Clay County School District has been awarded a $27,200 three-year grant for summer 2018-20 through the Greater Horizon Fund of Kansas City to partially fund their K-3 summer reading slide prevention program sponsored by Kids Read Now.

The program, based on the work of early literacy researcher, teacher and author Dr. Richard Allington, provides student-selected books mailed home each week throughout the summer. Included in the program are nine Lexile-leveled books, weekly parent contact, spring to fall test score analysis and three-year longitudinal data metrics provided to the district. (544) K-3 Clay County elementary school students will participate.

Kids Read Now was established in 2010 by Leib and Barbara Lurie as a 501c3 non-profit initiative dedicated to eliminating the summer reading slide among disadvantaged youth. This proven program combines a data-driven comprehensive suite of choices, challenges and rewards to reach every student and actively engage their parents to assure students keep reading and learning over the summer. This reading slide prevention program can drastically reduce intervention costs resulting from summer learning loss.

Throughout its lifetime, Kids Read Now has given over 165,000 new, free books-to-keep to over 20,000 K-3 students in four states, using its proven combination of choices, challenges, and rewards to foster growth among those it serves. Kids Read Now plans to expand its proven “read-a-book, get-a-book” program nation-wide to build educational opportunities for all youth.  For additional information contact Kids Read Now at 877-536-0130 or visit www.kidsreadnow.org.