Personal Reading Plan

Personal Reading Plans

Wis. Stat. §§ 118.016 mandates criteria for supporting 5K-3rd grade students scoring below the 25th percentile on a state reading readiness assessment. Specifically, schools/district must engage in collaborative efforts to identify those students’ literacy strengths and needs in order to develop personal reading plans to advance their early literacy proficiency.

At minimum, these personal reading plans for 5K-3rd grade students must include the following components:

• Universal instruction
• Areas of literacy skill needs
• Literacy goals and benchmarks
• Reading interventions and instructional services
• Progress monitoring
• Additional instructional services
• Support strategies for the parents/caregivers
• Signature of parents/caregivers after reviewing the plan

The Personal Reading Plan Toolkit is available at this link.

Information about the intersection between a personal reading plan and an individualized education plan (IEP) is available at this link.

While these optional resources were designed to support the development of personal reading plans based on the requirements of Wis. Stat. §§ 118.016, each school/district maintains local decision-making authority and should utilize the expertise of their school communities when designing personal reading plans.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do 4K students have to have personal reading plans? (updated 9/24/24)

No. Wis. Stat. § 118.016 requires diagnostic assessment and personal reading plans for 5K through grade 3 only.

Wis. Stat. § 118.016 does require that local education agencies (LEAs) report the number of 4K students who are “at-risk”. Any student who is below the 25th percentile in both subtests administered in spring is considered “at-risk” for reporting purposes. No student will be reported “at-risk” as a result of their performance on the fall screening.

In 5K through grade 3, students who are at-risk must have a personal reading plan. How is at-risk determined? (updated 7/25/25)

Per Wis. Stat. §§ 118.016, “‘at-risk’ means a pupil scored below the 25th percentile on a universal screening assessment or diagnostic assessment, as indicated by the publisher of the assessment.

aimswebPlus does not offer a single score that is a compilation of the subtests required by Wisconsin statute. Therefore, the following are used to determine at-risk at each grade.

This information, along with a list of required subtests at each grade level, can be found in the matrix at the “Content” portion of the Wisconsin/Pearson aimswebPlus site.

Per Wis. Stat. §§ 118.016, all Wisconsin-required subtests must be administered, even those not used to determine risk status. Data from all subtests can be used to inform universal instruction at the programmatic or student level and diagnostic assessment.

• In 5K, a student is at-risk if their composite score (comprised on letter naming fluency and letter word sounds fluency) is below the 25th percentile
• In grades 1, a student is at-risk if their composite score is below the 25th percentile (as of August 1, 2025, comprised of nonsense word fluency, word recognition, and oral reading fluency).
• In grades 2 and 3, a student is at risk if their oral reading fluency subtest score is below the 25th percentile.

Who creates the personal reading plan? What must be included in a personal reading plan?

The child’s school is responsible for creating the personal reading plan. The plan must include at least all of the following:

• The pupil's specific early literacy skill deficiencies, as identified by the applicable assessment.
• Goals and benchmarks for the pupil's progress toward grade-level literacy skills.
• How the pupil's progress will be monitored.
• A description of the interventions and any additional instructional services that will be provided to the pupil to address the pupil's early literacy skill deficiencies.
• The programming that the pupil's teacher will use to provide reading instruction to the pupil. This programming must align to the definition of science-based early literacy instruction as stated in Act 20 and address the areas of phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension.
• Strategies the pupil's parent is encouraged to use to help the pupil achieve grade-level literacy skills.
• Any additional services available and appropriate to accelerate the pupil's early literacy skill development.

A student is an English learner and/or has an IEP. Do they still need a personal reading plan? (updated 9/24/24)

If the student has scored below the 25th percentile on the reading readiness screener, the student must receive a PRP.

An English learner’s (EL's) personal reading plan may be combined with their individualized language plan (ILP). This is allowable if a learner's ILP contains all of the information required in a personal reading plan. Note that in that case, the ILP would need to include information both about language development, which should be aligned to Wisconsin's English Language Development Standards, and information about how the learner's English reading skills and abilities will be supported.

