OK HB2944

Creates the Oklahoma Reading Excellence through Accountability, Development, and Standards (READS) Act, requiring third-grade students who do not meet grade-level reading performance on statewide assessments to be retained beginning with the 2027-2028 school year, unless they qualify for a good-cause exemption

Mandates that retained third-grade students receive a minimum of 90 minutes daily of scientifically research-based intensive intervention services in phonological awareness, decoding, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension

Requires the State Department of Education to employ literacy coaches with master's degrees or bachelor's degrees with 5 years of reading instruction experience to be assigned to struggling school districts based on third-grade assessment scores

Changes teacher recommendations for summer academies from optional to mandatory for K-3 students not meeting grade-level reading targets, and requires all school districts beginning summer 2028 to provide in-person summer programs for third-graders who fail both the statewide assessment and an alternative reading assessment

Establishes five good-cause exemptions for promotion: English language learners with fewer than 2 years of instruction, students with IEPs assessed through OAAP, students passing an alternative standardized reading assessment, students with disabilities showing adequate IEP progress, and students previously retained in third grade after 2+ years of intensive remediation