AB321: Bill Text

Under current law, school boards and independent charter schools must annually assess pupils enrolled in four-year-old kindergarten to second grade for reading readiness using an assessment of literacy fundamentals selected by the school board or independent charter school. The selected reading readiness assessment must evaluate whether a pupil possesses phonemic awareness and letter sound knowledge. Current law requires a school board or independent charter school to provide interventions or remedial reading services to a pupil if the reading readiness assessment indicates that the pupil is at risk of reading difficulty with interventions or remedial reading services. Current law does not define “at-risk.”

Beginning in the 2024-25 school year, the bill requires school boards and independent charter schools to assess the early literacy skills of pupils in four-year-old kindergarten to third grade using various assessments and to create a personal reading plan for each pupil in five-year-old kindergarten to third grade who is identified as at-risk based on a universal screening assessment or diagnostic assessment. Under the bill, “at-risk” means the pupil scored below the 25th percentile on an applicable screening assessment, as indicated by the screening assessment publisher.

Fundamental skills screening assessments; four-year-old kindergarten

Under the bill, beginning in the 2024-25 school year, school boards and independent charter schools must screen all pupils enrolled in four-year-old kindergarten at least two times each school year using a fundamental skills screening selected by DPI. The bill specifies that the first screening assessment must occur before the 46th day of the school term and that both screenings be completed by no later than 45 days before the last day of school. The bill defines a “fundamental skills screening assessment” as an assessment that evaluates a pupil’s phonemic awareness and letter sound knowledge.

Universal screening and diagnostic assessments and interventions

Required universal screening assessments

Under the bill, beginning in the 2024-25 school year, school boards and independent charter schools must screen all pupils enrolled in five-year-old kindergarten to third grade at least three times each school year using a universal screening assessment selected by DPI. The bill specifies that the first universal screening must occur before the 46th day of the school term, the second universal screening must occur in the middle of the school term, and the third universal screening must occur no later than 45 days before the last day of school. The bill defines a “universal screening assessment” as an assessment that evaluates a pupil’s skill in phonemic awareness, decoding skills, alphabet knowledge, letter sound knowledge, and oral vocabulary.

Required diagnostic assessments

Under the bill, beginning in the 2024-25 school year, school boards and independent charter schools must screen a pupil enrolled in five-year-old kindergarten to third grade using a diagnostic assessment 1) if the pupil is identified as at-risk based on the first universal screening of the school year, by no later than the second Friday in November; 2) if the pupil is identified as at-risk based on the second universal screening of the school year, within 10 days after the universal screening was administered; and 3) if a teacher or parent suspects the pupil has characteristics of dyslexia and submits a request for a diagnostic assessment, within 20 days of submitting the request. The bill defines a “diagnostic assessment” as a tool that includes an assessment that evaluates a pupil’s skill in the skills assessed in a universal screening assessment as well as rapid naming, phonological awareness, word recognition, spelling, vocabulary, listening comprehension, and when developmentally appropriate, oral reading fluency and reading comprehension, and provides the pupil’s parent the opportunity to complete a family history survey about learning difficulties in the pupil’s family. If a pupil is identified as at-risk based on a diagnostic assessment, the bill requires the school board or independent charter school to provide information to the pupil’s parent about how to make a special education referral.

Personal reading plan; at-risk pupils

If a pupil is identified as at-risk based on a universal screening assessment or a diagnostic assessment, the bill requires the school board or independent charter school to create a personal reading plan for the pupil. Under the bill, a personal reading plan must include various components related to addressing the pupil’s specific early literacy deficiencies, including interventions that will be provided to the pupil, how the pupil’s progress will be monitored, and strategies the pupil’s parent is encouraged to use to help the pupil achieve grade-level literacy skills. The bill further requires the school board or independent charter school to 1) provide the interventions included in the personal reading plan to the pupil, as soon as practicable; 2) monitor the pupil’s progress at least weekly; 3) provide a copy of the personal reading plan to the pupil’s parent; 4) obtain a copy of the reading plan signed by the pupil’s parent; and 5) after 10 weeks of providing the interventions required in the personal reading plan, notify the pupil’s parent of the pupil’s progress.

Selected and approved early literacy assessments

Under the bill, by July 15, 2024, DPI must select a fundamental skills screening assessment, select a universal screening assessment, and establish and maintain a list of approved diagnostic assessments on its website. DPI must also submit a list of the selected and approved assessments to the appropriate standing committees of the legislature. Under the bill, DPI may only approve an early literacy assessment if the assessment has a sensitivity rate of at least 70 percent, has a specificity rate of at least 80 percent, and includes a growth measure.

