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Early reading news: spring 2026 in review

October 16, 2026By The DecodiVerse Team
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We're publishing this in October 2026, looking back at early reading news from March to June. For K–2 families, much of the spring's news was in state law: Wyoming, Georgia and Massachusetts wrote new rules for reading screening and teaching.

National results released June 10 showed 9-year-olds' average reading score up 4 points from 2022.

New state laws put screening and teaching in writing

Wyoming: screening three times a year (law signed March 6)

Wyoming's governor signed Senate File 59 on March 6, 2026. The law, in effect since July 1, requires a universal screener (a short check that flags children who may be at risk for reading difficulties) three times a year for every child from kindergarten to grade 3, plus a dyslexia screener each fall from kindergarten to grade 2. The law says a dyslexia screener does not diagnose dyslexia.

  • What it means for K–2 families: districts must share each screener result with parents. Under the law, a child identified as having reading difficulties or at risk for poor reading outcomes gets an individual reading plan, developed with the parent and put in place within 30 days, with progress updates every quarter.

Georgia: money for literacy coaches in K–3 schools (law signed May 5)

Governor Brian Kemp signed the Georgia Early Literacy Act of 2026 on May 5, Capitol Beat and Atlanta News First reported; Capitol Beat identifies it as House Bill 1193. Capitol Beat reported that it adds about $70 million to the school funding formula, enough for a literacy coach in more than 1,300 schools with kindergarten to third-grade classrooms. Both outlets reported that the law steers reading instruction toward the science of reading.

  • What it means for K–2 families: in August, Atlanta News First reported that the state is funding 1,300 coaches, who must spend 70% of their day in classrooms. You can ask your school who its coach is.

Massachusetts: screening at least twice a year, and parents told within 30 days (law signed June 26)

Governor Maura Healey signed Chapter 113 of the Acts of 2026 on June 26. Every district must screen each child's reading at least twice a school year from kindergarten through at least grade 3.

  • What it means for K–2 families: under the law, if a screener shows a child significantly below the grade-level benchmark, the district has 30 days to tell the parent, explain what it will do and offer a follow-up conversation.
  • What it means for educators: before 2027–28, districts adopt a K–3 curriculum from the state's list or get a waiver, and the law bars guessing from context or picture cues, which it calls MSV or three-cueing, as a substitute for identifying a word.

What the spring data said

US: 9-year-olds' reading scores up (June 10)

The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) long-term trend results, from tests taken in the 2024–25 school year, showed 9-year-olds' average reading score 4 points higher than in 2022, and not significantly different from 2020, before the pandemic.

  • What it means for K–2 families: these are national figures from representative samples, not results for any state, school or child. If you'd like ideas for reading time at home, including reading aloud to your child, our guide to reading together has some.

US: kindergarten skills and third grade (June 25)

NWEA, an assessment company, released an analysis of test scores from more than 400,000 children who started kindergarten in 2021–22, Chalkbeat reported. According to NWEA's own brief, 13.9% of children who started kindergarten in the bottom 20% reached its third-grade reading benchmark. Of children in the bottom 20% at the end of first grade, 2.5% did. The brief says the results shouldn't be read as evidence that children's futures are predetermined, and Chalkbeat notes these children aren't a carefully selected representative sample.

  • What it means for K–2 families: NWEA's Megan Kuhfeld said the findings shouldn't be taken as a reason to assume schools can't change children's trajectories, and that early intervention matters, Chalkbeat reported. If a screener flags your child, ask what help will follow.

US: absences in the youngest grades (June 30)

The right-leaning American Enterprise Institute (AEI), as Chalkbeat describes it, reported that chronic absence (missing 10% or more of the school year) was 22.6% in the 2024–25 school year, across 44 states and Washington, DC. In states with data by grade, kindergartners' rate was 48% above the 2019 baseline, according to AEI's analysis.

