To the Administrator Addressed (TAA) Correspondence
House Bill (HB) 2, 89th Regular Session, 2025, required the () to establish lists of approved assessment instruments for K-3 literacy and numeracy. To support local planning and procurement before implementation requirements begin in the 2027–2028 school year, is publishing the lists of foundational literacy and numeracy instruments under Texas Education Code (TEC), with provisional approval status. The instruments can be found on the Commissioner’s List of Provisionally Approved Foundational Literacy and Numeracy Instruments.
The instruments included on these lists have been granted provisional approval at this stage of implementation. Provisional approval is intended to provide school systems with information about available assessment options while continues implementation activities related to HB 2 requirements.
Vendors are responsible for maintaining an instrument's provisional approval status. To do so, vendors must continue to meet all applicable statutory, regulatory, programmatic, and administrative requirements; comply with requests and directives; provide information, documentation, and other support requested by ; participate in required validation, comparability, and alignment activities; and address identified issues within timelines established by .
An instrument may be revised, suspended, or removed from a provisional approved list if a vendor does not fulfill these responsibilities, if the instrument does not satisfy applicable comparability or alignment expectations, or if other circumstances require action under applicable law, rule, agency process, or program requirements.
recognizes that school systems will need to make procurement decisions before all implementation activities have been completed. The instruments included on the provisionally approved lists are expected to remain available for use by school systems as long as vendors continue to satisfy applicable requirements and maintain their approval status. However, because provisional approval is contingent upon ongoing participation in implementation activities, school systems should consider the possibility that an instrument's approval status could change if a vendor does not meet applicable requirements or if the instrument does not satisfy 's established expectations for comparability, alignment, or other program requirements.
To help manage this risk, recommends that school systems:
School systems remain responsible for ensuring that any instrument used to meet requirements appears on the applicable -approved list at the time of administration.
For additional information, please refer to the Foundational Literacy and Numeracy Instruments Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ).
, as established by HB 2, requires school systems to administer commissioner-approved foundational literacy and numeracy instruments to all K–3 students. Beginning in the 2027–2028 school year, school systems must select and administer instruments from the commissioner-approved foundational literacy and foundational numeracy instrument lists outlined in the following sections.
School systems will administer these instruments according to the following schedule:
These requirements are different from BOY kindergarten reading readiness requirements under . For more information regarding kindergarten reading readiness, see the Kindergarten Reading Readiness section below.
All provisionally approved foundational literacy instruments available for use in kindergarten and grade 1 include the required dyslexia screening elements. School systems should administer HB 2-aligned dyslexia screening under , following the foundational literacy instrument administration schedule.
Kindergarten students must be screened for dyslexia at MOY and EOY. Grade 1 students must be screened for dyslexia at BOY, MOY, and EOY.
School systems may plan to administer a single approved foundational literacy instrument to meet both foundational literacy and dyslexia screening requirements whenever possible. Foundational literacy instrument vendors will provide data to for dyslexia screening purposes in addition to foundational literacy reporting.
Under Texas law, Grade 3 students are subject to both the HB 2 foundational literacy and numeracy instrument requirements and the HB 8 SST requirements during BOY and MOY administration windows.
To minimize duplicate testing, school systems administering SST during Grade 3 BOY and MOY windows may use that assessment to satisfy both HB 2 and HB 8 administration and reporting requirements.
An alternative SST provider may satisfy HB 2 requirements only if it is also approved as a foundational literacy instrument and/or a foundational numeracy instrument. For a list of providers that have been approved for both purposes, review the “Grade 3 Testing Overlap with HB 8 Requirements” section on the Early Learning Assessment Requirements and Approved Instruments webpage.
School systems using an alternative SST provider that is not approved for foundational literacy and numeracy usage must administer separate approved foundational literacy and numeracy instruments and report those results to .
Kindergarten reading readiness requirements under are separate from HB 2 foundational literacy and numeracy instrument requirements.
School systems must continue to administer a commissioner-approved kindergarten reading readiness instrument at the beginning of the school year to all kindergarten students to meet administration and reporting requirements.
Additional information regarding commissioner-approved kindergarten reading readiness instruments for use in the 2027–2028 school year will be communicated in the near future.