Literacy Is Liberation

Every child deserves the support to become a confident reader.

Minnesota Literacy & READ Act Resource Center
Updated October 23, 2026

S.T.A.N.D. Up Minnesota Parents United helps parents and caregivers understand Minnesota literacy policy, use their rights, and hold schools and districts accountable for equitable implementation.

Co-Chairing the Minnesota Literacy Coalition

S.T.A.N.D. Up Minnesota Parents United is proud to serve as a co-chair of the Minnesota Literacy Coalition, helping bring parent and caregiver voice into statewide literacy work and advancing equitable literacy outcomes for every child.

Learn more about the Minnesota Literacy Coalition

Parent and caregiver voice is not an add-on. Families should help shape how children are screened, taught, supported, and monitored.

See Where Your Child Is, and What They Should Be Learning

Report cards do not always tell the whole story. These free tools help parents and caregivers understand grade-level expectations, check key skills, and identify questions to ask teachers:

  • Minnesota Standards Family Guides from Great MN Schools: Choose your child’s grade to see the most important reading and math skills Minnesota students are expected to learn, along with ways to support learning at home. Open the Minnesota Standards Family Guides
  • Great MN Schools K–12 Family Resources: Find family guides and other tools designed to help families understand school quality and whether a child is performing on grade level. Explore Great MN Schools’ family resources
  • Learning Heroes Readiness Check: Your child can answer five short, game-like questions that check key reading and math skills. Families receive videos and activities matched to the results. Start the Learning Heroes Readiness Check

Use these tools together with classroom work, screening results, state test results, and conversations with your child’s teacher. If the information does not match, ask the school to explain the differences and what support will be provided.

Start Here: What Families Can Do Now

  1. Request screening when you are concerned. Parents, caregivers, and teachers may request a grades 4–12 reading screening at any time.
  2. Ask for a written explanation. Request the screening results, the intervention plan, who will provide support, and how progress will be monitored.
  3. Ask what your district selected. Districts may submit instructional resources for state review. Ask which resources were chosen, what evidence supports them, and how families helped make the decision.
  4. Demand equity data. Ask for literacy outcomes broken down by race, disability status, language, grade, school, and student group, and ask what the district will change when gaps remain.

Know Your Rights: Reading Screening in Grades 4–12

Minnesota Department of Education guidance says:

  • All six Capti subtests should be administered annually.
  • A parent, caregiver, or teacher may request screening at any time.
  • Decisions should use multiple forms of evidence, including student and family concerns.
  • Students who need help should receive intervention and progress monitoring until they reach proficiency.
  • Opting out of a screening does not end a school’s responsibility to provide a needed intervention.
  • For multilingual learners, schools should consider language proficiency, home-literacy experience, Recently Arrived English Learner status, and Students with Limited or Interrupted Formal Education history.

A sample request to your school:

I am requesting a reading screening for my child under Minnesota’s grades 4–12 READ Act guidance. Please tell me which assessment will be used, when it will be given, how the results will be explained to me, and what intervention and progress monitoring will follow if my child needs support.

Read MDE’s grades 4–12 screening guidance
Open MDE’s parent and caregiver guide

Multilingual Learners: Questions That Cannot Be Ignored

MDE’s current guidance identifies important limits in Minnesota’s screening system:

  • FastBridge should not be used with students below WIDA 2.0.
  • mCLASS or DIBELS may be used when instruction is delivered in English.
  • Minnesota does not currently have an approved grades 4–12 English screener for students below WIDA 2.3.
  • Tier 2 literacy support must supplement, not replace, English-language development.
  • District reporting begins in June 2027, but current local literacy-plan reporting does not separately delineate English learners.

This is an equity and accountability issue. Families deserve to know how students are screened when the approved tools do not fit, how English-language development is protected, and how districts will publicly report whether students are receiving effective support.

