Natomas Unified details early literacy rollout as parents and teachers press for special-education access

Natomas Unified School District officials presented the district's early literacy initiative during the board meeting, describing a five-cycle coaching plan and the first-window administration of the DIBELS reading screener.

Associate Superintendent Tanya Jarrell said the program is grounded in the science of reading and is currently in cycle 1 of 5. Jarrell described partnerships with the National Literacy Institute, Sacramento County Reads and an external coaching partner, and said the model emphasizes co-teaching cycles in which a teacher first observes, then co-teaches with a teacher-on-special-assignment (TOSA), then teaches while receiving feedback. "This is focusing on high quality literacy instruction to our students in grades TK through 2nd grade," Jarrell said. She added that the initiative includes model classrooms, a knowledge-base website and a family toolkit with monthly featured books.

Amanda Garcia, the district's early literacy director, said district-ordered materials (decodables, leveled readers, alphabet tiles and other manipulatives) have been delivered to most TK—grade 2 classrooms and that materials for SDC and RSP teachers were ordered and expected to arrive "within the next few days." Garcia said DIBELS was administered in a window that ran Sept. 8—Sept. 26 and that parents will receive screener reports within 45 days. "As of right now, less than 1% of families have chosen to opt out of the reading screener," she said, noting six opt-out forms on file.

Public commenters and several trustees emphasized access and implementation concerns for special-education students. Jennifer Souza, a public commenter, said the initiative "is still not being extended to our children in SDC classrooms," and argued that the TOSA model places too large a caseload on each coach ("each TOSA is responsible for serving and training teachers to over 750 students"). Amanda Hidadej, who identified herself as an SCC teacher at Thomas Park Elementary, raised accessibility problems with DIBELS for nonverbal students and said some special-education teachers had not received ordered manipulatives.

Presenters and trustees acknowledged the concerns and said the district is tracking missing materials and training needs. Jarrell said the district will monitor TOSA workload and efficacy and may return to the board with staffing adjustments. "We are committed to having the materials available to them, and giving them the appropriate time that they need to implement those materials," Jarrell said.

The board requested longitudinal data reporting by site, grade and subgroup and asked that reports distinguish students who were continuously enrolled versus newly enrolled from outside the district so trends can be interpreted accurately. Jarrell and staff said those disaggregations will be included in future updates and that the team will continue monitoring student, teacher and TOSA metrics.