The Joint Education Committee heard extended testimony and public comment on a draft reading-assessment and intervention bill and related proposals Tuesday, with parents, literacy advocates, university faculty and state officials urging a more prescriptive, funded statewide literacy effort.

Testimony revealed broad agreement that Wyoming needs more consistent, evidence-based early-literacy practice and sustained state-level support — but disagreement over how prescriptive statute should be. Lawmakers asked the Department of Education and stakeholders to form a working group and approved a separate effort to fund a literacy function within WDE.

Tanya Heitrich of LSO summarized draft 26LSO-0092 (working draft 6), an education-readiness and intervention bill that would expand literacy screening, require district improvement plans and create a literacy division at the Department of Education with a placeholder appropriation. Heitrich flagged drafting choices for the committee, including whether screening should be K–12 or focused on earlier grades and whether the state superintendent should “license” or employ literacy specialists.

Multiple advocacy groups and educators told the committee the draft should be stronger. Representative Linda Jarvis (literacy specialist and curriculum director) and members of the Wyoming Right to Read coalition argued the committee should adopt a more comprehensive bill that sets clearer screening, diagnostic and intervention requirements, funds a permanent literacy capacity inside WDE, and specifies evidence-based programs and teacher preparation standards.

Gaye Wilson, a former reading specialist and member of the advocacy coalition, said Wyoming is now the only state without a literacy team after a federal Comprehensive Literacy State Development (CLSD) grant was not renewed; she urged the Legislature to fund a permanent state literacy department. “When a student graduates reading at a second-grade level,” she said, “we are not handing them a diploma. We are handing them a lifetime of barriers.”

University of Wyoming faculty outlined teacher-preparation work and said their elementary programs teach components that closely match the internationally recognized literacy standards but cautioned that some terms (for example, the trademarked phrase “structured literacy”) have different meanings for different stakeholders. UW affirmed it provides professional development statewide and is prepared to collaborate on standards and teacher training.

The Professional Teaching Standards Board told the committee it reviews teacher-preparation standards and is convening a group to align assessment frameworks; it noted Praxis testing will be regenerated nationally and that Wyoming’s licensure and evaluation must align with adopted standards.

Motions and committee directives: After testimony the committee voted to form a working group to reconcile competing drafts and stakeholder concerns. Representative Lawley was appointed to lead the working group; the motion was seconded and approved by voice vote. Committee members also moved and approved a separate proposal to pursue a bill or budget amendment to fund a dedicated literacy position(s) and 900-series contract funds at WDE; the committee captured a placeholder annual cost estimate submitted by WDE for two literacy positions (approximately $120,000 each including benefits) and nominal 900-series funds and directed WDE to provide a refined fiscal package.

Committee members asked the working group to produce a single draft that reconciles the WDE/LSO draft, the advocacy coalition text and UW/PTSB input. The committee scheduled further work before the next meeting and asked WDE for firm cost estimates for staffing and short-term contractor support.

Quoted on the record:
"We are urging you to pass a more comprehensive literacy legislation... that not only sets clear expectations for instruction aligned with the science of reading, but also provides the funding to establish a permanent Wyoming literacy department within this department of education." — Gaye Wilson, Wyoming Right to Read

"There is a lot of research on how the brain learns to read... the components of structured literacy are contained in the courses that we teach." — Dr. Leslie Rush, University of Wyoming

Ending: The committee directed staff and the new working group to return with a reconciled draft and a WDE fiscal package for staffing and contractor support before the next scheduled committee meeting.