State leaders are making moves to ensure that children in Ohio can learn their ABC’s as early as the ages of one, two and three.
 
The Third-Grade Reading Guarantee in Senate Bill 316, includes a provision that seeks to give children a good start on literacy skills, even before kindergarten.
 
The Ohio Children’s Caucus worked on the measure, and co-chair State Senator Peggy Lehner says a lot of children show up at their first day of school already two years behind their peers.
 

 
The recommendations in the measure will identify early learning strategies that support successful reading achievement for all of Ohio’s children by the third grade, with the ultimate goal of preparing children for success throughout their school years and increasing college and career readiness.
 
The Third Grade Reading Guarantee promises to teach Ohio’s children to read before they can move onto the 4th grade.
 
State Representative Ted Celeste, who also co-chairs the Children’s Caucus, says adding the provision to focus on early literacy as a part of that goal is important.
 
He says he’s seen the benefit in the work he’s done with children who have dyslexia.
 

 
The timing of the legislation is geared toward aligning literacy resources and efforts while Ohio implements its $70 million Race to the Top-Early Learning Challenge, awarded last December.