowest proficiency category on the third grade reading assessment be retained in the third grade, 2) a good cause exception for certain pupils, 3) a requirement that the school board provide intensive instructional services, progress monitoring, and supports to a pupil who is retained under the policy, 4) written notice to the pupil’s parent, and 5) an intensive summer reading program for pupils who scored in the lowest proficiency category of the third grade reading assessment.
- By July 1, 2025, the bill requires school boards, independent charter schools, and private schools participating in a parental choice program to adopt written policies for promoting a third-grade pupil to the fourth grade that include at least all the components that are required to be in DPI’s model policy.
- Additionally, beginning on September 1, 2028, school boards, independent charter schools, and private schools participating in a parental choice program are prohibited from promoting a third-grade pupil unless the pupil complies with the district’s respective promotion policy.
- The bill requires DPI to include (beginning in 2023-24) in the annual school and school district report cards, the number and percentage of pupils who scored in the lowest proficiency category on the third grade reading assessment.
- Beginning in the 2024-25 school year, the bill requires school boards and independent charter schools to assess the early literacy skills of pupils in four-year-old kindergarten to third grade using various assessments and to create a personal reading plan for each pupil in five-year-old kindergarten to third grade who is identified as at-risk based on a universal screening assessment or diagnostic assessment.
- Under the bill, beginning in the 2024-25 school year, school boards and independent charter schools must screen all pupils enrolled in four-year-old kindergarten at least two times each school year using a fundamental skills screening selected by DPI. The bill specifies that the first screening assessment must occur before the 46th day of the school term and that both screenings be completed no later than 45 days before the last day of school.
- Beginning in the 2024-25 school year, school boards and independent charter schools must screen all pupils enrolled in five-year-old kindergarten to third grade at least three times each school year using a universal screening assessment selected by DPI. The bill specifies that the first universal screening must occur before the 46th day of the school term, the second universal screening must occur in the middle of the school term, and the third universal screening must occur no later than 45 days before the last day of school.
- Beginning in the 2024-25 school year, school boards and independent charter schools must screen a pupil enrolled in five-year-old kindergarten to third grade using a diagnostic assessment 1) if the pupil is identified as at-risk based on the first universal screening of the school year, by no later than the second Friday in November; 2) if the pupil is identified as at-risk based on the second universal screening of the school year, within 10 days after the universal screening was administered; and 3) if a teacher or parent suspects the pupil has characteristics of dyslexia and submits a request for a diagnostic assessment, within 20 days of submitting the request.
- If a pupil is identified as at-risk based on a diagnostic assessment, the bill requires the school board or independent charter school to provide information to the pupil’s parents about how to make a special education referral.
- If a pupil is identified as at-risk based on a universal screening assessment or a diagnostic assessment, the bill requires the school board or independent charter school to create a personal reading plan for the pupil. Under the bill, a personal reading plan must include various components related to addressing the pupil’s specific early literacy deficiencies, including interventions that will be provided to the pupil, how the pupil’s progress will be monitored, and strategies the pupil’s parent is encouraged to use to help the pupil achieve grade-level literacy skills. The bill further requires the school board or independent charter school to 1) provide the interventions included in the personal reading plan to the pupil, as soon as practicable; 2) monitor the pupil’s progress at least weekly; 3) provide a copy of the personal reading plan to the pupil’s parent; 4) obtain a copy of the reading plan signed by the pupil’s parent; and 5) after 10 weeks of providing the interventions required in the personal reading plan, notify the pupil’s parent of the pupil’s progress.
- DPI must pay each school board and independent charter school for the per pupil cost of each early literacy assessment required to be administered under the bill. However, beginning in the 2025-26 school year, a school board or independent charter school is eligible for the state funding provided in the bill only if the school board or independent charter school submits an annual report to DPI and in that report indicates that the school board or charter school used only selected or approved early literacy assessments in the previous school year.
- A school board or independent charter school must provide a pupil’s results on an early literacy assessment to the pupil’s parent by no later than 15 days after the applicable assessment is scored. The results provided to the parent must be in the parent’s native language and must include the pupil’s overall score, the pupil’s score on each literacy skill category assessed by the assessment, the pupil’s percentile rank score, if available, the score on the assessment that indicates a pupil is at-risk, and a plain language explanation of the literacy skills that were evaluated by the assessment. In addition, if a school board or independent charter school is required to screen a pupil using a diagnostic assessment, the school board or independent charter school must provide the pupil’s parent with information
related to characteristics of dyslexia, including information about the common indicators of characteristics of dyslexia and appropriate interventions and accommodations for pupils with characteristics of dyslexia. - The bill also requires each school board and independent charter school to have an early literacy remediation plan. An early literacy remediation plan must include information about assessments used to identify at-risk pupils, the interventions used to address characteristics of dyslexia, and monitoring pupil progress related to early literacy skills. Under the bill, each school district and independent charter school must post its early literacy remediation plan on its website.
- School boards and independent charter schools must annually, by July 15, report to DPI: 1) the number of pupils who were identified as at-risk based on early literacy assessments administered in the previous school year; 2) the number of five-year-old kindergarten to third grade pupils who began receiving literacy interventions or remedial reading services in the previous school year, by grade; 3) the total number of five-year-old kindergarten to third grade pupils who received literacy interventions or remedial reading services in the previous school year; 4) the number of five-year-old kindergarten to third grade pupils who exited literacy interventions in the previous school year; and 5) the number of pupils for whom a special education referral was made based on the results of a diagnostic assessment. The school board or independent charter school must also report the names of the diagnostic assessments the school board or independent charter school used to assess pupils in the previous school year. Annually, by November 30, DPI must compile the information it receives from school boards and independent charter schools and submit a report to the legislature.
- The bill allows the parent or guardian of a pupil enrolled in four-year-old kindergarten to third grade in a school district or independent charter school to file a complaint with DPI if the parent or guardian believes that the school is not in compliance with requirements in the bill. Under the bill, DPI must issue a determination on whether the school is complying and, if the school is not in compliance, describe the actions that must be taken for the school to be following the applicable requirements. If a school board or independent charter school continues to fail to comply with the requirements in the bill, the bill allows an individual who filed a complaint with DPI to bring an action in circuit court to compel the school to comply with the requirements created in the bill.
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