The Get Georgia Reading Campaign is designed to nurture and facilitate collaboration so that, together, we create the conditions necessary for each and every child in Georgia to be on a path to reading proficiently by the end of third grade.
We aim to provide partners and stakeholders with useful resources to learn more and take action. These videos, partner links, and publications are aimed at helping parents, teachers, community leaders, and organization partners spread the message, share ideas about programs and strategies, and take action in your community.
You are your child’s first and most important teacher. Our partners offer resources, data, and more that you can use to support your child’s language and literacy development.
Use this toolkit and community-level data to learn about the four-pillar framework and engage public and private partners that care about children ages 8 and under in a conversation about what needs to be done.
Georgia is innovating a practice that integrates strategies from the preschool model of PBIS into the school-wide model used in K-12. These tools will help teachers and administrators understand and apply the knowledge of child development to better lay a secure foundation for children during their first few years of early elementary school.
This toolkit is designed for individuals, practitioners, and policymakers to institute a new, proactive approach that employs language as a well-being indicator similar to others—like vision, hearing, and oral health—and is foundational for educational, mental health, and well-being outcomes.
Partner Resources
- Attendance Works: This national and statewide initiative promotes better policy and practice around school attendance.
- Books for Keeps: This program works to address barriers related to the accessibility and appeal of reading material by providing books to children in grades pre-k through 12.
- Bright By Text: Bright by Text is a free service that provides activities, games, and resources right to your smartphone. Messages are targeted to your child’s age and include information on child development, language and early literacy, health and safety, behavioral tips, and more. Message and data rates may apply. To get started, text GPB to 274448 or fill out this form. Subscribers can receive texts in English or Spanish.
- Bright from the Start: The Georgia Department of Early Care and Learning (DECAL): Parents of children ages 0-5 can get family-friendly information about child care programs, parenting tips, and access to meals. Child care providers can access information and resources about becoming a Georgia Pre-K program provider, enrolling in Quality Rated, and/or creating lesson plans and activities aligned with Georgia Early Learning and Development Standards.
- The Campaign for Grade-Level Reading: Our national partner’s website shares ideas and inspiration from communities across the nation. Watch Ralph Smith, the national Campaign’s managing director, discuss the power of the Get Georgia Reading Campaign’s four-pillar framework.
- Chat About Children: This educational series for families from DECAL features episodes on monitoring development, supporting transition back to child care and school, building your young child’s brain, engaging children in play, how early language builds literacy, and more.
- Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment: The GaDOE offers teachers rigorous standards, quality instructional resources, and online professional learning materials to prepare students for graduation and postsecondary college and career opportunities.
- DECAL Scholars: Early childhood professionals receive support in continuous learning through academic pursuit, training, technical assistance, and mentoring.
- DevelopingSoundSense.org: The Georgia Preschool Association sponsors resources to teach your child to read, including games, lessons, and flashcards.
- Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library: Dolly Parton aims to foster a love of reading among preschool children and their families by mailing children one free, age-appropriate book per month from birth to age 5. Parents can register their children for this program that’s available in Georgia in Bartow, Camden, Catoosa, Chattahoochee, Clinch, Clarke, Colquitt, Cook, Dade, Dawson, Decatur, Echols, Elbert, Greene, Hall, Hart, Jefferson, Johnson, Lincoln, Lowndes, Lumpkin, Macon, Marion, Mitchell, Muscogee, Oconee, Oglethorpe, Richmond, Stephens, Talbot, Taylor, Thomas, Tift, Towns, Walker, Washington, White, and Worth counties and Savannah.
- Early Warning: Why Reading By the End of Third Grade Matters: This KIDS COUNT special report from the Annie E. Casey Foundation summarizes the research basis for focusing on third-grade reading proficiency and launching a national Campaign for Grade-Level Reading.
- Ferst Readers: Through partnerships with local, all-volunteer Community Action Teams, Ferst Readers provides books to children in the mail every month until their fifth birthdays to prepare them for reading and learning success.
- Georgia Early Education Alliance for Ready Students (GEEARS):GEEARS champions policies, promotes innovative and evidence-based practices, and works to build public will to support high-quality early learning and healthy development for Georgia’s youngest children.
- Georgia Early Learning Development Standards (GELDS) Toolbox: DECAL offers supplemental resources to support early learning programs in implementing the GELDS.
- Georgia KIDS COUNT: Georgia Family Connection Partnership compiles current, reliable data on child well-being in each of our state’s 159 counties, reporting year-to-year data highlights, trends, and disparities to inform planning, budget, and policy decisions regarding priorities, services, and resources that impact Georgia’s children, families, and communities.
- Georgia Pathways: This resource for deaf and hard-of-hearing children, their families, and their communities provides information about how to locate statewide programs and partners, access services, and obtain resources for families and professional
- Georgia Public Library Services: Use this search tool to find a public library near you.
- Georgia SHAPE: The Governor’s statewide, multi-agency and multi-dimensional initiative that brings together governmental, philanthropic, academic and business communities to address childhood (0-18) obesity in Georgia.
