Senate Bill sb0094e1
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1 A bill to be entitled
2 An act relating to reading instruction;
3 providing legislative intent regarding required
4 reading instruction; requiring each public
5 elementary school to develop and implement
6 programs for reading and literacy development
7 in kindergarten through grade 4; establishing a
8 program to encourage the training of teachers
9 in reading development; providing for the
10 withholding of a portion of staff training
11 funds if the program is not implemented in at
12 least one school in a district; requiring the
13 Department of Education to provide technical
14 support; providing guidelines for selecting
15 reading programs; providing criteria that
16 reading programs must satisfy; providing an
17 effective date.
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19 Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida:
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21 Section 1. Required reading instruction in
22 kindergarten through grade 4.--
23 (1) The Legislature recognizes that reading is a major
24 foundational skill for all school-based learning. It further
25 recognizes the importance of instruction in reading in primary
26 grades to improve a student's academic performance. The public
27 schools of this state have successfully improved student
28 performance by increasing the number of instructional hours
29 spent on reading in the primary grades. Engaging students in
30 learning through curriculum that emphasizes reading offers the
31 additional benefits of reducing disciplinary problems and
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1 diminishing the need for social promotion of students who have
2 not learned to read.
3 (2) To encourage local control in the determination of
4 reading and literacy development programs, each public
5 elementary school shall develop and implement an appropriately
6 designed reading program to include daily reading and literacy
7 development in kindergarten through grade 4.
8 (3) Each public school shall devote a locally
9 determined amount of time each day to reading and literacy
10 development in kindergarten through grade 4.
11 (4)(a) The state should not mandate specific
12 commercial or noncommercial reading programs but, instead,
13 should encourage schools to use the Florida reading program
14 standards in designing, evaluating, selecting, and
15 implementing reading programs. School districts and schools
16 must address a number of factors in selecting commercial or
17 district-developed reading programs, materials, and resources.
18 As reflected in the Florida reading program standards, the
19 program being considered must:
20 1. Have a body of scientifically based reading
21 research that supports the effectiveness of the program in
22 improving student performance in reading or, at the very
23 least, supports the components and strategies that constitute
24 the program;
25 2. Provide scientifically based reading research
26 indicating that the program has a probability of success with
27 the specific target population;
28 3. Complement the district's comprehensive design for
29 reading;
30 4. Demonstrate a clear alignment to the Sunshine State
31 Standards for reading; and
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1 (b) School districts and schools must ensure that
2 their reading programs:
3 1. Provide that:
4 a. All students are administered a screening;
5 b. Struggling students are assessed using diagnostic
6 instruments in order to prescribe appropriate intervention;
7 and
8 c. All students are provided with progress monitoring
9 in order to improve instruction, and teachers are trained in
10 the use of the instruments and analysis of the data they
11 provide.
12 2. Provide students a minimum of 90 minutes of daily
13 instruction in reading.
14 3. Are implemented as designed.
15 (5) The Legislature recognizes that statewide
16 compliance with this section is necessary to raise student
17 achievement in reading and, therefore, establishes the program
18 described in this section to promote the goals of this
19 section.
20 (a) School districts will offer each school in their
21 district the opportunity to receive training for the staff of
22 that entire school in reading development and literacy. The
23 district will select at least one school for that purpose.
24 (b) The school district may contract with any
25 reading-development training program, including North East
26 Florida Educational Consortium, Project Child, or another
27 program, through which to train its teachers.
28 (c) If the reading program selected is implemented in
29 at least one of the schools, the district will receive 100
30 percent of its annual allocation for teacher training as
31 provided in the General Appropriations Act.
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1 (d) If the program is not implemented in at least one
2 of the schools, the district will receive only 90 percent of
3 its annual allocation for teacher training. The Secretary of
4 Education may use the holdback to fund another reading
5 program.
6 (e) Small districts with school populations of fewer
7 than 2,500 students, although encouraged to adopt reading and
8 literacy-development programs, are exempt from the funding
9 penalties imposed under this section.
10 (6) The Department of Education shall provide
11 technical support and guidance to any public school that
12 requests assistance pertaining to the implementation of this
13 section.
14 Section 2. This act shall take effect July 1, 2002.
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