§ 6644 — Subgrants To Eligible Entities In Support Of Kindergarten Through Grade 12 Literacy

(1) A State educational agency receiving a grant under this subpart shall use a portion of the grant funds, in accordance with clauses (ii) and (iii) of section 6642(d)(2)(D) of this title, to award subgrants, on a competitive basis, to eligible entities to enable the eligible entities to carry out the authorized activities described in subsections (c) and (d). (2) The term of a subgrant under this section shall be determined by the State educational agency awarding the subgrant and shall in no case exceed 5 years. (3) A State educational agency shall award subgrants under this section of sufficient size and scope to allow the eligible entities to carry out high-quality comprehensive literacy instruction in each grade level for which the subgrant funds are provided. (4) An eligible entity desiring to receive a subgrant under this section shall submit an application to the State educational agency at such time, in such manner, and containing such information as the State educational agency may require. Such application shall include, for each school that the eligible entity identifies as participating in a subgrant program under this section, the following information: (A) A description of the eligible entity’s needs assessment conducted to identify how subgrant funds will be used to inform and improve comprehensive literacy instruction at the school. (B) How the school, the local educational agency, or a provider of high-quality professional development will provide ongoing high-quality professional development to all teachers, principals, other school leaders, specialized instructional support personnel (as appropriate), and other instructional leaders served by the school. (C) How the school will identify children in need of literacy interventions or other support services. (D) An explanation of how the school will integrate comprehensive literacy instruction into a well-rounded education. (E) A description of how the school will coordinate comprehensive literacy instruction with early childhood education programs and activities and after-school programs and activities in the area served by the local educational agency. (b) In awarding grants under this section, the State educational agency shall give priority to an eligible entity that will use funds under subsection (c) or (d) to implement evidence-based activities, defined for the purpose of this subsection as activities meeting the requirements of section 7801(21)(A)(i) of this title. (c) An eligible entity that receives a subgrant under this section shall use the subgrant funds to carry out the following activities pertaining to children in kindergarten through grade 5: (1) Developing and implementing a comprehensive literacy instruction plan across content areas for such children that— (A) serves the needs of all children, including children with disabilities and English learners, especially children who are reading or writing below grade level; (B) provides intensive, supplemental, accelerated, and explicit intervention and support in reading and writing for children whose literacy skills are below grade level; and (C) supports activities that are provided primarily during the regular school day but that may be augmented by after-school and out-of-school time instruction. (2) Providing high-quality professional development opportunities for teachers, literacy coaches, literacy specialists, English as a second language specialists (as appropriate), principals, other school leaders, specialized instructional support personnel, school librarians, paraprofessionals, and other program staff. (3) Training principals, specialized instructional support personnel, and other local educational agency personnel to support, develop, administer, and evaluate high-quality kindergarten through grade 5 literacy initiatives. (4) Coordinating the involvement of early childhood education program staff, principals, other instructional leaders, teachers, teacher literacy teams, English as a second language specialists (as appropriate), special educators, school personnel, and specialized instructional support personnel (as appropriate) in the literacy development of children served under this subsection. (5) Engaging families and encouraging family literacy experiences and practices to support literacy development. (d) An eligible entity that receives a subgrant under this section shall use subgrant funds to carry out the following activities pertaining to children in grades 6 through 12: (1) Developing and implementing a comprehensive literacy instruction plan described in subsection (c)(1) for children in grades 6 through 12. (2) Training principals, specialized instructional support personnel, school librarians, and other local educational agency personnel to support, develop, administer, and evaluate high-quality comprehensive literacy instruction initiatives for grades 6 through 12. (3) Assessing the quality of adolescent comprehensive literacy instruction as part of a well-rounded education. (4) Providing time for teachers to meet to plan evidence-based adolescent comprehensive literacy instruction to be delivered as part of a well-rounded education. (5) Coordinating the involvement of principals, other instructional leaders, teachers, teacher literacy teams, English as a second language specialists (as appropriate), paraprofessionals, special educators, specialized instructional support personnel (as appropriate), and school personnel in the literacy development of children served under this subsection. (e) An eligible entity that receives a subgrant under this section may, in addition to carrying out the activities described in subsections (c) and (d), use subgrant funds to carry out the following activities pertaining to children in kindergarten through grade 12: (1) Recruiting, placing, training, and compensating literacy coaches. (2) Connecting out-of-school learning opportunities to in-school learning in order to improve children’s literacy achievement. (3) Training families and caregivers to support the improvement of adolescent literacy. (4) Providing for a multi-tier system of supports for literacy services. (5) Forming a school literacy leadership team to help implement, assess, and identify necessary changes to the literacy initiatives in 1 or more schools to ensure success. (6) Providing time for teachers (and other literacy staff, as appropriate, such as school librarians or specialized instructional support personnel) to meet to plan comprehensive literacy instruction.