Read MDE’s multilingual learner guidance

Students Who Are Deaf, DeafBlind, or Hard of Hearing

A Minnesota working group found that no single valid and reliable screener or comprehensive curriculum fits every student who is Deaf, DeafBlind, or Hard of Hearing. Educators may need a body-of-evidence approach, multimodal instruction, communication access, specialized staffing, and individualized decision-making.

These are not exceptions to rigorous literacy policy. They are essential parts of equitable implementation.

Open the webinar page
Read the full working-group transcript

What Strong District Accountability Can Look Like

Rochester Public Schools’ RPS2030 Strategic Plan offers one useful model. It names literacy MTSS as a district project and connects:

  • K–2 reading measures;
  • grades 3–8 benchmark performance;
  • the gap between white students and students of color; and
  • a separate school-family partnership project.

A public plan should identify the goal, the measure, the responsible leaders, the resources, the timeline, and how families will know whether the work is improving outcomes.

Read the RPS2030 Strategic Plan
View Rochester’s one-page framework

Minnesota Literacy Policy & Implementation Watchlist

READ Act Ongoing Curriculum Review

Districts may submit up to three instructional resources for state review. Only one submission per district counts. Reviews are scheduled from December through June, and Kauffman & Associates is expected to complete a cultural-responsiveness review by June 30, 2027.

Why it matters: District choices made now may shape later curriculum purchasing and classroom implementation. The state process does not guarantee parent or caregiver participation.

Read MDE’s curriculum resources information
View the 2026–27 district survey

COMPASS Professional Learning and Coaching

The 2026–27 MnMTSS Professional Learning Catalog maps Minnesota’s literacy training, coaching, leadership, data-use, multilingual learner, and continuous-improvement supports.

Why it matters: READ Act success requires more than purchasing curriculum. Educators need coherent coaching, implementation support, and enough paid time to learn and apply new practices.

Read first: Pages 15, 50–52, and 57–63.

Open the professional-learning catalog

COMPASS Atlas

The COMPASS Atlas presents MDE’s statewide theory of action for professional learning, implementation support, and continuous improvement.

Why it matters: Advocates can compare the state’s theory with what families and educators actually experience in districts.

Read first: Pages 5–10 and 15–16.

Open the COMPASS Atlas

2026 Legislative Changes Affecting Children and Families

The Minnesota Children’s Cabinet summary consolidates 2026 investments and policy changes, including READ Act provisions, funding implications, and how parent and caregiver roles are defined.

Read first: Page 4.

Open the legislative summary

Questions Parents and Caregivers Can Ask

About your child

  • What screening was used, and was it appropriate for my child’s age, language, disability, and instruction?
  • Can you explain each result in plain language?
  • What specific skill needs support?
  • What intervention will my child receive, how often, and from whom?
  • How will progress be measured and shared with me?
  • What happens if my child is not improving?

About your school or district

  • Which core literacy curriculum and intervention materials are being used?
  • Are they on Minnesota’s approved list?
  • What resources did the district submit for state review?
  • How are multilingual learners and students with disabilities being included?
  • How many educators completed required training, and what coaching do they receive?
  • Are literacy outcomes publicly reported by student group and school?
  • What changed because parents and caregivers raised concerns?

Review Minnesota local literacy plans and reporting

Our Advocacy Priorities

S.T.A.N.D. Up MPU advocates for:

  • Equitable READ Act implementation across schools and districts;
  • accessible screening and intervention for every student;
  • strong multilingual learner supports;
  • meaningful parent and caregiver decision-making;
  • culturally responsive instructional materials;
  • transparent, disaggregated public reporting;
  • sustained educator training and coaching;
  • adequate implementation funding; and
  • accountability when students are not making progress.

Need Help Advocating for Your Child?

S.T.A.N.D. Up Minnesota Parents United provides free one-on-one support to help families understand reading concerns, assessments, interventions, dyslexia questions, MTSS, school meetings, and the Minnesota READ Act.

Email: khuliapringle@standupmpu.org
Call: 651-432-1821

Literacy is liberation. Every child deserves to read, and every family deserves information, respect, and a meaningful voice.