§182. Student reading skills; requirements; reports

A. Effective beginning with the 1997-1998 school year, each governing authority of a public elementary school shall implement a reading program at each elementary school that is designed and intended to teach each student to read at grade level by not later than the end of the first grade. The reading program provided for by this Section shall include but need not be limited to a phonics component.

B.(1) Not later than thirty days after the beginning of each school year, each second grade student and each third grade student shall be administered a literacy screener to identify the number of students who read below, at, and above grade level. Students scoring above grade level shall be considered for evaluation into a gifted program. Students scoring below grade level shall be considered for additional resources.

(2) Not later than forty-five days after the beginning of the school year, a literacy screening report describing the number of students who read below, at, and above grade level shall be sent simultaneously by each teacher to the principal of the school and to the system superintendent. The report shall also include the number of children who were referred to gifted evaluation as a result of their screening results.

(3) Not later than sixty days after the beginning of each school year, the information required to be submitted pursuant to Paragraph (2) of this Subsection shall be forwarded by each system superintendent to the state superintendent of education and to the State Board of Elementary and Secondary Education.

(4) Not later than ninety days after the beginning of each school year, the State Board of Elementary and Secondary Education shall compile and submit a report to the House Committee on Education and to the Senate Committee on Education showing for each public elementary school, for each school system, and for the state as a whole the number of students in second or third grades in public elementary schools who cannot read at grade level as determined pursuant to the provisions of this Section. The data for each school, for each school system, and for the state as a whole shall be reported in the school progress profiles provided for by R.S. 17:3911 and 3912.

(5) In times of crisis or natural disaster, the state Department of Education may extend deadlines for administration and reporting results of the screening instruments required by this Subsection.

C. The State Board of Elementary and Secondary Education and each governing authority of a public elementary school shall adopt rules and regulations necessary to implement the provisions of this Section.

Acts 1997, No. 450, §1, eff. June 22, 1997; Acts 2018, No. 688, §1.