2021 - 2022 LEGISLATURE
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2021 SENATE BILL 454
July 21, 2021 - Introduced by Senators BERNIER, DARLING, FELZKOWSKI, JACQUE and
WANGGAARD, cosponsored by Representatives KITCHENS, THIESFELDT, ALLEN,
ARMSTRONG, BRANDTJEN, CABRAL-GUEVARA, DITTRICH, JAMES, KNODL, MURSAU,
ROZAR, SCHRAA, SNYDER, TUSLER, WICHGERS and SUMMERFIELD. Referred to
Committee on Education.
1 AN ACT to amend 115.38 (1) (a) and 121.02 (1) (c) 3.; to repeal and recreate
2 118.016; and to create 119.44 (2) (bm) of the statutes; relating to: reading
3 readiness assessments and granting rule-making authority.
Analysis by the Legislative Reference Bureau
This bill replaces the current reading readiness assessment program with a
three-tiered early literacy screening program.
SCREENING ASSESSMENTS AND INTERVENTIONS
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.”
This bill requires school boards and independent charter schools to assess the
early literacy skill of pupils in four-year-old-kindergarten to second grade using
various screening assessments and to create a personal reading plan for each pupil
in five-year-old kindergarten to second grade who is identified as at-risk based on
a universal screening assessment or a level 1 screening 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.
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SENATE BILL 454
FUNDAMENTAL SKILLS SCREENING ASSESSMENTS; FOUR-YEAR-OLD KINDERGARTEN
Under the bill, 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 assessment. The bill specifies that the first
screening 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.
TIER 1 – UNIVERSAL EARLY LEARNING SCREENING ASSESSMENTS AND INTERVENTIONS
Required universal screening assessments
Under the bill, school boards and independent charter schools must screen all
pupils enrolled in five-year-old kindergarten to second grade at least three times
each school year using a universal screening assessment. 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, rapid naming skills, alphabet
knowledge, and letter sound knowledge.
Personal reading plan; at-risk pupils
If a pupil is identified as at-risk based on a universal screening 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
12 weeks of providing the interventions required in the personal reading plan, notify
the pupil's parent of the pupil's progress.
TIER II – LEVEL 1 SCREENING ASSESSMENTS AND INTERVENTIONS
Required level 1 screening assessments
Under the bill, school boards and independent charter schools must screen a
pupil enrolled in five-year-old kindergarten to second grade using a level 1
screening assessment within 20 days of both of the following having occurred: 1) the
pupil being identified as at risk on a universal screening assessment and 2) the pupil
demonstrating an inadequate rate of progress in the pupil's early literacy skills after
12 weeks of receiving interventions outlined in the pupil's personal reading plan. A
school board or independent charter school must also screen a pupil using a level 1
screening assessment within 20 days of a request by a teacher or parent who suspects
that the pupil has characteristics of dyslexia. The bill defines a “level 1 screening
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SENATE BILL 454
assessment” as a screening tool that evaluates a pupil's skill in the skills assessed
in a universal screening assessment as well as phonological awareness and encoding,
and provides the pupil's parent the opportunity to complete a family history survey
about learning difficulties in the pupil's family.
Personal reading plan after a level 1 screening assessment
If a pupil is identified as at-risk based on a level 1 screening assessment, the
bill requires the school board or independent charter school to modify the personal
reading plan for the pupil. Under the bill, the modified personal reading plan must
include the same components as a personal reading plan based on a universal
screening assessment, except the modified personal reading plan must be created to
address the specific early literacy deficiencies identified by the level 1 screening
assessment and must include intensive interventions to address those early literacy
deficiencies. Under the bill, an “intensive intervention” is an intervention that
includes instruction that 1) is explicit, direct, systematic, sequential, and cumulative
and follows a logical plan of presenting the alphabetic principle that targets the
specific needs of the pupil without presuming prior skills or knowledge of the pupil;
2) is individualized to meet the specific needs of a pupil in a setting that uses
intensive, highly concentrated instruction methods and materials that maximize
pupil engagement; and 3) incorporates the simultaneous use of two or more sensory
pathways during teacher presentations and pupil practice. A school board or
independent charter school must provide the intensive interventions included in the
personal reading plan to the pupil, as soon as practicable, and again monitor the
pupil's progress at least weekly, provide a copy of the personal reading plan to the
pupil's parent, obtain a copy of the reading plan signed by the pupil's parent, and
notify the pupil's parent of the pupil's progress after 12 weeks of providing
interventions under this personal reading plan.
