Summary of SB 1971 - Reading Sufficiency Act

• Modifies good-cause exemptions allowing third-grade students to be promoted without retention to include students previously retained in pre-kindergarten for academic reasons, in addition to existing exemptions for limited-English-proficient students, students with disabilities, and students demonstrating grade-level reading through alternative assessments.

• Adds a new provision requiring the State Board of Education to annually obtain an independent evaluation of the benchmark level of performance for "limited knowledge" on the third-grade reading portion of statewide criterion-referenced tests.

• Establishes that students with intensive reading instruction for two or more years who still show reading deficiency may be promoted if they were previously retained in pre-kindergarten, kindergarten through third grade for a cumulative total of two years.

• Becomes effective July 1, 2014, with an emergency clause declaring the act takes effect immediately upon passage and approval.