Bill granting diplomas to war veterans, modifying school literacy rules to governor

Better late than never is one aspect of a bill heading to a former teacher for his signature.

Amended and passed unanimously by the Senate Sunday afternoon, and unanimously by the House a few hours later, HF4492 would require school districts and charter schools to issue, upon request, high school diplomas to veterans who dropped out of high school to serve 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 bill passed unanimously by the House and Senate Sunday. It now awaits action by Gov. Tim Walz.

READ Act changes

The bill would 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 learners and students receiving special education services in achieving their individualized reading goals to meet grade-level benchmarks.

Per the bill, as of June 1, 2026, any teacher candidate enrolled in a Minnesota-approved elementary, special education, or early childhood education teacher preparation program 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.

Among other changes, the bill would 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 with the guidance of a licensed library media specialist, allow a parent to opt their student out of the literacy screener if the parent and teacher decide that continuing to screen would not be beneficial to the student, and allow an English language learner’s screening for the characteristics of dyslexia to be done according to vendor assessment guidelines.

And the bill 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.

“We want to make sure our teachers when they come out of school are prepared to teach literacy. The only way you can do that is have students directly in front of you and practicing with them,” said Rep. Mary Frances Clardy (DFL-Inver Grove Heights).