SB 203: "An Act requiring that phonics be taught in kindergarten through third grades in the public school system."
00SENATE BILL NO. 203 01 "An Act requiring that phonics be taught in kindergarten through third grades 02 in the public school system." 03 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF ALASKA: 04 * Section 1. SHORT TITLE. This Act may be known as the Literacy Restoration Act. 05 * Sec. 2. FINDINGS. The legislature finds that the English language is the common 06 language of the United States of America, that written English is based on the principle of the 07 alphabet, and that English is a phonetic language. The legislature also finds that it is the 08 existing practice of the public schools to teach phonics only incidentally and that phonics 09 should be a part of the public school curriculum. 10 * Sec. 3. AS 14.30 is amended by adding a new section to read: 11 Article 12. Required Language Education. 12 Sec. 14.30.800. Required language education curriculum. A governing 13 body shall include intensive systematic phonics in the curriculum for kindergarten 14 through third grade. In this section, "phonics" means the direct teaching of a
01 preplanned sequence of relationships between speech sounds and all their letter 02 equivalents, instruction in blending or sounding out two or more letter groups, and 03 practice with reading material that includes letters and letter groups that are explicitly 04 taught.