There is created in the Department of Education the Just Read, Florida! Office. The office shall be fully accountable to the Commissioner of Education and shall:(1) Train highly effective reading coaches.
(2) Create multiple designations of effective reading instruction, with accompanying credentials, which encourage all teachers to integrate reading instruction into their content areas.
(3) Train K-12 teachers and school principals on effective content-area-specific reading strategies. For secondary teachers, emphasis shall be on technical text. These strategies must be developed for all content areas in the K-12 curriculum.
(4) Provide parents with information and strategies for assisting their children in reading in the content area.
(5) Provide technical assistance to school districts in the development and implementation of district plans for use of the research-based reading instruction allocation provided in s. 1011.62(9) and annually review and approve such plans. (6) Review, evaluate, and provide technical assistance to school districts’ implementation of the K-12 comprehensive reading plan required in s. 1011.62(9). (7) Work with the Florida Center for Reading Research to provide information on research-based reading programs and effective reading in the content area strategies.
(8) Periodically review the Sunshine State Standards for reading at all grade levels.
(9) Periodically review teacher certification examinations, including alternative certification exams, to ascertain whether the examinations measure the skills needed for research-based reading instruction and instructional strategies for teaching reading in the content areas.
(10) Work with teacher preparation programs approved pursuant to s. 1004.04 to integrate research-based reading instructional strategies and reading in the content area instructional strategies into teacher preparation programs. (11) Administer grants and perform other functions as necessary to meet the goal that all students read at grade level.
