Education committee advances reading bill after adding department-led details; advocates urge interim work

The Wyoming Senate Education Committee on Feb. 5 approved Senate File 178 as amended, a bill that expands early reading screening, requires individual reading plans for students identified with reading difficulties and mandates specific professional-development expectations for district staff. The committee recorded a 3–2 vote and sent the bill forward amid broad testimony urging additional work in the interim.

Sponsor Senator Curt Scott said the amendment the committee adopted added “more detail on the functions that are there,” including a more complete statutory definition of reading difficulty, clearer timing for diagnostic follow-up, and a requirement that students identified with reading difficulty receive an individual reading plan that outlines evidence-based interventions. He told the committee the department and bill drafters had worked to remove drafting errors and that the amended language was intended as a solid step, not the final word.

Shelley Hamill of the Wyoming Department of Education, speaking for Superintendent Megan Degenfelder, thanked the committee for collaboration and said the superintendent still had concerns the statute did not yet reach its full…