The Fayetteville School District on Monday detailed how it will implement Arkansas’ Rights to Read and LEARN Act rules for third‑grade promotion, identifying supports, exemptions and a set of students who could face retention if they do not meet state assessment benchmarks.

"Students are expected to meet a minimum reading standard to be promoted to fourth grade," Dr. Tate told the School Board during the district’s monthly academic update. She described the ATLAS summative assessment scale (levels 1–4) and said students must score a level 2 or higher to advance without further documentation.

The district has catalogued state‑defined "good cause" exemptions, Dr. Tate said, including students with disabilities (IEP or 504), English‑language learners with less than three years of instruction, students previously retained, portfolio evidence showing independent reading competence, and students whose performance was affected by an isolated traumatic event. "Every student that has been listed, regardless of the good cause exemption, must have two years of interventions," she said.

District staff described the monitoring and intervention process: beginning‑of‑year and interim assessments to check decoding, encoding, fluency and comprehension; individual reading plans (IRPs) for level‑1 students; progress monitoring; and parent communications including letters at multiple points.

Citing the district’s data set, Dr. Tate said the district initially identified 223 students at level 1. After accounting for good‑cause exemptions and other documentation, 163 of those cases meet exemption criteria, leaving about 60 students who would be retained if they fail to reach level 2 on the ATLAS ELA summative.

Board members asked whether many of those students could have been identified earlier in kindergarten or first grade; staff replied the district is emphasizing a stronger K–2 program and structured literacy to reduce the number of students who fall behind. On transfers and highly mobile students, district staff said they are contacting prior districts to gather intervention history and documentation so the two‑year intervention requirement can be verified where possible.

Officials emphasized supports rather than immediate staffing increases: building teacher effectiveness, structured literacy programs and targeted interventions are the first lines of response, staff said. Dr. Tate added that parents have responded positively to early communication and that schools have run mock sessions to prepare staff for conversations with families.

The board did not take a vote on policy changes at this meeting related to retention; staff said further planning, monitoring and family outreach will continue this winter and parents will receive additional letters after winter interim assessments in January.