State funding for early literacy assessments

Under the bill, DPI must pay each school board and independent charter school for the per pupil cost of each early literacy assessment required to be administered under the bill. However, beginning in the 2025-26 school year, a school board or independent charter school is eligible for the state funding provided in the bill only if the school board or independent charter school submits an annual report to DPI and in that report indicates that the school board or charter school used only selected or approved early literacy assessments in the previous school year. Under current law, DPI pays school boards and independent charter schools for the per pupil cost of the reading readiness assessment selected by the school board or independent charter school.

Parent notification requirements

Under the bill, a school board or independent charter school must provide a pupil’s results on an early literacy assessment to the pupil’s parent by no later than 15 days after the applicable assessment is scored. The results provided to the parent must be in the parent’s native language and must include the pupil’s overall score, the pupil’s score on each literacy skill category assessed by the assessment, the pupil’s percentile rank score, if available, the score on the assessment that indicates a pupil is at-risk, and a plain language explanation of the literacy skills that were evaluated by the assessment. In addition, if a school board or independent charter school is required to screen a pupil using a diagnostic assessment, the school board or independent charter school must provide the pupil’s parent with information related to characteristics of dyslexia, including information about the common indicators of characteristics of dyslexia and appropriate interventions and accommodations for pupils with characteristics of dyslexia.

The bill also requires each school board and independent charter school to have an early literacy remediation plan. An early literacy remediation plan must include information about assessments used to identify at-risk pupils, the interventions used to address characteristics of dyslexia, and monitoring pupil progress related to early literacy skills. Under the bill, each school district and independent charter school must post its early literacy remediation plan on its website.

Under current law, a school board or independent charter school must report the results of a reading readiness assessment to a pupil’s parent. Current law does not provide a deadline by which the reading readiness results must be provided to parents.

Reporting requirements

Under the bill, school boards and independent charter schools must annually, by July 15, report to DPI 1) the number of pupils who were identified as at-risk based on early literacy assessments administered in the previous school year; 2) the number of five-year-old kindergarten to third grade pupils who began receiving literacy interventions or remedial reading services in the previous school year, by grade; 3) the total number of five-year-old kindergarten to third grade pupils who received literacy interventions or remedial reading services in the previous school year; 4) the number of five-year-old kindergarten to third grade pupils who exited literacy interventions in the previous school year; and 5) the number of pupils for whom a special education referral was made based on the results of a diagnostic assessment. The school board or independent charter school must also report the names of the diagnostic assessments the school board or independent charter school used to assess pupils in the previous school year. Annually, by November 30, DPI must compile the information it receives from school boards and independent charter schools and submit a report to the legislature.

Enforcement

The bill allows the parent or guardian of a pupil enrolled in four-year-old kindergarten to third grade in a school district or independent charter school to file a complaint with DPI if the parent or guardian believes that the school board or independent charter school operator is not in compliance with requirements in the bill. Under the bill, DPI must issue a determination on whether the school board or independent charter school is in compliance and, if the school board or independent charter school is not in compliance, describe the actions that must be taken for the school board or independent charter school to be in compliance with the applicable requirements. If a school board or independent charter school continues to fail to comply with the requirements in the bill, the bill allows an individual who filed a complaint with DPI to bring an action in circuit court to compel the school board or independent charter school to comply with the requirements created in the bill.

For further information see the state and local fiscal estimate, which will be printed as an appendix to this bill.

AB321,,4 The people of the state of Wisconsin, represented in senate and assembly, do enact as follows:

AB321,1 Section 1. 15.01 (6) of the statutes is amended to read:

AB321,,6 15.01 (6) “Division,” “bureau,” “section,” and “unit” means the subunits of a department or an independent agency, whether specifically created by law or created by the head of the department or the independent agency for the more economic and efficient administration and operation of the programs assigned to the department or independent agency. The office of credit unions in the department of financial institutions, the office of the inspector general in the department of children and families, the office of the inspector general in the department of health services, and the office of children’s mental health in the department of health services have the meaning of “division” under this subsection. The office of the long-term care ombudsman under the board on aging and long-term care and the office of educational accountability and the office of literacy in the department of public instruction have the meaning of “bureau” under this subsection.

AB321,2 Section 2. 15.374 (2) of the statutes is created to read:

AB321,,8 15.374 (2) Office of literacy. There is created an office of literacy, to be known as the Wisconsin Reading Center, in the department of public instruction. The director of the office shall be nominated by the state superintendent of public instruction after consultation with the council on early literacy curricula, and with the advice and consent of the senate appointed, to serve at the pleasure of the state superintendent of public instruction.

