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.