Enrollment in Reading Initiative Ticks Up Slowly

About 17 percent of eligible students have enrolled in a $200 million state initiative to deliver free books to the homes of struggling elementary-school readers since a sign-up period opened in October.

Lawmakers last year created the New Worlds Reading Initiative, a priority of House Speaker Chris Sprowls, R-Palm Harbor. Sprowls said last year he expected the book-delivery program to accelerate an effort to reach a state goal of 90 percent of third-grade students reading on grade level by 2030.

The program had enrolled 91,308 students in kindergarten through fifth grade as of Friday, according to the University of Florida’s Lastinger Center for Learning, which administers the program. That accounts for 16.8 percent of students eligible for the program.

Phil Poekert, director of the Lastinger Center, said Monday the program’s enrollment “continues to tick up” every day. “We’re going to continue to push forward in order to get more students recruited and enrolled in the program,”

Poekert told the House Early Learning & Elementary Education Subcommittee. The efforts to get the word out include a targeted TV and radio advertising campaign and partnerships with school districts.

Kindergarten students make up the largest part of the program’s enrollment, at 18,242, while fifth grade students make up the smallest number at 12,413.

The school districts in Lee, Miami-Dade, Orange, Polk and Hillsborough counties have the largest numbers of students enrolled in the program.