G.S. 115C-83.5 — Read to Achieve

Plain English summary

Every child entering kindergarten must receive a developmental screening within 30 days and a full kindergarten entry assessment within 60 days of starting school. The assessment covers five areas of school readiness—including language and literacy—and must work for all children, including those with disabilities and English language learners. Results must be used to guide each child's instruction and stored in a statewide longitudinal database.

Key requirements

• Developmental screening of early language, literacy, and math skills must be administered within 30 days of kindergarten enrollment (G.S. 115C-83.5(a))
• Kindergarten entry assessment must be completed within 60 days of enrollment (G.S. 115C-83.5(b))
• Assessment must address five essential domains: language and literacy development, cognition and general knowledge, approaches toward learning, physical well-being and motor development, and social and emotional development (G.S. 115C-83.5(d))
• Assessment must yield both qualitative and quantitative data in each domain (G.S. 115C-83.5(d))
• Data must populate relevant fields in a longitudinal database (G.S. 115C-83.5(d))
• Language and literacy component may be used as a formative and diagnostic reading assessment as provided in G.S. 115C-83.6 (G.S. 115C-83.5(d))
• Assessment must be administered at the classroom level in all local school administrative units (G.S. 115C-83.5(e))
• Assessment must be aligned to North Carolina's early learning and development standards and to the standard course of study (G.S. 115C-83.5(e))
• Assessment must be reliable, valid, and appropriate for use with all children, including those with disabilities and English language learners (G.S. 115C-83.5(e))
• Results must be used to inform instruction of each child, status of children's learning at kindergarten entry, efforts to reduce the achievement gap, and continuous improvement of the early childhood system (G.S. 115C-83.5(f))

Affected parties

• State Board of Education (must ensure compliance)
• All local school administrative units (must administer assessments at classroom level)
• All students entering kindergarten (required to receive screening and assessment)
• Students with disabilities (explicitly must be included with appropriate assessment)
• English language learners (explicitly must be included with appropriate assessment)
• Classroom teachers (responsible for administering assessments)
• Parents of kindergarten students (children are subject to mandated screening and assessment)

Advocacy note

The language and literacy component of the kindergarten entry assessment is explicitly authorized to serve double duty as a formative and diagnostic reading assessment under G.S. 115C-83.6 — meaning a child's very first school assessment can and should feed directly into the Read to Achieve diagnostic and intervention process, creating an early identification pipeline for struggling readers including those at risk for dyslexia.

Official source

https://www.ncleg.gov/EnactedLegislation/Statutes/PDF/BySection/Chapter_115C/GS_115C-83.5.pdf