The Education Subcommittee adopted the dash A5 amendment to House Bill 3040 on Thursday and forwarded the bill to the Ways and Means Full Committee with a due‑pass recommendation.

House Bill 3040, as described by the Legislative Fiscal Office, adjusts statutes for the early literacy grant program to add accountability measures, clarifies research‑aligned literacy strategies for kindergarten through grade 5, and expands allowable uses of funding to include professional development and instructional assistance in elementary schools. The bill contains reporting and data collection requirements for districts and defines ODE’s authority to require school districts that are not meeting proficiency goals to adopt specific textbooks or other instructional materials.

The dash A5 amendment deletes sections 6 through 8 of the earlier version of the measure, removing requirements for the early literacy coaching program and a directive for ODE to establish 10 regions for assessment of coaching providers. LFO staff explained the sections were removed because, “At the current program funding level, it would be very difficult for small schools with the minimum grant award to accomplish all the requirements within these 3 sections of the measure,” and deletion “alleviates that fiscal impact the measure will have on school districts.” LFO recommended adoption of the amendment.

Lawmakers debating the amendment emphasized implementation, coaching and sustained professional development. Senator Frederick cautioned that reading‑improvement work often plateaus without long‑term supports and said, “Every reading, effort that I've seen over the last 40 years is scientifically based officially. And it ends up lasting only a short period of time. I'd like to make sure that we are in fact gonna be committed to this so that we can actually see the impact and not expect the impact to take place in a year and a half.” Senator Weber urged concentrated coaching and training in classrooms, saying, “we have got to stop acting like squirrels and we've got to concentrate and The coaching program.” Representative Wright said the bill would provide tutoring for teachers and help stabilize student progress when students move between schools.

Action and next steps: the dash A5 amendment was moved, no objection was recorded and the subcommittee recommended HB 3040 as amended to the Ways and Means Full Committee with a due‑pass recommendation. Committee members said they will follow implementation reports and continue oversight as the bill moves forward.

Details: the record shows the amendment deletes the coaching‑region requirement (sections 6–8) because of fiscal concerns for small schools; the measure still includes accountability, reporting and authority provisions for ODE to require instructional materials for districts not meeting proficiency goals.