Expands student eligibility for participation in the R.E.A.D. (Reading Enrichment and Academic Deliverables) program (EG +$2,600,000 GF EX See Note)

House Bill 272 amends the R.E.A.D. (Reading Enrichment and Academic Deliverables) Program by adding a new eligibility criterion and establishing corresponding departmental obligations. The bill modifies R.S. 17:4033.1(B) by adding subsection (5), which extends program eligibility to any student enrolled in an elementary school that received a school performance letter grade of "D" or "F" in the most recent school year under the school and district accountability system established in R.S. 17:10.1. The bill further amends the Department of Education's administrative duties by enacting R.S. 17:4033.1(C)(7), which requires the department to provide quarterly shipments of books directly to qualifying schools and mandates that those schools distribute books and supplemental family literacy resources to all students in prekindergarten through fifth grade. Additionally, the department is charged with determining the specific content and format of the family literacy resources provided under this provision.

The practical effect of this legislation is to automatically qualify entire student populations for program participation based on their school's accountability rating rather than individual assessment results. Students attending elementary schools with "D" or "F" grades now receive books and supplemental reading resources regardless of their individual literacy performance or teacher recommendation, which represents a significant expansion from the prior law that required meeting one of four specific criteria related to individual student assessment or teacher evaluation. The bill creates operational obligations for both the Department of Education, which must manage quarterly book shipments to all affected schools, and for elementary schools with low performance ratings, which must ensure effective distribution of materials to their PreK through fifth grade populations. Schools with "D" or "F" ratings will receive direct shipments of books intended to support both classroom and at-home reading engagement.

This legislation operates within Louisiana's school accountability framework established in R.S. 17:10.1 and builds upon the existing R.E.A.D. Program structure codified in R.S. 17:4033.1. The bill preserves the four existing eligibility categories based on individual student assessments and teacher recommendations while adding the new school-wide eligibility category as an additional pathway into the program. The measure reflects a policy decision to target reading intervention resources toward schools identified as underperforming under the state's accountability system, operating on the premise that students in lower-performing schools benefit from expanded access to reading materials and family literacy support. The departmental discretion to determine the content and format of supplemental resources allows flexibility in implementation while maintaining consistency across the state's school system.