Funding for part - state education fund - legislative declaration

(1) Beginning for fiscal year 2026-27, the general assembly shall annually appropriate at least thirty-four million dollars from the state education fund created in section 17 (4) of article IX of the state constitution for the following purposes: (a) To implement the public information campaign to promote reading described in section 22-7-1209 (7); (b) To contract with and pay the direct costs incurred in overseeing an independent evaluator as provided in section 22-7-1209 (8); (c) To implement the early literacy grant program created in section 22-7-1211; (d) To allocate per-pupil intervention money to local education providers as provided in section 22-7-1210.5; and (e) To pay the costs incurred in providing to local education providers technical assistance in implementing this part 12, training to teach reading for teachers employed to teach kindergarten through third grade and for reading interventionists employed to teach fourth grade through twelfth grade, training for principals and administrators required pursuant to section 22-7-1208 (6.5), and training for librarians pursuant to section 24-90-121; monitoring the use of money received as per-pupil intervention money or grants through the early literacy grant program; and fulfilling the administrative requirements specified in this part 12. (2) The general assembly declares that, for the purposes of section 17 of article IX of the state constitution, the purposes described in subsection (1) of this section are in furtherance of providing students enrolled in kindergarten, first, second, or third grade with the instructional programming, intervention instruction, and support necessary to ensure that students, by the completion of third grade, can demonstrate a level of competency in reading skills that is necessary to support them in achieving the academic standards and expectations applicable to the fourth-grade curriculum, which is a program for accountable education reform, and may therefore receive funding from the state education fund created in section 17 (4) of article IX of the state constitution.