Senate Bill S8044

                                 
BILL NUMBER: S8044

SPONSOR: BYNOE
 
TITLE OF BILL:

An act to amend the education law, in relation to establishing the
libraries literacy education guidance act

 
PURPOSE OR GENERAL IDEA OF BILL:

To promote literacy through the development of guidance to be developed
by the State Librarian and distributed to public libraries and associ-
ation libraries.

 
SUMMARY OF SPECIFIC PROVISIONS:

  Section  1  would  establish  the  title  of the act as the "Libraries
Literacy Education Guidance Act."

  Section 2 would direct the State Librarian, in consultation  with  the
Commissioner  of  the  State  Education  Department  and any other group
deemed necessary, to provide guidance regarding evidence-based practices
              

for teaching literacy and distribute such guidance to  public  libraries
and  association  libraries  throughout  the  State. The State Librarian
would be  required  to  update  the  guidance  based  on  feedback  from
libraries that have received such guidance.

  Section 3 would set the effective date.

 
DIFFERENCE BETWEEN ORIGNAL AND AMENDED VERSION (IF APPLICABLE):

The  A-print  amendments would remove the establishment of certain defi-
nitions for relevant terms  that  were  previously  established  by  the
Commissioner;  require  the  State Librarian to consult with the Commis-
sioner and any other relevant group deemed necessary for the purpose  of
developing the guidance; include provisions that would base the guidance
on  instructional  best practices established by the Commissioner; limit
the distribution of the guidance to public  and  association  libraries;
provide  the  State Librarian with the discretion to determine the types
of materials provided; remove certain reporting requirements and  incor-
porate  the  consideration  of  feedback  from  public  and  association
libraries into the biennial update of the guidance.

 
JUSTIFICATION:

There is broad consensus among cognitive scientists and reading  experts
about  how  to  best effectively teach literacy. That process emphasizes
the key areas of  reading  -  phonics,  phonemic  awareness,  vocabulary
development, reading fluency, including oral skills, and reading compre-
hension - and employs practices based on the science of reading.

Less than half of New York State third graders met the State's own read-
ing  proficiency  standards based on 2024 exams and the figures for some
cities with high concentrations of poverty are significantly lower.

According to the results of the federal National  Assessment  of  Educa-
tional  Progress  for  2024,  almost seventy percent of New York State's
fourth graders were not reading at grade level. Reading is intrinsic  to
both  personal growth and economic opportunity and illiteracy correlates
with higher rates of poverty,  depression,  and  incarceration.  The  FY
24-25  Enacted  Budget included Article VII language requiring the State
Education  Department  (SED)  to  establish  statewide   standards   for
evidence-based  and scientifically based instructional practices for the
teaching of childhood literacy. This legislation is intended to  comple-
ment  this  initiative  by  promoting the awareness and use of evidence-
based literacy practices and programming for both children and adults in
libraries throughout the State.

 
PRIOR LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:

New bill.

 
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:

To be determined

 
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act would take effect immediately.