  • What it means for K–2 families: AEI's author, Nat Malkus, reads the pattern as a change in attendance norms rather than a lasting effect of pandemic schooling.

Teachers and the people who train them

US: two reports on teachers' reading knowledge (April 29 and June 9)

The Thomas B. Fordham Institute, which The 74 calls an education reform nonprofit, released a survey of 1,244 K–3 teachers on April 29, fielded by RAND in fall 2025. According to Fordham's own report, about two-thirds favour phonics (teaching how letters stand for sounds) over cueing, which the survey described as encouraging students to sound out words versus encouraging them to use context clues; 30% favour both equally and about 2% favour cueing. On June 9, the National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ), a nonprofit research and policy group in Education Week's words, released its review of 700 university teacher-preparation programmes. Education Week reported that, by NCTQ's grading, the share earning an A more than doubled since 2023, from 26% to 53%.

  • What it means for educators: NCTQ grades programmes on five components, including phonemic awareness (hearing and working with the sounds in spoken words). Education Week reported NCTQ's finding that it is the one aspiring teachers are least likely to get practice in.

Beyond the US

Wales: phonics in national expectations (March 3)

In a written statement on March 3, Wales's then Cabinet Secretary for Education, Lynne Neagle, shared new early reading principles. It says learners need explicit and systematic phonics teaching alongside spoken language, vocabulary, comprehension and writing, and that learners "should not be encouraged to guess words using cues or pictures."

  • What it means for families in Wales: you can ask your child's school how it teaches phonics.

Ontario: a new kindergarten curriculum from September (explained June 22)

Queen's University's Faculty of Education published an explainer by researchers Kristy Timmons and Pamela Beach. They write that the main change is explicit, systematic reading instruction, including phonemic awareness and phonics, while play-based learning stays. Ontario's government says all kindergarten programs follow the 2026 curriculum from the 2026–27 school year.

  • What it means for families in Ontario: kindergarten there is a free two-year program for 4- and 5-year-olds.

Where experts disagreed

  • The Massachusetts law. WBUR reported on June 26 that the Massachusetts Teachers Association, the state's largest teachers' union, opposed it. Its president, Max Page, said the bill focuses on telling educators what they can and cannot do, though the union's members are the experts on education. Jessica Tang, president of AFT Massachusetts, supported the change while saying her union had concerns.
  • Teacher-preparation reviews. Education Week reported that teacher colleges have criticised NCTQ's method for more than a decade. In August, the National Education Policy Center published a review by Elena Aydarova arguing the report falls far short of rigorous empirical standards.
  • The pace of change. Some teachers in Fordham's survey worried the pendulum had swung too far, and one said children could lose out with less comprehension and vocabulary instruction, The 74 reported on May 19. One of the report's co-authors, David Griffith, said children need to know how to decode words in order to learn to read.

What carried into the fall

  • The federal reading bill. H.R. 7890, the Science of Reading Act of 2026, was introduced on March 12, approved unanimously in committee on March 17 and passed the House on September 16. The Senate's READ Act (S. 4689) was introduced on June 4; its education committee reported it on August 6, and as of October 8 it awaits a vote on the Senate calendar. As of October 8, the record shows no Senate action on H.R. 7890 since its September 17 committee referral. Our explainer of the federal reading bills publishes on November 11.
  • Screening results reach parents. Wyoming's law applies this school year. Our guide to what reading screeners measure covers what a result can and can't tell you.
  • Wales's next step. On September 15 the Welsh Government published its Foundational Literacy and Numeracy plan, which it says includes clearer expectations on systematic synthetic phonics (teaching the sounds letters stand for and how to blend them into words) and a baseline assessment for children starting school.

If your child gets stuck on a word at home, here's what we suggest. And if it helps to see a story built from the phonics patterns a child is learning, you can read a sample.

Disclosure: DecodiVerse makes decodable storybooks with the help of AI.

How we report: our news standards.

Sources

Last checked: 2026-10-08

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