By Holly Sullivan, Community News Service

Editor’s note: The Community News Service is a program in which University of Vermont students work with professional editors to provide content for local news outlets at no cost.

The Senate Committee on Education is revising a bill that aims to improve Vermont’s literacy rate — a number that’s been steadily declining for years.

The changes address problems prompted by education officials who said the bill’s language was too limiting and would present problems for schools required to implement them.

“I think the reasoning was just that, [with] this bill, we’re hoping to capture all students who have any kind of learning deficiency or are just struggling readers,” Sen. Martine Gulick, D-Chittenden Central said.

Jay Nichols, executive director of the Vermont Principals’ Association said to committee members Jan. 10 that he agrees with S.204’s goals, but he takes issue with some of its phrasing.

Committee members walked through some potential changes during a Feb. 9. meeting, including getting rid of specific language about follow-ups to literacy screenings, removing language that would require the Agency of Education to approve literacy screeners and changing the state’s definition of an inadequate literacy test.

Children advocacy groups, The

UPDATE: On April 11, the Department of Education (Department) published a blog post updating the latest Third-Party Services (TPS) Dear Colleague Letter (DCL) which was published on February 15, 2023 (updated February 28, 2023). Our summary of the February 15th DCL is below.

In the blog post, the Department announced it was in the process of developing an updated DCL (after receiving over 1,000 comments on the February version), but it “wanted to highlight several key pieces of information that [it] think[s] the community should be aware of right away.” specifically, the Department (1) identified several activities that do not trigger the TPS rules; (2) noted its intent to remove the provision of the guidance relating to foreign ownership of TPS; and (3) noted its intent to provide clarifications based on the public comments submitted last month. Rather than the (now defunct) September 1, 2023, effective date of the February DCL, the blog post noted the effective date of any future guidance will be at least six months after the revised DCL is published.

UPDATE: On February 28, 2023, the Department updated the Dear Colleague Letter issued February 15, 2023 to establish a future effective date for the guidance, extend