READ Act changes, diplomas for Korea, Vietnam veterans

Better late than never is one aspect of a new law.

It requires school districts and charter schools to issue, upon request, high school diplomas to veterans who to served their country during the Korean Conflict and the Vietnam War and did not finish their secondary education.

Rep. Patricia Mueller (R-Austin) and Sen. Steve Cwodzinski (DFL-Eden Prairie) sponsor the law that will also make changes to the state’s READ Act that aims to ensure every Minnesota child, beginning in kindergarten, annually reads at or above grade level, and supports multilingual learner and students receiving special education services in achieving their individualized reading goals to meet grade-level benchmarks.

The law takes effect Aug. 1, 2026, unless otherwise noted.

Per the law, any teacher candidate enrolled in a Minnesota-approved elementary, special education, or early childhood education teacher preparation program on or after June 1, 2026, will not have to take READ Act training because they get that education in their teacher preparation program.

By Oct. 1, 2026, the Education Department is to establish an ongoing review process to identify curriculum and intervention materials using the READ Act rubric that’s posted on the department’s website. This is effective May 28, 2026.

Among other changes, the law will direct a district to administer an approved reading screener to grade 4-12 students not reading at grade level at least once per year until the student reaches grade-level proficiency, require local literacy plans to include a description of how schools in the district will use the school library media center to complement students’ foundational reading skills, and allow an English language learner’s screening for the characteristics of dyslexia to be done according to vendor assessment guidelines.

And the law deals with early literacy field experience by requiring a teacher preparation program that prepares candidates to provide instruction in early literacy to provide candidates with a supervised early literacy field experience aligned to evidence-based best practices in reading consistent with the Read Act. This takes effect July 1, 2026.

HF4492*/SF4560/CH125

HF4492* / SF4560 / CH125