Missouri · MO
Missouri literacy law: Reading Success Plans and the Read Lead Exceed initiative
Missouri's HB 2493 requires K-3 reading screening, Reading Success Plans for struggling readers, and structured-literacy intervention. Plain-English summary for district leaders.
At-a-glance reference
- Law name
- HB 2493 (2022) — Reading Success Plans
- Year passed
- 2022
- Applies to
- K-3 (screening + Reading Success Plans)
- Screening
- Required
Key requirements
What the law requires of districts.
- HB 2493 (2022) requires Reading Success Plans for K-3 students identified as reading below grade level
- Universal K-3 reading screening required, three times per year
- Tier 2 / Tier 3 structured-literacy intervention triggered by screening results
- Parent notification of reading-deficiency status required
- Read, Lead, Exceed framework is the state's Science-of-Reading implementation vehicle
- Science-of-Reading-aligned teacher PD encouraged statewide
Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) provides Science of Reading-aligned curriculum guidance through the Read, Lead, Exceed framework.
A note on Missouri’s literacy framework
Missouri’s K-3 literacy framework rests on a combination of statute and DESE-led implementation guidance rather than a single signature curriculum mandate. The core elements district leaders need to understand:
- HB 2493 (2022) — the foundational K-3 reading-screening and Reading Success Plan statute. Requires three-times-yearly screening, individualized plans for students reading below grade level, and parent notification.
- Read, Lead, Exceed — DESE’s Science-of-Reading implementation framework. Provides curriculum guidance, PD resources, and the broader instructional vision under which HB 2493 operates.
- DESE Office of College and Career Readiness — Literacy — the state office maintaining curriculum guidance, sample Reading Success Plan templates, and recommended progress-monitoring practices.
- Local district adoption authority — Missouri does not maintain a single state-approved curriculum list the way some states do. Districts make adoption decisions, but DESE guidance under Read, Lead, Exceed favors structured-literacy, Science-of-Reading-aligned materials.
The Missouri model is intentionally less prescriptive on specific curriculum titles than Florida or Mississippi, while still pulling districts toward a structured-literacy implementation through screening, intervention, and PD requirements.
What this means for district adoption decisions
When evaluating literacy products for Missouri use, district curriculum offices typically check:
- Science-of-Reading alignment — does the product’s instructional model match the structured-literacy approach DESE guidance points toward?
- Reading Success Plan compatibility — does the product produce the screening, progress-monitoring, and parent-communication outputs a Reading Success Plan requires?
- K-3 screening data flow — does the product integrate with or complement the district’s chosen universal screener?
- ESSA evidence tier — for federally-funded supplemental purchases, what tier of evidence does the product carry?
- Tier 2 / Tier 3 intervention support — does the product support the differentiation a Reading Success Plan requires for students working below grade level?
For supplemental and intervention purchases, ESSA evidence tier is the key federal-funding gate. Storytime’s ESSA Tier 4 evidence rationale supports federal-fund procurement of supplemental practice tools.
Common implementation challenges
Three issues come up repeatedly as Missouri districts implement HB 2493 and the Read, Lead, Exceed framework:
1. Reading Success Plan documentation overhead. Each plan needs the student’s reading-deficiency profile, the intervention being provided, progress-monitoring data, and parent-communication records. Teachers can spend substantial time on plan upkeep instead of instruction. Storytime’s Skill Tree analytics captures the progress-monitoring data Reading Success Plans require as a byproduct of student practice, reducing the documentation burden.
2. ORF data for progress monitoring. Reading Success Plans need ongoing progress monitoring, and ORF (oral reading fluency) is the standard fluency measure. Capturing weekly ORF for every below-grade-level student is operationally hard in a classroom. Storytime’s ORF assessment lets every student record reading passages weekly with automatic WCPM + prosody scoring.
3. Decodable-text-to-lesson alignment. Missouri districts that adopt Science-of-Reading-aligned cores like UFLI Foundations face the same scope-and-sequence problem every district does: most decodable libraries are level-tagged, not lesson-tagged. Teachers spend significant time hunting for books that match the specific lesson their student is on — exactly the gap Storytime’s decodable library + on-demand generation addresses.
How Storytime supports Missouri districts
ESSA Tier 4 evidence rationale + structured-literacy alignment.
Storytime sits on top of the structured-literacy curricula Missouri districts adopt (UFLI Foundations, Wilson Fundations, Amplify CKLA, IMSE Orton-Gillingham, and 3 others) and provides the digital practice layer: decodable library + on-demand generation, adaptive journeys, ORF assessment with WCPM scoring, and Skill Tree analytics across the six SoR pillars. Our published ESSA Tier 4 evidence rationale documents the logic model + research base.
Storytime does not replace your phonics curriculum — it extends its reach to every student on the exact lesson they're on, with universal screening and progress monitoring data designed for MO's MTSS framework.
FAQ
Common questions about Missouri's literacy law.
- What is a Reading Success Plan?
- A Reading Success Plan is an individualized written plan Missouri schools must develop for any K-3 student identified as reading below grade level through the required reading screening. The plan documents the student's specific reading deficiencies, the structured-literacy intervention being provided, progress-monitoring cadence, and parent communication expectations. It functions as Missouri's equivalent of an IRP — a working document that follows the student until they reach grade-level reading proficiency.
- What screening is required under Missouri law?
- Missouri requires universal reading screening for K-3 students three times per year. Students who score below grade-level benchmarks on the screener must receive a Reading Success Plan and tiered intervention. Districts choose their specific screening instrument but the cadence and the trigger-to-intervention pathway are set in statute.
- What changed with HB 2493 in 2022?
- HB 2493 formalized Missouri's K-3 reading-screening and intervention framework into law. Before the bill, screening and intervention practice varied widely across districts. The bill standardized the requirement for three-times-yearly screening, mandated Reading Success Plans for students reading below grade level, required parent notification, and pointed districts toward Science-of-Reading-aligned instruction as the basis for intervention design.
- Does Missouri require teachers to be trained in the Science of Reading?
- Missouri strongly encourages and funds Science-of-Reading-aligned professional development through the Read, Lead, Exceed framework administered by DESE. The state does not impose a single statutory training mandate on every K-3 teacher, but districts receiving state literacy funding and many local educator-preparation programs have aligned their training pathways to Science-of-Reading principles.
- Does Missouri ban three-cueing?
- Missouri does not have an explicit statutory ban on three-cueing. However, the Read, Lead, Exceed framework and DESE's curriculum guidance both center on structured-literacy and Science-of-Reading principles, which treat three-cueing as inconsistent with how skilled reading develops. Districts adopting new core or intervention materials should expect DESE guidance to favor decoding-first approaches.
- Do charter schools and independent districts have to comply?
- Missouri's K-3 reading-screening and Reading Success Plan requirements under HB 2493 apply to public school districts and charter schools serving K-3 students. Independent and private schools are not bound by the statute but increasingly adopt similar screening and intervention practices to align with current literacy research.
- Where does Storytime fit in a Missouri-compliant literacy stack?
- Storytime is positioned as the digital practice + assessment layer on top of a district's chosen Missouri-aligned core curriculum. We cross-tag 2,000+ decodable books to scope-and-sequences from UFLI Foundations and other Science-of-Reading-aligned cores, capture the ORF data Reading Success Plans need for progress monitoring, and our ESSA Tier 4 evidence rationale supports the supplemental-purchasing case.
Disclaimer: This page summarizes publicly-available information about Missouri's literacy law and is provided for educational reference. It is not legal advice. State requirements evolve — verify current rules with the Missouri Department of Education and your district legal counsel before making compliance decisions. Last reviewed: May 2026.