If a student is currently receiving specially designed instruction in reading, the IEP team may want to consider incorporating the PRP into the IEP. If the PRP is not incorporated into the IEP, the district must ensure that the PRP is consistent with the student’s IEP and does not reference special education services that are not incorporated within the IEP, or state the services differently than what is required by the IEP. The student’s IEP would be the controlling document, as special education services must be determined through the IEP team process. More information is available at Act 20: Students with Disabilities.

When must a personal reading plan be created? (updated 9/24/24)

In 5K through grade 3, the first time a student scores at or below the 25th percentile on the universal screener, the student is engaged in diagnostic assessment and a personal reading plan is created. A personal reading plan begins the first time a student scores below the 25th percentile on the universal screener. Therefore, a personal reading plan could begin after fall, midyear, or spring administration of the screener.

In fall, personal reading plans must be written no later than the third Friday in November. For students newly below the 25th percentile in midyear or spring screener administration, a plan must be written no later than 10 days after the applicable screening assessment is administered. A personal reading plan must be implemented as soon as practical.

Once a student has a personal reading plan, every subsequent administration of the screener is an opportunity to engage in updated diagnostic assessment and related revision of the personal reading plan. Communication with families or caregivers is ongoing and must happen at least every 10 weeks. An updated parent or caregiver signature should be collected each time the personal reading plan is updated.

Do schools have to notify families about the personal reading plan?

Yes. Local education agencies (public schools and independent charter schools) will provide a copy of the personal reading plan to parents as well as provide progress updates after 10 weeks.

When does a student no longer require a personal reading plan? How does a student exit a personal reading plan? (updated 9/24/24)

In Grade 3

Wis. Stat. §§ 118.016 states that a 3rd grade student who has a personal reading plan is considered to have completed the personal reading plan if parents/caregivers and the school agree the student has met the goals in the personal reading plan and the student scores at or above grade-level on the reading portion of the Wisconsin Forward exam in grade 3 (118.016(5)(d)). This is the only place Wis. Stat. §§ 118.016 details completion of a personal reading plan.

In 5K through grade 2

In 5K through grade 2, local education agencies (LEAs) may set their own processes for exiting personal reading plans. These processes could include:

• listing multiple sources of literacy data, including tools that are highly valid and reliable with strong classification accuracy, that can be used to understand a student’s literacy progress relative to grade-level standards;
• establishing child-specific teams with parents/caregivers as equal partners to make decisions about a child’s literacy instruction, including decisions about exiting a personal reading plan;
• using varied data sources to understand a student’s literacy progress relative to grade-level standards;
• using a process for educators and parents/caregivers to discuss formal and informal literacy data to ensure that support in universal instruction, reading intervention, and progress monitoring match a student’s individual strengths and levels of need about a student’s literacy progress to reach agreement about what supports are needed;
• including details about exiting a personal reading plan in the personal reading plan;
• including details about what sorts of supports and monitoring may need to stay in place temporarily after exiting a personal reading plan; and/or
• articulating all related school or district policy in the local early literacy remediation plan.

Adequate Progress

See the next question.

Grade-level proficiency

• In grade 3, Wis. Stat. §§ 118.016 states that a student must score at grade-level on the reading portion of the Wisconsin Forward exam in grade 3 (118.016(5)(d)). Therefore, in grade 3, grade-level proficiency is determined by the student’s performance on the reading portion of the Wisconsin Forward exam in grade 3.

For 5K through grade 2, Wis. Stat. §§ 118.016 does not define grade-level proficiency. Therefore, local education agencies (LEAs) may determine the exact definition of grade-level proficiency. DPI recommends using multiple early literacy data sources, including tools that are highly technically adequate.

How is “adequate rate of progress” defined?

For 5K and grades 1 - 3, Wis. Stat. §§ 118.016 requires that the following be taken into consideration when determining whether a student is making adequate progress and likely to demonstrate grade-level skills by the end of the school year:

• in 5K, nonword or nonsense word fluency and phoneme segmentation; in grades 1-2, oral reading fluency;
• and in grade 3, proficiency in oral reading fluency and on the state summative reading assessment.

LEAs have the authority to select and implement the tool(s) they believe are best to measure nonword or nonsense word fluency, phoneme segmentation, and oral reading fluency and should consult the manuals of those tools to determine whether adequate rate of progress has been achieved.

