Emergency Legislation Changes the Third Grade Reading Guarantee Promotion Criteria for 2021-2022

Governor DeWine signed Senate Bill 229 of the 134^th General Assembly on Dec. 14, 2021. The following emergency clause takes place immediately.  

Retention Criteria for the 2021-2022 School Year

No school district, community school, STEM school and no chartered nonpublic schools subject to ORC 3301.163 can retain a student in the third grade based solely on a student's academic performance in reading in the 2021-2022 school year unless the principal and reading teacher, in consultation with the student’s parent or guardian, agree the student is reading below grade level and is not prepared for 4^th grade.

Parental Consultation in Promotion Decisions

The 2021-2022 school year, if a third-grade student's academic performance in reading in the 2021-2022 school year is below grade level but the student's building principal and reading teacher, in consultation with the student's parent or guardian, agree that the student is prepared to be promoted to the fourth grade, the student may be promoted.

However, if the principal of the school building in which a student is enrolled and the student's reading teacher, in consultation with the student's parent or guardian, agree that the student is reading below grade level and is not prepared to be promoted to the fourth grade, a student in the third grade may be retained.

Parental Notification of Remediation Plan

For the 2021-2022 school year, each school district, community school, STEM school and each chartered nonpublic school subject to ORC 3301.163 must notify the parent or guardian of each student who achieves a scaled score below 683 on spring's Ohio State Test for grade 3 English Language Arts and describe the district's or school's remediation plan to improve the student's academic performance in reading.