Kansas Blueprint for Literacy Overview

Teach Each Child to Read

Literacy is the number one workforce, economic and social imperative. It improves quality of life, leads to better health outcomes and creates opportunities for individuals. Basic literacy skills are a requirement for most good jobs. By 2030, Kansas will add 54,000 new jobs that require education beyond high school.

Yet more than a third of Kansas students read below grade level. Recognizing that this number must improve, Kansas is implementing a bold new initiative to change the trajectory of literacy in our state and help all students reach their potential - the Blueprint for Literacy. 

In February of 2024, the Kansas Board of Regents adopted the Blueprint for Literacy. Subsequently, the Kansas Legislature passed the Blueprint in SB 438, which was signed into law by the Governor on April 25, 2024. The Blueprint makes literacy a state-level priority, establishes a framework for increasing literacy, and creates a structure to implement and oversee the initiative through the Regents’ new Office of Literacy, the Director of Literacy and the Literacy Advisory Committee.

The Blueprint provides Kansas with a framework to improve literacy rates and establishes two important goals for the state.

1. 100 percent of the Kansas special education, English for speakers of other languages and elementary teacher workforce achieve a microcredential in the science of reading and structured literacy by 2030
2. 90 percent of students in grades 3-8 reading at grade level by 2033

The Blueprint will utilize developments in the Science of Reading to ensure that all teachers are equipped with and practiced in proven methods of literacy instruction. This will be achieved through new applied learning courses that are being implemented across the state's public higher education system to incorporate the Science of Reading into teacher education. In addition, the Office of Literacy will launch a series of courses for teachers in the classroom and school leaders that will lead to micro-credentials.

Finally, the Literacy Advisory Committee is developing a plan for the establishment of the Institute of Literacy and six branches or centers of excellence across the state. These centers will ensure sustainable expertise in literacy and help Kansas make further contributions to the Science of Reading.