Senate Bill S7579

                                 
BILL NUMBER: S7579

SPONSOR: CLEARE
 
TITLE OF BILL:

An act to address the elementary literacy gap by empowering student and
parental engagement with an evidence-based home reading program

 
PURPOSE:

To address the elementary literacy gap by empowering student and
parental engagement with an evidence-based home reading program.

 
SUMMARY:

Section 1. Establishes the New York State elementary literacy program.

Section 2. Sets the effective date.

 
JUSTIFICATION:

              

Reading skills are the gateway to all learning, but our students are
facing an unprecedented literacy crisis. As we continue to grapple with
the effects of COVID-19, students in critical years for reading maturity
have fallen behind due to barriers to online learning. Prior to the
pandemic, 66% of our nation's. fourth grade students were "below profi-
cient" in reading, and this has only worsened during the pandemic.
Almost a third of children in the earliest grades are missing basic
reading benchmarks, and the number of kindergarten students at highest
risk for illiteracy rose 8% throughout the pandemic. This trend will
have long-lasting negative consequences for the students of New York
State.

Further, Black and Brown, low-income students, those with disabilities,
and those who speak English as a second language are disproportionately
facing literacy challenges. Learning crucial phonemes and skills are
difficult to grasp in online classrooms, and the personal attention
needed in addition to general instruction has simply not been feasible.
As our families struggle to make ends meet, many parents and guardians
lack the time or resources to supplement online instruction.

These issues must be addressed in the early stages of language develop-
ment to ensure a bright future for all students in New York.  This
legislation will establish an evidence-based program to empower both
student book choice and parental engagement through supplementary inde-
pendent reading. Studies have shown that even 6-15 minutes of independ-
ent reading a day can greatly increase a child's likelihood of meeting
reading benchmarks and accelerating reading skills. As a bastion of
quality education, there is no reason that the children of New York
should face barriers to one of the most valuable and necessary skills
for human knowledge.

 
RACIAL JUSTICE IMPACT:

Students of color are disproportionately affected by the literacy
crisis. The literacy crisis refers to the fact that many students in the
United States are not reading at grade level, which can have serious
consequences for their academic and life outcomes.

Students of color often lack access to high-quality literacy instruc-
tion. Many schools with high populations of students of color do not
have the resources to provide the same level of literacy instruction as
schools with more resources. This can result in students of color not
receiving the support and instruction they need to develop strong liter-
acy skills.

Additionally, students of color are more likely to come from low-income
families, which can exacerbate the literacy crisis.  Students from low-
income families often have less access to books and other reading mate-
rials at home, which can make it harder for them to develop strong
literacy skills. This legislation increases access to literary resources
by providing students with free books, therefore enabling students and
families to improve their literacy skills. This evidence-based home
reading program works to eliminate some of the systemic barriers
students of color face in learning by extending resources to the home.

 
GENDER JUSTICE IMPACT:

TBD.

 
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:

2021-22: A10691; referred to education.

 
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:

TBD.

 
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect immediately.