(1) The general assembly finds that:

(a) All students can succeed in school if they have the foundational skills necessary for academic success. While foundational skills go beyond academic skills to include such skills as social competence and self-discipline, they must also include the ability to read, understand, interpret, and apply information.

(b) Colorado has prioritized early learning through its investments in the Colorado preschool program, established in 1988, and full-day kindergarten, and the general assembly recognizes that these investments can best be leveraged by adopting policies that support a continuum of learning from preschool through third grade and beyond;

(c) It is more cost-effective to invest in effective early literacy education rather than to absorb costs for remediation in middle school, high school, and beyond;

(d) A comprehensive approach to early literacy education can improve student achievement, reduce the need for costly special education services, and produce a better educated, more skilled, and more competitive workforce;

(e) An important partnership between a parent and child begins before the child enters kindergarten, when the parent helps the child develop rich linguistic experiences, including listening comprehension and speaking, that help form the foundation for reading and writing, which are the main vehicles for content acquisition;

(f) The greatest impact for ensuring student success lies in a productive collaboration among parents, teachers, and schools in providing a child's education, so it is paramount that parents are informed about the status of their children's educational progress and that teachers and schools receive the financial resources and other resources and support they need, including valid assessments, instructional programming that is proven to be effective, and training and professional development programs, to effectively teach the science of reading, assess students' achievement, and enable each student to achieve the grade level expectations for reading; and

(g) The state recognizes that the provisions of this part 12 are not a comprehensive solution to ensuring that all students graduate from high school ready to enter the workforce or postsecondary education, but they assist local education providers in setting a solid foundation for students' academic success and will require the ongoing commitment of financial and other resources from both the state and local levels.

(2) It is therefore the intent of the general assembly that each local education provider that enrolls students in kindergarten or first, second, or third grade will work closely with the parents and teachers of these students to provide the students the instructional programming, intervention instruction, and support, at home and in school, necessary to ensure that students, by the completion of third grade, can demonstrate a level of competency in reading skills that is necessary to support them in achieving the academic standards and expectations applicable to the fourth-grade curriculum. It is further the intent of the general assembly that each local education provider adopt a policy whereby, if a student has a significant reading deficiency at the end of any school year prior to fourth grade, the student's parent and teacher and other personnel of the local education provider decide whether the student should or should not advance to the next grade level based on whether the student, despite having a significant reading deficiency, is able to maintain adequate academic progress at the next grade level.

(3) The general assembly further finds that:

(a) The purpose of this part 12 is to provide students with the necessary supports they need tobe able to read with proficiency by third grade so that their academic growth and achievement is not hindered by low literacy skills in fourth grade and beyond;

(b) It is a priority in the public schools of Colorado to provide high-quality instruction that enables each student to attain proficiency in English, regardless of the student's native language;

(c) Research demonstrates that a person who has strong reading skills in one language will more easily learn and become literate in a second language; and

(d) While the "Colorado READ Act", this part 12, is not designed to measure or support a student's acquisition of English as a second language, ensuring that a student has strong reading skills in his or her native language by third grade will help to ensure that the student will attain proficiency in English more quickly.