Software Solutions for Strong Readers Act

The vendor is required to provide that software solutions for strong act requirements to provide: “every family of a student in prekindergarten, kindergarten, and first, second, and third grade access to free online evidence-based literacy instruction resources to support the student’s literacy development at home.”
- Any contract renewal, the state shall subjectively consider the value of the contract to the state, the supplier’s performance under the contract, and shall review certain other factors, including but not limited to the:
• Terms and conditions of contract documents to determine validity with current state and other applicable statutes and rules;
• Current pricing and discounts offered by supplier; and
• Current products, services and support offered by supplier.
- If the state determines changes to the contract are required as a condition precedent to renewal, the state and supplier will cooperate in good faith to evidence such required changes.
- The provision of multitiered systems of support, assessment benchmarking, and communication about student progress to families.
- Strong readers act:
1. To identify students who have a reading deficiency including identifying students with characteristics of dyslexia, each student enrolled in kindergarten and first, second, and third grade in a public school in this state shall be screened at the beginning, middle, and end of each school year for reading skills including, but not limited to, phonological awareness, decoding, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension.
2. A screening instrument approved by the state board of education, in consultation with the commission for educational quality and accountability and the secretary of education, shall be utilized for the purposes.
3. The commission for educational quality and accountability, and the secretary of education shall take into consideration at a minimum the following factors:
• The time required to conduct the screening instrument with the intention of minimizing the impact on instructional time;
• The timeliness in reporting screening instrument results to teachers, administrators, and parents and legal guardians of students; and
• The integration of the screening instrument into reading curriculum.
4. The screening instruments shall meet the following criteria:
• Assess for phonological awareness, decoding, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension;
• Document the validity and reliability of each assessment
• Can be used for identifying students who are at risk for reading deficiency and progress monitoring throughout the school year;
• Can be used to assess students with disabilities and english language learners; and
• Accompanied by a data management system that provides profiles of students, class, grade level, and school building.
• The state board shall also determine other comparable reading assessments for diagnostic purposes to be used for students at risk of reading failure.
5. Exemptions to the screening requirements of this section may be provided to students who have documented evidence that they meet at least one of the following criteria as related to the provision of classroom instruction:
• The student participates in the state alternate assessment program (OAAP) and is taught using alternate methods,
• The student’s primary expressive or receptive communication is sign language,
• The student’s primary form of written or read text is braille, or
• The student’s primary expressive or receptive language is not english, the student is identified as an english learner using a state-approved identification assessment, and the student has had less than one (1) School year of instruction in an english-learner program.
6. Students who are administered a screening instrument pursuant to subsection a of this section and are found not to be meeting grade-level targets shall be provided a program of reading instruction designed to enable students to acquire the appropriate grade-level reading skills; a program of reading instruction shall include:
• Sufficient additional in-school instructional time for the acquisition of phonological awareness, decoding, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension,
• If necessary and if funding is available, tutorial instruction after regular school hours, on Saturdays, and during summer; however, such instruction may not be counted toward the one-hundred-eighty-day or one-thousand-eighty-hour school year required.
• Assessments identified for diagnostic purposes and periodic monitoring to measure the acquisition of reading skills including, but not limited to, phonological awareness, decoding, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension, as identified in the student’s program of reading instruction,
• High-quality instructional materials grounded in scientifically based reading research, and
• A means of providing every family of a student in prekindergarten, kindergarten, and first, second, and third grade access to free online evidence-based literacy instruction resources to support the student’s literacy development at home.
7. A student enrolled in kindergarten or first, second, or third grade who exhibits a deficiency in reading at any time based on the screening instrument administered pursuant to subsection a of this section shall receive an individual reading intervention plan no later than thirty (30) days after the identification of the deficiency in reading intervention plan shall:
• The research-based reading intervention services the student will receive to remedy the deficiency in reading,
• Provide explicit and systematic instruction in phonological awareness, decoding, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension, as applicable,
• Monitor the reading progress of each student’s reading skills throughout the school year and adjust instruction according to the student’s needs, and
• Continue until the student is determined to be meeting grade-level targets in reading based on screening instruments administered pursuant to assessments identified for diagnostic purposes and periodic monitoring pursuant to subparagraph.
