Illinois has made great strides toward improving our literacy rates and ensuring all students have access to evidence-based literacy instruction, but our work is not done! In order for students to receive quality instruction, their teachers must have access to quality, research-aligned professional development. Help us make that a reality by submitting a witness slip in favor of HB 1368 (Faver Dias), a bill that would require any professional development related to English Language Arts to be aligned with the Comprehensive Literacy Plan for grades PreK-12.

Witness slips are a great way to show support for a bill as it goes before a legislative committee, and they only take 3 – 5 minutes to complete! Here’s how to do it:

1. Start here, at the General Assembly’s committee dashboard page for HB 1368.
2. Fill in your contact information. (Under “Firm or Business,” feel free to write “IL Early Literacy Coalition,” “self,” “parent,”  or any other affiliation you are representing.)
3. Under “Representation,” again write something like “parent” or “IL Early Literacy Coalition.”
4. Check the box “Proponent.”
5. Check the box “Record of Appearance Only.”
6. Check the box to agree to terms of service.
7. And finally, click the box “Create (slip).” (And do the CAPTCHA if they give you one.)

Thank you for helping bring Illinois one step closer to having evidence-based literacy instruction in every classroom!