SENATE DOCKET, NO. 1764        FILED ON: 1/18/2019

SENATE  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  No. 266

 

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts

_________________

PRESENTED BY:

Sal N. DiDomenico

_________________

To the Honorable Senate and House of Representatives of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in General
Court assembled:

The undersigned legislators and/or citizens respectfully petition for the adoption of the accompanying bill:

An Act to improve literacy skills.

_______________

PETITION OF:

 

Name:

District/Address:

 

Sal N. DiDomenico

Middlesex and Suffolk

 

Michael F. Rush

Norfolk and Suffolk

1/25/2019

Daniel J. Hunt

13th Suffolk

1/29/2019

Mathew J. Muratore

1st Plymouth

1/30/2019

William N. Brownsberger

Second Suffolk and Middlesex

1/31/2019

Viriato M. deMacedo

Plymouth and Barnstable

1/31/2019

Patrick M. O'Connor

Plymouth and Norfolk

1/31/2019

Kay Khan

11th Middlesex

1/31/2019

James B. Eldridge

Middlesex and Worcester

1/31/2019

Michael O. Moore

Second Worcester

1/31/2019

Bruce E. Tarr

First Essex and Middlesex

1/31/2019

Diana DiZoglio

First Essex

2/1/2019

Mike Connolly

26th Middlesex

2/1/2019

Julian Cyr

Cape and Islands

2/8/2019

Dean A. Tran

Worcester and Middlesex

3/7/2019

David Biele

4th Suffolk

3/7/2019


SENATE DOCKET, NO. 1764        FILED ON: 1/18/2019

SENATE  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  No. 266

By Mr. DiDomenico, a petition (accompanied by bill, Senate, No. 266) of Sal N. DiDomenico, Michael F. Rush, Daniel J. Hunt, Mathew J. Muratore and other members of the General Court for legislation to improve literacy skills.  Education.

 

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts

 

_______________

In the One Hundred and Ninety-First General Court
(2019-2020)

_______________

 

An Act to improve literacy skills.

 

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:
 

SECTION 1. Chapter 15 of the General Laws, as appearing in the 2016 Official Edition, is hereby amended by inserting after Section 52, the following section:-

Section 52A. The Board shall establish, subject to appropriation, an elementary school literacy grant program. Grants shall be awarded to districts for individual schools to improve literacy outcomes for both general education and special education populations. The amount of grants shall be based on a sliding scale to be determined by the department, based on the district’s percentage of students categorized as economically disadvantaged. Grants shall be awarded for the following:

(a) Intensive school wide literacy coaching and professional development. Grants under this category may not continue for a period exceeding four years.  

(b) K-3 literacy interventions for the most at-risk students, as defined by district benchmarks. Such grants shall be awarded for intensive literacy intervention training, coaching, professional development, and literacy specialists. Literacy intervention grants may be ongoing.

Grants awarded pursuant to subsections (a) and (b) may be for efforts in conjunction with or separate from each other. Program participants shall be required to report their results to the department, which shall publish the results online. Renewal of grants shall be contingent on scientifically documented efficacy of programs.