BILL REQ. #: H-2215.1
| State of Washington | 59th Legislature | 2005 Regular Session |
READ FIRST TIME 03/07/05.
AN ACT Relating to reading readiness; adding a new section to chapter 28A.300 RCW; and creating a new section.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:
NEW SECTION. Sec. 1 The legislature finds that teaching a child
to read early and well will open doors of learning and wonder that will
benefit the child throughout life. As Graham Greene said, "There is
always one moment in childhood when the door opens and lets the future
in." For the Kennewick school district, that quote captured the vision
of its community for all its students. "Every day some children, for
the first time in their whole lives, see the door crack open. Beyond
is a brilliant world. It is not the world they feel and smell and hear
and touch. It is a symbolic world which they can share with the best
storytellers, generals, athletes, and poets, with the best scientists,
mathematicians, and historians of the past three millennia."
The legislature finds that reading is also a gateway skill that
opens doors for children to learn other important subjects such as
math, science, literature, and social studies. It is a skill that is
relied upon for about eighty-five percent of all educational
instruction. The legislature finds that while about forty percent of
children learn to read easily, another forty percent need significantly
more help and the remaining twenty percent of children need intensive
and sustained assistance. Yet, research shows that if children do not
learn to read well by the third grade, they are at risk of becoming
academic failures and school dropouts.
The legislature finds that a child's early learning and literacy
skills are highly dependent on the positive involvement of parents and
other caring adults, especially before the children enroll in
kindergarten. Some children enter kindergarten as fluent readers while
others have the reading readiness skills of typical three year olds.
These variations lead to reading readiness gaps among students, gaps
that tend to persist as achievement gaps throughout the children's
educational careers. The legislature finds that parental or other
adult involvement in a child's life is essential and that parents and
other adults can help eliminate the reading readiness gap by reading to
their children for twenty minutes a day.
NEW SECTION. Sec. 2 A new section is added to chapter 28A.300
RCW to read as follows:
The "ready to read" community assistance program is established in
the office of the superintendent of public instruction. The purpose of
the program is to encourage local public-private partnerships that
enhance preliteracy and reading readiness efforts and respect other
cultures. The responsibilities of the program shall include but need
not be limited to:
(1) The preparation and dissemination of one or more models to
stimulate community support for preliteracy foundations that provide
parents and other adults with research-based information, fun learning
activities, interactive materials, and simple ideas that they can
choose to use to maximize their children's early learning years;
(2) The stimulation of community efforts to introduce parents of
newborn children to the importance of reading to their children and
other preliteracy activities and to actively recruit other parents and
significant adults who represent the local community in all areas of
these efforts; and
(3) The stimulation of efforts to educate parents and guardians of
preschool age children about child development and literacy.