The U.S. Department of Education is offering two new grants to develop literacy skills among young children. Enacted by the No Child Left Behind Act, Reading First and Early Reading First will provide funds to states and local projects, respectively, to help schools reach President Bush's goal of ensuring that every child can read at or above grade level by the end of third grade.

The Reading First program focuses on high­quality, comprehensive reading instruction in K-3 classrooms by providing state­administered subgrants. The president proposes to invest $6 billion in this program over the next six years.

Designed to complement this grant, Early Reading First is a smaller program for preschool­age children. Under Early Reading First, $75 million is available for fiscal year 2002 for direct competitive grants from the Department to eligible local education agencies (LEAs) and public and private organizations in communities served by those LEAs. Grants will be for a period of up to three years, with annual continuation funding as appropriate during that period.

The overall purpose of the Early Reading First Program is to prepare young children to enter kindergarten with the necessary language, cognitive and early reading skills to prevent reading difficulties and ensure reading success.

Applicant eligibility for Early Reading First grants is tied to basic LEA eligibility for subgrants under the Reading First State Grants Program. To meet the basic eligibility criteria, each eligible school district-or LEA-must be among the LEAs in the state with the highest percentages of students in kindergarten through grade 3 who are reading below grade level.

Several rounds of review of state applications for Reading First have been scheduled during May and June; applications received after June 12 will be reviewed on a rolling basis. For more information, contact Chris Doherty by e­mail at Reading.First@ed.gov or by telephone at 202­-401-­0113. Also, visit http://www.ed.gov/offices/OESE/readingfirst.

The pre­application for Early Reading First is due June 21. For additional details, contact Patricia McKee at ERF@ed.govor at 202-260-­4555. Also, visit http://www.ed.gov/offices/OESE/earlyreading.