8. Every school district shall adopt and implement a district strong readers plan which has had input from school administrators, teachers, and parents and legal guardians and if possible, a reading specialist, and which shall be submitted electronically to and approved by the state board of education
9. The plan shall be updated annually. school districts shall not be required to electronically submit the annual updates to the board if the last plan submitted to the board was approved and expenditures for the program include only expenses relating to individual and small group tutoring, purchase of and training in the use of screening and assessment measures, summer school programs, and Saturday school programs.
10. The district strong readers plan shall include a plan for each site which includes an analysis of the data provided by the state school testing program and other reading assessments utilized as required in this section, and which outlines how each school site will comply with the provisions of the strong readers act.
11. The implementation and evaluation of the provisions of the strong readers act.
12. Any first-grade, second-grade, or third-grade student who demonstrates proficiency in reading through a grade-level appropriate screening instrument approved pursuant to not require a program of reading instruction or an individual reading intervention plan.
13. After a student has demonstrated proficiency through a screening instrument, the district shall provide notification to the parent or legal guardian of the student that he or she has satisfied the requirements of the strong readers act.
14. The district shall continue to monitor the student in the next successive grade level to ensure he or she maintains proficiency.
15. The state department of education shall publicly report the aggregate and district-specific numbers submitted pursuant to this subsection on its website and shall provide electronic copies of the report to the governor, secretary of education, president pro tempore of the senate, speaker of the house of representatives, and to the respective chairs of the committees with responsibility for common education policy in each legislative chamber
16. The parent of any student who is found to have a reading deficiency and is not meeting grade level reading targets and has been provided a program of reading instruction as provided for notified in writing of the following:
• The student has been identified as having a substantial deficiency in reading;
• A description of the current services that are provided to the student pursuant
• A description of the proposed intensive intervention services and supports that will be provided to the student that are designed to remediate the identified area of reading deficiency as provided.
• A student who is promoted to the fourth grade shall receive supplemental intensive intervention services;
• Strategies for parents to use in helping their child succeed in reading proficiency; and
• The grade-level performance scores of the student.
17. No student may be assigned to a grade level based solely on age or other factors that constitute social promotion.
18. The format shall be developed with input from school districts and shall be provided not later than ninety (90) days prior to the annual due date.
19. the department shall annually compile the information required, along with state-level summary information, and electronically report the information to the public, the governor, the secretary of education, the president pro tempore of the senate, and the speaker of the house of representatives.
20. Provide technical assistance as needed to aid school districts in administering the provisions of the strong readers act.
21. The president pro tempore of the senate, the speaker of the house of representatives, and members of the committees with responsibility over common education in both houses of the legislature a strong readers report which shall include, but is not limited to, trend data detailing three (3) years of data, disaggregated by student subgroups to include economically disadvantaged, major racial or ethnic groups, students with disabilities, and english language learners, as appropriate for the following:
• The statewide aggregate number and percentage of students in kindergarten through third grade determined to be at risk for reading difficulties compared to the total number of students enrolled in each grade;
• The statewide aggregate number and percentage of students in kindergarten who continue to be at risk for reading difficulties as determined by the year-end administration of the screening instrument
• The statewide aggregate number and percentage of students in kindergarten through third grade who have successfully completed their program of reading instruction and are reading on grade level as determined by the results of screening instruments administered pursuant
• The statewide aggregate and district-specific number and percentage of students that meet or do not meet grade-level targets for reading based on screening instruments administered pursuant
• The amount of funds received by each district for implementation of the strong readers act;
• An evaluation and narrative interpretation of the report data analyzing the impact of the strong readers act on students’ ability to read at grade level;
• The type of reading instruction practices and methods currently being used by school districts in the state;
• Socioeconomic information, access to reading resources outside of school, and screening for and identification of learning disabilities for students not reading at the appropriate grade level in kindergarten and first through third grade;
• Any recommendations for improvements or amendments to the strong readers act.
- Questions/Inquires Deadline: March 14, 2025