Governor Fallin has signed into law a bill that clarifies the process for exempting certain children from the requirement that all third grade students read at grade level or face retention under a law ending social promotion.
House Bill 2516, by Rep. Sally Kern, amends the Reading Sufficiency Act to require clear documentation of the need for an exemption and makes administrators explicitly responsible for justifying those decisions.
“This legislation establishes accountability for those administrators making the decision to exempt certain students from the social-promotion law,” said Kern, R-Oklahoma City. “The whole point of the social-promotion law is to ensure that our children can read by the time they reach the fourth grade. We are not doing our children any favors if exemptions are being approved without a clear, justifiable reason.”
House Bill 2516 will be effective July 1.