- GeorgiaStandards.Org: This free website provides information and resources to meet the educational needs of students as well as enhance and support teaching and learning of Georgia standards.
- Georgia Statewide Afterschool Network (GSAN): GSAN is a public-private collaborative that advances, connects, and supports high quality afterschool and summer learning programs throughout Georgia.
- Georgia Student Health Survey 2.0: The first step to improving school climate is to measure and analyze it with a school climate survey instrument. The GSHS 2.0 identifies safety and health issues that have a negative impact on student achievement and school climate.
- GeorgiaSummer.org: Parents can access links to healthy meals, safe environments, and books and educational opportunities that will keep children engaged during the summer break.
- Governor’s Office of Student Achievement (GOSA) Report Card and Georgia School Reports and Georgia Council on Literacy: The Report Card includes school-, system-, and state-level reports providing detailed data on a wide range of student achievement and demographic indicators for every public school in the state. The School Reports include A-F letter grades for each school based on school performance, performance on state tests, the makeup of the student body, and graduation rate. The Georgia Council on Literacy was established by legislation in 2023 to guide state and local leaders in developing and implementing literacy plans.
- Great Start Georgia: Parents expecting a baby or families with young children can learn about all the services in their community they can turn to when needed.
- Horizons National Summer Learning: This tuition-free, summer academic program serves low-income public school students at independent schools, colleges, and universities.
- Inclusion Services: DECAL offers resources and documents that help support early care and education providers’ successful inclusion of children with disabilities in early care and learning programs.
- Innovation in Teaching Competition: Beyond the Textbook: This competition promotes excellence in the classroom by recognizing and rewarding educators who are using innovative strategies to advance student achievement, and then making videos of the winning teachers, along with their unit plans and supplementary materials, available to all Georgia educators.
- National Summer Learning Association (NSLA): NSLA is a national, non-profit organization focused on the powerful impact of one achievable goal: investing in summer learning to help close the opportunity gap. NSLA uses the power of research, advocacy, training, and policy to transform America’s neighborhoods and communities, one child at a time.
- 1,000 Books B4 Kindergarten: Public libraries across the state encourage parents to read 1,000 books with their children before the age of 5 through this fun and easy program.
- Online Analytical Statistical Information System (OASIS): The Georgia Department of Public Health developed this suite of tools to obtain tables, maps, and charts of a variety of public health indicators. These indicators in each tool are selectable by a variety of population, disease, and survey characteristics.
- Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports (PBIS): This evidence-based, data-driven framework is a way to improve school climate, reduce disciplinary incidents, increase a school’s sense of safety, and support improved student outcomes.
- Pre-K Summer Transition Programming: DECAL’s six-week intensive academic program is for rising kindergarteners that meet specified criteria. The experience is designed to reduce the achievement gap by providing additional family support and resources to targeted high-needs populations.
- Quality Rated Child Care: DECAL offers an online search tool to find “Quality Rated” early-learning programs along with tips about choosing the best child care program.
- Reach Out and Read Georgia: Young children receive a foundation for success by incorporating books into pediatric care and encouraging families to read aloud together. Find a program near you.
- Read Right from the Start and its Cox Campus: A robust set of free online courses and resources designed by the Rollins Center for Language and Literacy for families, educators, education leaders, and healthcare professionals.
- Regional Educational Service Agency (RESA) Growing Readers Program: This K-3 literacy professional learning grant is administered through GOSA and aims to provide consistent, high-quality professional learning to teachers on effective reading instruction to help more children read at grade level by the end of third grade.
- Safe and Drug-Free Schools: The Office of Whole Child Supports at Georgia Department of Education provides teachers, administrators, and communities with resources aimed at addressing student barriers to success such as bullying, suicide, and alcohol and drug use in schools.
- School Climate Star Ratings: Schools that provide a warm, welcoming, and nurturing environment to students and staff tend to have higher attendance rates, better test scores, and higher graduation rates. The GaDOE evaluates and measures school climate for parents and stakeholders with a 1-5 star rating. The comprehensive report that schools receive helps them identify and address areas in need of improvement.
- Social Emotional Engagement – Knowledge and Skills (SEE-KS): This professional development model is built around neuroscience-based instructional strategies that help educators integrate social-emotional engagement practices into lesson plans to ensure all children are forming positive relationships that fuel the motivation essential for language and literacy development.
- Springboard Connect: This free web-based, texting app provides personalized tips, resources, and reminders to support parents as reading coaches to their children, charting families’ progress on the learning journey.
- Summer Food Service Program: Many children go hungry during the summer and can fall behind in school. To ensure all kids have access to nutritious meals and learning opportunities to keep them on track year round, DECAL and the GaDOE have a summer meal program locator.
- Talk With Me Baby: This Georgia-based collaborative works to ensure all infants and children receive abundant Language Nutrition to support early brain development. They have developed a wide array of resources for parents, caregivers, nurses, educators, and concerned citizens.
- Women, Infants, and Children Supplemental Nutrition Program (WIC): This federally funded health and nutrition program is for children ages 0-5 and women who are pregnant, nursing, or have recently given birth.