AB321,3 Section 3. 15.374 (2) of the statutes, as created by 2023 Wisconsin Act .... (this act), is repealed.

AB321,4 Section 4. 15.377 (9) of the statutes is created to read:

AB321,,11 15.377 (9) Council on early literacy curricula. (a) There is created in the department of public instruction a council on early literacy curricula composed of 9 members who have knowledge of or experience with science-based early literacy instruction, as defined in s. 118.015 (1c) (b), and literacy curricula for pupils in grades kindergarten to 3. The members of the council shall be appointed for staggered 3-year terms, as follows:.

AB321,,12 1. Three members appointed by the speaker of the assembly.

AB321,,13 2. Three members appointed by the senate majority leader.

AB321,,14 3. Three members appointed by the state superintendent of public instruction.

AB321,,15 (b) An individual may not serve as a member of the council under this subsection if any of the following applies:

AB321,,16 1. The individual has a financial interest in an entity that develops, sells, or markets a product to assess reading ability.

AB321,,17 2. The individual has a financial interest in an entity that develops, sells, or markets a product specifically intended to be used to teach reading.

AB321,,18 3. The individual has a financial interest in an entity that develops, sells, or markets a product to treat reading difficulties.

AB321,,19 (c) For purposes of par. (b), “financial interest in an entity” includes all of the following:

AB321,,20 1. A direct or indirect ownership interest in the entity.

AB321,,21 2. Receiving income from the entity during the 12 months preceding the consideration for appointment under par. (a).

AB321,5 Section 5. 115.28 (7) (a) of the statutes is amended to read:

AB321,,23 115.28 (7) (a) License all teachers for the public schools of the state; make rules establishing standards of attainment and procedures for the examination and licensing of teachers within the limits prescribed in ss. 118.19 (2) and (3), 118.191, 118.1915, 118.192, 118.193, 118.194, 118.195, and 118.197; prescribe by rule standards, requirements, and procedures for the approval of teacher preparatory programs leading to licensure, including a requirement that, to be approved by the state superintendent, a teacher preparatory program shall demonstrate that it provides instruction that prepares teachers to teach reading and language arts using science-based early reading instruction, as defined in s. 118.015 (1c) (b), and does not provide instruction on teaching reading and language arts that incorporates 3-cueing, as defined in s. 118.015 (1c) (c), and a requirement that, beginning on July 1, 2012, and annually thereafter, each teacher preparatory program located in this state shall submit to the department a list of individuals who have completed the program and who have been recommended by the program for licensure under this subsection, together with each individual’s date of program completion, from each term or semester of the program’s most recently completed academic year; file in the state superintendent’s office all papers relating to state teachers’ licenses; and register each such license.

AB321,6 Section 6. 115.38 (1) (a) of the statutes is amended to read:

AB321,,25 115.38 (1) (a) Indicators of academic achievement, including the performance of pupils on the tests administered under s. 121.02 (1) (r), the performance of pupils on assessments required under s. 118.016 (3), and the performance of pupils, by subject area, on the statewide assessment examinations administered under s. 118.30.

AB321,7 Section 7. 115.385 (1) (e) of the statutes is created to read:

AB321,,27 115.385 (1) (e) For a school district other than a union high school district and for each school that offers grade 3 in that school district, the number and percentage of pupils who scored in the lowest proficiency category on the standardized reading test administered under s. 121.02 (1) (r).

AB321,8 Section 8. 115.39 of the statutes is created to read:

AB321,,29 115.39 Literacy coaching program. (1) Definitions. In this section:

AB321,,30 (a) “CESA region” means the geographic territory within the boundaries of a cooperative educational service agency.

AB321,,31 (b) “Eligible school” means any of the following that does not provide instruction that incorporates 3-cueing, as defined in s. 118.015 (1c) (c), in the core reading curriculum for grades kindergarten to 3:

AB321,,32 1. A public school, including a charter school established under s. 118.40 (2r) or (2x).

AB321,,33 2. A private school participating in a program under s. 118.60 or 119.23.

AB321,,34 (c) “Office” means the office of literacy in the department.

AB321,,35 (2) Literacy coaching program. The office shall establish and supervise an early literacy coaching program to improve literacy outcomes in this state. As part of the early literacy coaching program established under this subsection, the office shall, in consultation with cooperative educational service agencies, do all of the following:

AB321,,36 (a) Contract with individuals who demonstrate knowledge and expertise in science-based early literacy instruction and instructional practices, and have instructional experience in grades kindergarten to 12 to serve as literacy coaches. The office may not contract for more than 64 full-time equivalent positions under this paragraph.

