Advocates have worked for nearly a decade to overhaul and improve how Wyoming teaches children to read. As the years have ticked by, struggling children have advanced through school grades without being identified or properly supported, they say.
Educators, parents and elected officials told the House Education Committee on Tuesday in Cheyenne that for the sake of those children, the state cannot wait any longer.
“If you do not pass this bill, you are failing Wyoming’s children,” said Cheyenne mother Chandel Pine, who founded a literacy advocacy nonprofit after her son died by suicide following years of struggling to learn to read. “You can go dig their grave or just send them to federal prison now, because you are setting them up for a life of failure.”
Despite concerns from some committee members that it will add to the already-unwieldy burden of certification and work for educators, the committee voted 5-3 to advance Senate File 59, “K-12 language and literacy program.”
The bill aims to ensure that every K-12 Wyoming student develops strong language and literacy skills and that struggling readers do not fall through the cracks. It would establish an evidence-based system of instruction, intervention and professional development to provide teachers, families and students with comprehensive and effective tools for teaching reading and addressing deficiencies.
The bill now heads to the House floor for consideration. Wyoming Superintendent of Public Instruction Megan Degenfelder told the committee it’s overdue.
“Today, 40 states in the country have passed legislation that is aligned with the science of reading,” she said. “Frankly, I’m tired of Wyoming being late to the party.”
Shifting standards
Literacy instruction has emerged as a nationwide issue with the downturn of reading scores in recent years. While Wyoming continues to rank comparatively high in national testing, literacy challenges still impact students here.
In 2024, 36% of the state’s fourth graders and 29% of eighth graders performed at or above the proficient level in reading on national standardized NAEP tests, lower than the previous five years.
Some 32% of Wyoming fourth graders performed below basic levels, which was a slight increase from 29% in 2022. For eighth graders, 30% scored below basic levels in 2024, up one percentage point from 2022.
Categories include below basic, basic, proficient and advanced.
News reports and studies have shifted how the literacy field views reading instruction, and many states have passed legislation to ensure that evidence-based learning instruction is available to all students.
Wyoming’s version resulted largely from the work of a literacy subcommittee with input from stakeholders including a group of parents and educators focused on better identification and treatment of conditions like dyslexia.
The Joint Education Committee sponsored the bill, which cruised through the Senate with little trouble.
Concerns
When the House Education Committee took it up Tuesday, however, some lawmakers reported constituent concern on the measure. One source is teachers worried about a raft of new certifications or requirements they would have to attain to keep their jobs.
“There is a lot of pushback from teachers,” Rep. Tomi Strock, R-Douglas, said. “They feel that maybe they’ll lose their jobs or positions, or they feel they’re very adequate in what they’re doing. There just seems to be this fear in some of the districts.”
Rep. Julie Jarvis, a Casper Republican, warned that the implementation might result in unintended hurdles for educators and contribute to the state’s teacher shortage.
She requested that “there be some leeway for teachers to choose to do this if they want to, but this not be a ‘have-to.’” Jarvis isn’t opposed to the bill, she added.
“The literacy piece of this I don’t question,” she said. “I really question the enactment.”
Others said the bill’s provisions aren’t necessarily appropriate for secondary students and should be limited to K-6.
There has been ample work and opportunity to chime in, Degenfelder said, including interim study.
“This bill has been worked,” she said. “I fear that by kicking the can down the road and not moving forward … that’s the very reason why people in our state, that’s why they’re upset with government, because we move too darn slow, and it takes us years — decades — to move the needle. That’s why it’s important that we move forward.”
In response to the other pushback regarding teacher burdens, Degendfelder acknowledged that change is hard.
“We also have a lot of teachers that are in support of this,” she said. “They’re excited to raise the bar when it comes to literacy, because there’s no teacher out there that doesn’t want a child to learn how to read.”
Pinedale teacher Faith Howard, who spearheaded a secondary literacy program that has made huge gains in her own district, pushed back on the idea that additional professional development will lead to teacher burnout.
“The thing that’s going to burn out teachers is not educating them more about how to teach students how to read or how to support their struggling readers,” Howard said. “It’s actually the other way around. More teachers will leave because they are feeling the burden of inheriting students who cannot read and they don’t have the tools to be able to help them or support them.”
Motion to table
Rep. JD Williams, R-Lusk, made a motion to table the bill, citing too many questions and concerns still lingering from his constituents. His motion failed by a 4-4 vote.
Rep. Martha Lawley, R-Worland, said there is urgency and noted the amount of work that’s already gone into it.
“These kids are suffering,” Lawley said. “I really am concerned … these kids are getting out of the system and they can’t read.”
When the bill came up for a second vote, the committee passed it.
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