The South Carolina Read to Succeed Act:

As you may be aware, the South Carolina Read to Succeed Act, which became law in 2014, aims to improve literacy and reading proficiency for all children in our state. The law includes some significant changes regarding promotion and retention of third-grade students. The law states, “Beginning with the 2017-2018 school year, a student must be retained in the third grade if the student fails to demonstrate reading proficiency at the end of third grade as indicated by scoring at the lowest achievement level on the state’s summative reading assessment that equates to Not Met 1 on the Palmetto Assessment of State Standards (PASS).”  

There are a number of exceptions to this requirement in the law and your child’s principal will be able to discuss these exceptions with you. Please be assured that our district’s goal is for all students to be proficient readers in third grade and for no student to be retained for failing to demonstrate reading proficiency. The district currently has many supports in place to improve student success. 

If you have questions or need additional information, please contact your school’s principal or your child’s teacher. You can also find information about Read to Succeed on the South Carolina Department of Education web page: http://ed.sc.gov/instruction/office-of-early-learning-and-literacy1/.