District outlines Read Act changes, expands screening and training; next year screening costs expected to rise

Amina Aftedal, director of curriculum, instruction and assessment for Burnsville Public School District, briefed the board on the district’s implementation of the Minnesota Read Act and described changes in screening, curriculum alignment and professional development required by state law.

The Read Act, adopted by the Minnesota Legislature in 2023, directs statewide changes to literacy instruction aligned with the science of reading and carries specific screening, curriculum and professional-development mandates and designated funding. Aftedal said recent Minnesota Department of Education (MDE) guidance added a winter universal screening window and a required nonsense-word fluency subtest intended to flag indicators of dyslexia.

Why it matters: The Read Act alters who is screened, how often, and which assessments are used; it affects staffing, assessment purchases and training workloads for the district.

Key changes and numbers presented: the state added a winter screening window and requires a nonsense-word fluency subtest; individual oral reading fluency assessments were added for grades 2 and 3, given three times per year; MDE requires a two-step yearly screening for grades 4–12 (districts choose a step‑1 assessment and MDE’s selected screener is used for students not meeting benchmarks). The district currently uses FastBridge for grades 4–9 and will expand FastBridge to grade 10 in 2025–26; students not meeting benchmarks will take the CaptiRead Basic screener as required by the state.

Aftedal said district costs to meet screening requirements are expected to rise from about $68,000 this year to roughly $100,000 next year. Curriculum expenditures this year for materials, training and online resources were just under $135,000, with an anticipated annual renewal cost of about $99,000.

On instructional materials, Aftedal reported elementary sites expanded foundational-literacy instruction deeper into grades 3–5 this year; the district uses Heggerty phonemic-awareness lessons in K–3 and functional phonics/morphology materials in grades 4–5. MDE will publish an approved list of interventions in November that the district plans to review for K–12 adoption and intervention pilots.

Professional development: Aftedal said 370 individuals enrolled in required state literacy courses this year; by June 6, 123 teachers had completed the required training at mastery level and 101 were in progress. The district plans for roughly 60 additional staff to complete phase‑1 training next year. District literacy coaches will be trained over the summer to deliver required training to about 140 educational assistants who may support students in literacy. Secondary phase-2 training was deferred by MDE to 2026–27, and the district anticipates about 65 secondary staff participating at that time.

Board members asked how multilingual learners would be handled for dyslexia screening. Aftedal said the district had asked MDE for guidance and that the district intends to continue exempting English learners from dyslexia screening until they reach the multilingual program’s identified proficiency threshold. “We will continue to honor the needs of our students in developing their English language proficiency before we identify them for future needs in reading,” Aftedal said.

Aftedal also described processes for new hires: HR added an application question about Read Act training certificates; transcripts that demonstrate aligned coursework may be reviewed by MDE for credit; the state will pay for one training license per licensed teacher who has not completed the training through 2027.

The presentation was informational; board members asked clarifying questions but did not take action at the meeting.