California's Universal K-2 Reading Screening: A Parent's Guide
Since the 2025-26 school year, every California school district must screen all kindergarten, first-grade, and second-grade students once a year for risk of reading difficulties — including possible neurological disorders such as dyslexia (Education Code §53008, enacted through SB 114 in 2023). Your district must tell you about the screening at least 15 calendar days before it happens, you may opt out in writing, and the law contains two guardrails every parent should know verbatim: a screener result is a risk flag, not a diagnosis — and screening may not be used to delay a special education referral.
Here's how the system works and how to use it.
What the law requires
Under Ed Code §53008:
- Who: all K-2 students, every year, in districts, county offices, and charter schools serving those grades.
- When it started: no later than the 2025-26 school year (districts had to adopt their chosen screener at a public board meeting by June 30, 2025).
- With what: an instrument from the state-approved list (next section).
- Notice to you: information about the screening at least 15 calendar days before administration.
- Your opt-out: parents may exempt their child in writing.
- After a flag: the district must provide supports and services matched to what the screener identified.
The four approved screeners
The State Board of Education's expert panel approved four instruments (final list adopted December 16, 2024). Your district uses one of these:
| Screener | Publisher | Grades | Languages |
|---|---|---|---|
| Amira | Amira Learning / HMH | K-2 | English, Spanish |
| mCLASS with DIBELS 8 / mCLASS Lectura | Amplify | K-2 | English, Spanish |
| Multitudes | UC San Francisco Dyslexia Center | K-2 | English, Spanish |
| ROAR (Rapid Online Assessment of Reading) | Stanford University | 1-2 | English only |
If you're not sure which one your district adopted, ask — the adoption happened at a public board meeting, so it's on the record. Score decoders for the most common platform: DIBELS · mCLASS.
The two guardrails — and why they're in the law
The Legislature anticipated two failure modes and wrote protections against both into §53008:
- "A flag, not a diagnosis." Screening results indicate potential risk; the statute says they shall not be considered an evaluation that establishes special education eligibility. Translation: a flag doesn't label your child — and a clean screen doesn't certify there's no problem.
- Screening can't gate Child Find. The law says screening shall not be used to delay a referral for special education assessment — and federal law separately bars using intervention frameworks to delay or deny an evaluation. A district may not tell you "we can't evaluate until after the screening cycle" or "the screener says she's fine, so no assessment." Your referral rights run on their own track.
If your child is flagged
The district owes supports matched to the identified risk — typically structured small-group reading intervention. Reasonable questions to put in writing: which of the four instruments was used, which skills were flagged, what intervention starts and when, who delivers it, and when will we see progress data?
And if the flag matches what you're seeing at home — or your child stays flagged across windows despite help — you can start the special education assessment track in parallel, at any time. In California your written referral triggers a 15-calendar-day clock for the district to give you an assessment plan, and your signed consent starts the 60-calendar-day clock to assessment and IEP meeting (both clocks pause over longer school breaks). The full step-by-step: how to request an assessment in California.
If you're considering opting out
The opt-out is yours, no questions asked — some families of already-diagnosed children, or children already deep in assessment, use it to avoid redundant testing. Two things to weigh: the screener is brief and low-stakes for the child, and a documented flag can be useful leverage — it's school-generated data supporting the closer look you may want anyway. Opting out doesn't affect any other right on this page.
One more thing worth knowing about translated communications
Screening notices typically arrive in your district's standard parent-communication languages. Your assessment-track rights carry their own language protections — assessment plans must be in your native language unless clearly infeasible (Ed Code §56321(b)), and the state's procedural-safeguards notice is published in translation, including Chinese. If your family communicates best in another language, see our guide to interpreter and translation rights in the IEP process (中文).
Get a plain-language read of your child's results
Paste the screening notice or results letter and get a free plain-language read in about 2 minutes: what was measured, what §53008 requires next, and what a parallel assessment request would look like for your situation. You can redact your child's name.
Sources
- Ed Code §53008 (official text, leginfo)
- CDE — Reading Difficulties Risk Screener FAQs (approved-instrument table)
- CDE — Quality Assurance / procedural safeguards hub
- Related: What a screener flag means, in any state
IEP Explained provides analysis and preparation tools — you decide and you send. We are not a law firm, we do not provide legal advice or representation, and nothing on this page is legal advice for your specific situation.