AB321,,37 (b) Provide ongoing training on science-based early literacy instruction and instructional practices and supervision to individuals with whom the office contracts under par. (a).

AB321,,38 (c) Prohibit literacy coaches from using or promoting instruction that includes 3-cueing, as defined in s. 118.015 (1c) (c).

AB321,,39 (3) Participation; schools and school districts. (a) The office shall assign one-half of the number of literacy coaches under sub. (2) (a) as follows:

AB321,,40 1. Based on scores of the standardized reading test administered to pupils during the prior school year under s. 121.02 (1) (r), the office shall identify the 50 eligible schools that had the lowest percentage of pupils score as proficient in reading at grade level and the 50 eligible schools that had the largest gap in pupils who scored as proficient in reading at grade level.

AB321,,41 2. a. Subject to par. (c) and subd. 2. b., from the eligible schools identified under subd. 1., the office shall select the eligible schools that the office determines have the greatest need for early literacy instructional coaching and shall assign at least one but no more than 3 eligible schools selected under this subdivision to each full-time equivalent literacy coach.

AB321,,42 b. From the eligible schools identified under subd. 1., the office shall select at least two eligible schools that are private schools participating in a program under s. 118.60 or 119.23.

AB321,,43 (b) The office shall assign one-half of the number of literacy coaches under sub. (2) (a), in consultation with cooperative educational service agencies, to eligible schools that request early literacy support. The office shall assign literacy coaches under this paragraph in a manner that allocates the literacy coaches evenly across CESA regions.

AB321,,44 (c) 1. The total number of full-time equivalent literacy coaches assigned under pars. (a) and (b) to eligible schools located within the geographical boundaries of a school district may not exceed the following:

AB321,,45 a. For a first class city school district, 10.

AB321,,46 b. For a school district other than a first class city school district, 4.

AB321,,47 2. The total number of full-time equivalent literacy coaches assigned under pars. (a) and (b) to eligible schools located within a CESA region may not be fewer than 3.

AB321,,48 (d) The office shall ensure that a school assigned a literacy coach under par. (a) or (b) does not request or require that the literacy coach perform duties outside the individual’s role as a literacy coach. For purposes of this paragraph, the role of a literacy coach is to provide support to administrators, school-based literacy coaches, principals, and teachers to build teacher and school capacity to teach reading and language arts using science-based early reading instruction, as defined in s. 118.015 (1c) (b), in order to increase the percentage of pupils who are reading at grade level by the end of grade 3.

AB321,,49 (4) Report. By October 15, 2024, and by each October 15 thereafter, the office shall submit a report to the joint committee on finance that includes at least all of the following for the previous school year:

AB321,,50 (a) The number of literacy coaches assigned to schools under sub. (3) (a) and (b).

AB321,,51 (b) The number of schools that were assigned a literacy coach under sub. (3) (a) and the number of schools that were assigned a literacy coach under sub. (3) (b).

AB321,,52 (c) The number of contracts that the office entered into under sub. (2) (a) and the number of contracts under sub. (2) (a) that were terminated.

AB321,,53 (d) The number of requests submitted for a literacy coach under sub. (3) (b).

AB321,,54 (e) The results of the standardized reading test administered under s. 121.02 (1) (r) and assessments under s. 118.016 in schools that were assigned a literacy coach under sub. (3) (a) or (b).

AB321,,55 (f) A description of the training provided under sub. (2) (b).

AB321,,56 (g) For the 2023-24 and 2024-25 school years, the number of individuals who completed the mandatory professional development training under 2023 Wisconsin Act .... (this act), section 27 (2).

AB321,9 Section 9. 115.39 of the statutes, as created by 2023 Wisconsin Act .... (this act), is repealed.

AB321,10 Section 10. 118.015 (title) of the statutes is amended to read:

AB321,,59 118.015 (title) Reading instruction; early literacy curricula and instructional materials.

AB321,11 Section 11. 118.015 (1c) of the statutes is created to read:

AB321,,61 118.015 (1c) Definitions. In this section:

AB321,,62 (a) “Phonics” means the study of the relationships between sounds and words; this includes alphabetic principle, decoding, orthographic knowledge, encoding, and fluency.

AB321,,63 (b) “Science-based early reading instruction” means instruction that is systematic and explicit and consists of at least all of the following:

AB321,,64 1. Phonological awareness, including word awareness, rhyme recognition, repetition and creation of alliteration, syllable counting or identification, onset, and rime manipulation.

AB321,,65 2. Phonemic awareness, including phoneme identification, isolation, blending, segmentation, addition, substitution, and deletion.

AB321,,66 3. Phonics.