Senate Bill 9

Amend KRS 158.791 to specify the Department of Education's role in assisting local school districts with regard to reading instruction, supports, and interventions; require the department to collaborate with designated agencies on reading programming, materials, and activities; amend KRS 158.305 to define new terms; replace references to "response to intervention" systems with "multi-tiered system of supports"; require a local board of education to adopt and implement a reading universal screener and reading diagnostic assessment by January 1, 2023; permit a local school district to adopt a common comprehensive reading program for K-3; require all K-3 teachers to be trained in any reading diagnostic assessment and universal screener adopted by a local board; establish requirements for the administration of reading universal screeners by grade-level; define and establish the requirements for a reading improvement plan; establish service requirements for a student that needs accelerated intervention as demonstrated by the results of the approved reading diagnostic assessment or state annually required grade 3 assessment; require the department to establish reading teacher academies or coaching models by September 1, 2023, if funds are appropriated; remove the requirement for KDE to provide an annual report to IJCE on academic interventions; create a new section of KRS Chapter 164 to require postsecondary institutions offering early childhood or elementary teacher preparation programs to include designated instruction; require the EPSB to maintain a list of approved reading teacher preparation tests; require all new teachers seeking certification in Interdisciplinary Early Childhood Education or Elementary School to take an approved reading teacher preparation test; amend KRS 158.840 to require CPE to submit an annual report to IJCE on the compliance of teacher preparation programs to this Act; require regular reports to an external evaluator; amend KRS 164.0207 to redefine existing terms; require the Board of Education to pass administrative regulations that prioritize schools with the most need and schools that have not received a grant in the previous cycle when awarding reading diagnostic and intervention grants; amend KRS 158.794 to reorganize the composition of the reading diagnostic and intervention grant steering committee; amend KRS 164.0207 to conform; create a new section of KRS Chapter 158 to establish and define the read to succeed fund; provide that moneys and interest in the fund shall not lapse; designate the Act as the Read to Succeed Act.