Center for Literacy and Learning highlights Louisiana Reads app and family toolkit

Clark Jackson, president of the Center for Literacy and Learning, presented Louisiana Reads as a family‑facing initiative that aims "to empower families to play that active role in their child's learning," linking classroom science-of-reading work to at-home practices. He described signature programs (Growing Reading Brains workshops for caregivers), a family engagement toolkit for schools, a statewide mobile app and a monthly text‑tips service to reach caregivers on the go.

Sabrina Marsh described the Louisiana Statewide Family Engagement Center (SFEC), a federally funded five‑year grant program now in its third year, that provides family-facing training, district-facing supports and multilingual resources. Marsh said the SFEC has run 42 events and provided training to 4,032 families to date and is piloting PBIS family engagement work in Jefferson Parish.

Why it matters: Task force members and parents emphasized that families need accessible, practical tools—both digital and in-person—to act on literacy and special education information. Presenters stressed dual-capacity frameworks that build capacity among both families and educators so they can engage as partners.

Details: Louisiana Reads uses videos showing age‑appropriate reading milestones to help families identify whether a child's skills match grade expectations. The SFEC offers district and family toolkits, advisory board input, and research partnerships to support PBIS family-engagement models.

Next steps: Presenters offered to share research sources and tool text for inclusion in the task force's draft recommendations.