TIER III – LEVEL 2 SCREENING ASSESSMENTS
Required level 2 screening assessments
Under the bill, school boards and independent charter schools must screen a
pupil enrolled in five-year-old kindergarten to second grade using a level 2
screening assessment within 20 days of both of the following having occurred: 1) the
pupil being identified as at risk on a level 1 screening assessment and 2) the pupil
demonstrating an inadequate rate of progress in the pupil's early literacy skills after
12 weeks of receiving intensive interventions outlined in the pupil's personal reading
plan, described above. A school board or independent charter school must also assess
a pupil's early literacy skills using a level 2 screening assessment within 20 days of
a request by a teacher or parent who suspects that the pupil has characteristics of
dyslexia. The bill defines a “level 2 screening assessment” as a screening tool that
evaluates a pupil's skill in the skills assessed in a universal screening assessment
as well as phonological awareness, word recognition, fluency, spelling, reading
comprehension, and listening 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 level 2 screening
assessment, the bill requires the school board or independent charter school to
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SENATE BILL 454
provide information to the pupil's parent about how to make a special education
referral.
APPROVED READING READINESS SCREENING ASSESSMENTS
Under the bill, by July 15, 2022, the Department of Public Instruction must
establish and maintain lists of approved fundamental skills screening assessments,
universal screening assessments, level 1 screening assessments, and level 2
screening assessments (collectively, reading readiness screening assessments) on its
Internet site. DPI must also submit these lists to the appropriate standing
committees of the legislature. During the 2022-23 and 2023-24 school years, DPI
must include specific assessments on its list of approved fundamental skills
screening assessments and specific assessments on its list of approved universal
screening assessments. On the list of approved fundamental skills screening
assessments, DPI must include the Phonological Awareness Literacy Screening
(PALS), the Predictive Assessment of Reading (PAR), and Acadience's Preschool
Early Literacy Indicators (PELI). On the list of approved universal screening
assessments, DPI must include the Dynamics Indicators of Basic Early Literacy
Skills 8th edition, commonly known as DIBELS 8th edition; the Acadience reading
assessment; FastBridge reading assessments; and the Renaissance Star Early
Literacy assessment.
STATE FUNDING FOR READING READINESS SCREENING ASSESSMENTS
Under the bill, DPI must pay each school board and independent charter school
for the per pupil cost of each reading readiness screening assessment required to be
administered under the bill. However, beginning in the 2023-24 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
approved reading readiness screening 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 a reading readiness screening 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 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 level 1 or level 2 screening 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.
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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 screening 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
Internet site.
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 a reading readiness screening assessment administered in the previous school
year; 2) the number of five-year-old kindergarten to second grade pupils who began
receiving literacy interventions or remedial reading services in the previous school
year, by grade; and 3) the total number of five-year-old kindergarten to second grade
pupils who received literacy interventions or remedial reading services in the
previous school year. The school board or independent charter school must also
report the names of the specific reading readiness screening assessments the school
board or independent charter school used to screen pupils, as required under the bill,
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.
For further information see the state and local fiscal estimate, which will be
printed as an appendix to this bill.
The people of the state of Wisconsin, represented in senate and assembly, do
enact as follows:
1 SECTION 1. 115.38 (1) (a) of the statutes is amended to read:
2 115.38 (1) (a) Indicators of academic achievement, including the performance
3 of pupils on the tests administered under s. 121.02 (1) (r), the performance of pupils
4 on screening assessments required under s. 118.016 (3), and the performance of
5 pupils, by subject area, on the statewide assessment examinations administered
6 under s. 118.30.
7 SECTION 2. 118.016 of the statutes is repealed and recreated to read:
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SENATE BILL 454 SECTION 2
1 118.016 Reading readiness screening assessments; characteristics of
2 dyslexia. (1) DEFINITIONS. In this section:
3 (a) “At-risk” means a pupil scored below the 25th percentile on a universal
4 screening assessment, a level 1 screening assessment, or a level 2 screening
5 assessment, as indicated by the publisher of the screening assessment.
6 (b) “Dyslexia” means a specific learning disability that is all of the following:
7 1. Neurobiological in origin.
8 2. Characterized by difficulties with accurate and fluent word recognition and
9 poor spelling and decoding abilities that typically result from a deficit in the
10 phonological component of language. Consequences of these difficulties may include
11 problems in reading comprehension and reduced reading experience that may
12 impede vocabulary growth and background knowledge.
13 3. Often unexpected in relation to other cognitive abilities.
14 (c) “Family history survey” means a questionnaire that includes questions
15 about previous recommendations for summer reading support or outside tutoring,
16 general interest in reading and books, family history of characteristics of dyslexia,
17 and any known family struggles in reading or spelling.
18 (d) “Fidelity” means to perform in the manner that the author or publisher of
19 a program or screening assessment intends.
20 (e) “Fundamental skills screening assessment” means an assessment that
21 evaluates whether a pupil possesses phonemic awareness and letter sound
22 knowledge.
23 (f) “Inadequate rate of progress” means a rate of improvement that is minimal
24 and that with continued intervention the pupil is unlikely to demonstrate
25 grade-level skills by the end of the school year.
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