These regulations establish the screening of students enrolled in kindergarten through third grade who may be at risk for reading difficulties, the provision of supplemental reading instruction for identified students, and annual reporting requirements. In this chapter, the following terms have the meanings indicated. Terms Defined. “Department” means the Maryland State Department of Education. “Diagnostic survey” means an assessment tool that identifies areas of need within a student’s mastery of reading skills, foundational skills, or both to guide intervention. “Evidence-based” means a program or practice that has demonstrated a statistically significant effect on improving student outcomes or other relevant outcomes based on well-designed and well-implemented studies, quasi-experimental studies, or correlational studies with statistical control for selection bias. “Fluency” means reading accuracy and rate, including oral accuracy, prosody, intonation, and automaticity. “IEP” means an individualized education program as defined and developed in accordance with COMAR 13A.05.01.03. “IEP team” has the meaning stated in COMAR 13A.05.01.03. Multi-Tiered System of Supports. “Multi-tiered system of supports” means a proactive framework that aims to foster growth by ensuring that all students receive academic, behavioral, and social-emotional supports that they need to be successful. “Multi-tiered system of supports” utilizes multiple data points to identify students requiring intervention through three tiers of support. “Phonemic awareness” means the ability to distinguish, segment, blend, and manipulate phonemes in words. “Phonics” means the study of letters and letter combinations and the relationship between the sounds that they represent. “Phonological awareness” means a child’s ability to recognize and manipulate parts of oral language including syllables, onset-rime, and phonemes. “Progress monitoring” means a measurement procedure used at specified time intervals to measure a student’s response to instruction or intervention. “Rapid automatic naming” means how quickly individual students can name letters, digits, or symbols. “Reading difficulties” means a student’s challenges with decoding, language comprehension, or both, which affect their ability to achieve grade-level reading proficiency. “Screening instrument” means a brief, valid, and reliable measurement used to identify or predict whether a student may be at risk for poor learning outcomes. “Student reading improvement plan” means a personalized plan to help students improve their reading skills that includes assessments, goals, instruction, and monitoring. “Supplemental reading instruction” means evidence-based, sequential, systematic, explicit, and cumulative instruction or intervention to mastery of foundational reading skills, including phonological or phonemic awareness and processing, phonics, and vocabulary to support development of decoding, spelling, fluency, and reading comprehension skills to meet grade level curriculum. “Tier I” means core instruction aligned with grade level standards. “Tier II” means supplemental instruction intended for students who have not made sufficient progress through Tier I instruction. “Tier III” means intensive supplemental instruction that is individualized based on severe and persistent learning or social-emotional needs. Each local school system shall ensure that all students enrolled in kindergarten, first grade, second grade, and third grade are screened to identify if the student is at risk for reading difficulties and provided supplemental reading instruction aligned to the results of the screening instrument. The local school system shall screen the students identified in §A of this regulation three times each school year including once in the fall, winter, and spring. The local school system shall establish the screening schedule and require the first screening identified in §B of this regulation to occur within the first 60 calendar days of the beginning of the school year. Upon registration of a student or identification of a student at risk for reading difficulties, the local school system shall provide to the parent or guardian of the student the following: A written description of the screening and supplemental instruction process in the local school system; and Any checklists or screening instrument-specific forms required to support the screening protocol and supplemental instruction process. The Department will provide a list of approved screening instruments for the local school systems. The approved screening instruments shall: Accurately and reliably identify students at risk for poor learning outcomes; Be developmentally appropriate; Be economical to administer based on time and cost; and Use norm-referenced or criterion-based scores. The screening required under this regulation shall be conducted by any of the following trained school personnel: Classroom teacher; School psychologist; Reading specialist; Special education teacher; Speech-language pathologist; Reading interventionist; or Any other educator trained to use appropriate screening instruments. The appropriate grade-level screening instrument shall measure, at minimum: Phonological and phonemic awareness; Sound-symbol recognition; Decoding; Fluency; and Rapid automatic naming. For only the 2025—2026 school year, §§B—E of this regulation shall apply to the local school systems. If the results of screening conducted under Regulations .03 and .04 of this chapter indicate that a student is at risk of reading difficulties: Within 30 calendar days of the screening, the local school system shall notify the parent or guardian of the student in writing of the screening results and a description of the supplemental reading instruction that will be provided to the student; and The local school system shall develop a supplemental reading instructional plan to address the student’s identified areas of need. The supplemental instruction shall take place within the school day. Evidence-based supplemental instruction shall be based on data and aligned with the specific areas of deficit for students identified at risk. The local school system may revise supplemental