What does “progress monitoring” mean here? Is it the same kind of progress monitoring required for special education evaluation when considering a specific learning disability?

Act 20 requires that schools monitor student reading development progress weekly. The term “progress monitoring” here does not have the same meaning as progress monitoring required for special education evaluation when considering specific learning disability. Some form of weekly progress monitoring is required and must be outlined in a child’s personalized reading plan. At some point, progress monitoring must demonstrate the student's progress toward the goals described above. Local education agencies (public schools and independent charter schools) will determine the most appropriate method of monitoring a child’s reading development progress and describe that process in their local early literacy remediation plan.

What if information gathered through diagnostic assessment does not indicate a need for a personal reading plan? (updated 9/24/24)

Wis. Stat. §§ 118.016 requires that any student who scores below the 25th percentile on the universal screener (administered in 5K through grade 3) be engaged in diagnostic assessment. Data from universal screening, diagnostic assessment, and other sources (including a family history survey) informs the student’s personal reading plan.

While Wisconsin’s universal screening tool (aimswebPlus) is valid, reliable, and likely to identify students who are not yet meeting grade-level reading expectations, there may be times when a student’s performance on the screener is not an accurate representation of their literacy skills. For example, a student’s screener score indicates they are “at-risk”, but data from diagnostic assessments show the student is meeting expectations.

When there is a discrepancy between a student’s screening and diagnostic assessment performance, DPI recommends the following:

• having local decision rules and policies about how to proceed when a student’s diagnostic assessment does not confirm the level of risk indicated by the screener;
• involving families and caregivers as meaningful partners in understanding a student’s reading ability and the need for a personal reading plan;
• considering the personal reading plan as one part of a continuum of supports for reading; matching the intensity of supports in universal instruction, reading intervention, and/or progress monitoring with a student’s level of need;
• and articulating all school or district policies in the local early literacy remediation plan (including processes and procedures used when a student’s screener performance does not match information from diagnostic assessment).

If diagnostic assessment and other data do not indicate a need for a personal reading plan, a district could proceed in any of the following ways; this list is not exhaustive:

• write a personal reading plan focused on goals and benchmarks relevant to universal instruction and including weekly progress monitoring;
• with the agreement of parents/caregivers and conclusive data, provide reading supports (including intervention and progress monitoring) at a less intensive level than what is required in the personal reading plan;
• with the agreement of parents/caregivers and conclusive data, create a plan for progress monitoring and reviewing and sharing of data in order to ensure the student is meeting expectations; or
• with the agreement of parents/caregivers and conclusive data, do not proceed with a personal reading plan.

What if a student continues to score at or below the 25th percentile on administrations of the universal screener? or What if, despite high-quality implementation of a personal reading plan, a student is not making adequate progress in reading? (Updated 9/24/24)

The screener must be administered fall, spring, and midyear. Diagnostic assessment and a personal reading plan occur the first time a student scores below the 25th percentile in a particular school year. If the student scores below the 25th percentile a second or third time in the same school year, additional diagnostic assessment and/or modifications to the personal reading are necessary.

A team that includes educators and parents or caregivers can adjust the intensity of a personal reading plan at any time. For example, if data collected over 10 weeks (as required by Wis. Stat. §§ 118.016) shows minimal progress, the team can and should adjust the goals, benchmarks, instruction, and progress monitoring detailed in the personal reading plan. This could include, but is not limited to:

• engaging the student in additional diagnostic assessment with assessments that provide more in-depth information about a student’s area(s) of need;
• ensuring there is an evidence-based match between the student’s unique strengths and needs and the instructional strategies or interventions being used;
• intensifying the intervention by increasing time or frequency and decreasing group size;
• investigating and minimizing factors that may influence the impact of the intervention (such as attendance, mental health, social emotional learning, vision, or hearing);
• adjusting who is providing interventions, ensuring the most highly qualified educator is providing instruction.

Legally, if an educator suspects a child has a disability, the educator must make a special education referral. Further, schools may not allow a child to languish in intervention, making no or minimal adjustments to intervention and universal instruction despite a student’s lack of progress.