Bill Text: NY A06610 | 2023-2024 | General Assembly | Introduced

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Bill Title: Provides grants to nonprofit organizations that provide eligible home reading programs that provide independent reading level books that are individually mailed to the residences of kindergarten through fifth grade students on a weekly basis.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)

Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2024-01-03 - referred to education [A06610 Detail]

Download: New_York-2023-A06610-Introduced.html

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                STATE OF NEW YORK
        ________________________________________________________________________

                                          6610

                               2023-2024 Regular Sessions

                   IN ASSEMBLY

                                     April 24, 2023
                                       ___________

        Introduced  by M. of A. SOLAGES -- read once and referred to the Commit-
          tee on Education

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

          The  People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-
        bly, do enact as follows:

     1    Section 1. If equally matched by participating local  education  agen-
     2  cies,  there  is  allocated from the state's Coronavirus relief funds an
     3  amount not to exceed $500,000 for fiscal year 2024 for grants  to  local
     4  education agencies for an eligible home reading program. Funds allocated
     5  under  this  section  are  grant  funds  and  must be distributed by the
     6  department of education  with  a  focus  on  economically  disadvantaged
     7  households.  A  program  is  eligible  for  these  grant  funds if it is
     8  provided by a nonprofit organization and  meets  all  of  the  following
     9  criteria:
    10    (a)  The  program's objective is to deliver an evidence-based self-se-
    11  lected reading program consisting of  independent  reading  level  books
    12  that  are  individually mailed to the residences of kindergarten through
    13  fifth grade students on a weekly basis.
    14    (b) The program incorporates at least weekly  phone  calls,  texts  or
    15  application  notifications in multiple languages to a parent or guardian
    16  to drive parental and family engagement throughout the duration  of  the
    17  program.
    18    (c)  The  program provides at least six and not more than nine student
    19  selected new books that students get to keep.
    20    (d) The program builds on pedagogical and literacy principles to scaf-
    21  fold fluency to improve reading comprehension with student exercises.
    22    (e) The program includes a customizable portal to generate individual-
    23  ized data reports for analysis of student progress.

         EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
                              [ ] is old law to be omitted.
                                                                   LBD10897-01-3
        A. 6610                             2

     1    (f) The nonprofit organization collects, disaggregates,  and  distrib-
     2  utes  detailed  data  on  all  metrics  of the program, such as parental
     3  engagement, books read and allowable demographic data.
     4    (g)  The  nonprofit organization provides summary data to the legisla-
     5  ture and to the department of education for all students served  by  the
     6  program.
     7    (h)  The nonprofit organization agrees to secure the required district
     8  level matching  funds  and  maintain  auditable  verification  of  their
     9  receipt.
    10    (i)  The combined total cost of the program, including district match-
    11  ing funds does not exceed $50 per student per semester.
    12    § 2. This act shall take effect immediately.