OKLAHOMA CITY (OBV) — The Senate Education Committee is slated to take up SB 1338 on Tuesday, Feb. 10, at 10:00 a.m. in Room 535, a bill that would make the Strong Readers Act’s literacy instructional team a permanent, statewide support for schools rather than a three‑year pilot.
The measure, authored by Sen. Adam Pugh, also ties eligibility for certain Strong Readers Act funds to a district’s acceptance of prioritized instructional support when offered by the State Department of Education.
“There’s 947 elementary school sites around the state of Oklahoma, and our goal is to have a reading specialist in every single one of those sites,” Pugh said during a January State Chamber press conference.
The bill updates reporting to a biennial cadence beginning December 31, 2026, requiring an evaluation of team deployment by district and data on whether the support increased reading proficiency, with recommendations for changes to the Strong Readers Act. SB 1338 carries an emergency clause and sets an effective date of July 1, 2026.
What SB 1338 does:
- Ends the pilot and makes the literacy instructional team permanent, with regional placements statewide.
- Ties eligibility for certain Strong Readers Act funds to accepting prioritized instructional support from the State Department of Education.
- Requires biennial reporting beginning Dec. 31, 2026, including district‑level deployment, impact on reading proficiency, and recommendations
