Districts could compete for grants to support school reading specialists

Eligible schools and education groups could compete for federal grants. School districts and state-district partnerships could apply, along with Bureau of Indian Education schools and certain federally supported tribal schools. Colleges would need a state education agency or school district partner. Nonprofits would need that partner and expertise in structured literacy approaches, reading intervention, or specific learning disabilities. Applicants would need to document lasting shortages of reading specialists or full-time specialists. Each grant would last five years.

Recipients could use grants to hire, train, and keep reading specialists, including through higher pay. The money would support specialists at elementary and secondary schools. Specialists paid even partly with grant money would spend at least 80% of their time in that job working with teachers and students to improve reading and writing. These rules would not limit the use or preservation of Native American languages.

Applicants in the bottom half of states for reading proficiency would get first priority. Rankings would use the share of fourth- and eighth-graders scoring at or above proficient on the latest available national reading assessments. Next would come plans mainly serving elementary schools, followed by federally defined high-need districts and state partnerships with groups of those districts. Each later priority would apply only once earlier priorities are met or no applicants fall within them.