Committee Begins Hearings on Reading Bill

JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — The Senate Education Committee plans to hear a bill that would require school districts to have a strategy in place for addressing reading deficiencies in students in kindergarten through third grade.
Districts under the bill authored by Sen. Gary Stevens are also to provide reachable goals for students so they can reach grade level expectations.
“What we really find out is if our children, if they can read at a third-grade level, then the world is open to them,” he told KMXT radio. “They can go on and improve their reading skills and be good contributing members of our society and well-educated folks.”
SB107 also lays out a system for parental involvement in deciding whether a student in kindergarten through third grade, who has significant reading deficiencies, should move on to the next grade.