instruction based upon progress monitoring and the student’s placement in an appropriate multi-tiered system of supports. Beginning in the 2026—2027 school year, §§G—K of this regulation shall apply to the local school systems. If the results of a screening conducted under Regulations .03 and .04 of this chapter indicate that a student is at risk of reading difficulties, the local school system shall: Administer a diagnostic survey to determine the best targeted instruction; Notify the parent or guardian of the student, consistent with §H of this regulation; and Subject to §K of this regulation, develop a Student Reading Improvement Plan to document the student’s identified areas of need and appropriate supplemental reading instruction, consistent with §§I and J of this regulation. Parent or Guardian Notification. Within 30 days of the screening, the local school system shall provide written notification to the parent or guardian that includes: An explanation that their child has been identified as having difficulties in reading; and An invitation to collaborate on the development of a Student Reading Improvement Plan with the teacher, principal or designee, and/or other pertinent school personnel. The notification must be provided in family-friendly language. Student Reading Improvement Plan. The local school system shall develop a student reading improvement plan no later than 30 days after identifying a student at risk of reading difficulties. The student reading improvement plan shall be created in partnership with the parent or guardian by the teacher, principal or designee, or other pertinent school personnel. The student reading improvement plan shall be documented on a template that meets the requirements set by the Department to include: The evidence-based reading intervention program the student will receive to remedy the reading deficit; The necessary frequency and intensity of interventions to remediate the identified areas of need and accelerate learning; and A description of how the student will receive intensive reading intervention until the student no longer demonstrates difficulty in reading as determined by the LEA’s approved system of assessment. The student reading improvement plan shall be reviewed and updated at least once annually with the parent or guardian of the student. The local school system shall provide a copy of the student reading improvement plan to the parent or guardian. Supplemental Instruction and Multi-Tiered System of Supports. Each local school system shall develop a multi-tiered system of supports consistent with guidance issued by the Department. The multi-tiered system of supports shall include: Program-specific progress monitoring system and tools to collect and analyze intervention data to make instructional decisions; Home partnerships with parents or guardians as an integral part of the decision-making team; and Supports that address a student’s identified needs with varying intensity and duration across the three tiers. The supplemental instruction shall be provided within the local school system’s multi-tiered system of supports. In addition to Tier I instruction, supplemental instruction shall be provided through Tier II and Tier III interventions utilizing a reading program aligned with the science of reading. All students, including multilingual learners and students with disabilities, must be provided with access to all levels of tiered instruction. The supplemental instruction shall take place within the school day. Students with an IEP. If a student has an IEP, the IEP team should review the results of the screening instrument and diagnostic survey to determine whether the student’s IEP will be updated. If an update is necessary, the IEP team shall incorporate the data and information that would have been used to develop a Student Reading Improvement Plan. This chapter may not delay or deny a student who may be suspected of having a disability from the appropriate evaluation under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. The local school system shall set an individualized review schedule of the supplemental reading instruction for each student at intervals of not more than 30 days for progress monitoring. The student’s parent or guardian will receive written progress reports quarterly or upon revisions to supplemental instruction. The local school system may determine the student reading improvement plan is completed when the student has achieved grade level reading standards based upon age-appropriate re-screening. Each local school system shall provide resources on the school system website that includes: Reading screening instruments used in the local school system; and A checklist of early warning signs by age of reading difficulties and dyslexia. On or before September 1, each year, all local school systems shall provide a report to the Maryland State Department of Education with the following information from the previous school year: The total number of students in kindergarten through third grade, by grade level disaggregated by grade level, race, disability status, multilingual learner status, and students eligible for free and reduced meals; The number of students in kindergarten through third grade, by grade level, who were screened at each level disaggregated by grade level, race, disability status, multilingual learner status, and students eligible for free and reduced meals; The number of students in kindergarten through third grade identified through a screening instrument as at risk for reading difficulties, disaggregated by grade level, race, disability status, multilingual learner status, and students eligible for free and reduced meals; and The number of students in kindergarten through third grade, by grade level, identified as at risk for reading difficulties who received supplemental reading instruction disaggregated by grade level, race, disability status, multilingual learner status, and students eligible for free and reduced meals. Education Article, §4-136(i), Annotated Code of Maryland Effective date: July 26, 2021 (48:15 Md. R. 593) Regulations .01 — .08 repealed and new Regulations .01 — .07 adopted effective March 30, 2026 (53:6 Md. R. 291)