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Delaware Senate Democrats

Senate Bill 4 (S)

Laura V. Sturgeon
Senate Bill 4 (S)

A retired public school teacher who now chairs the Senate Education Committee, Sen. Laura Sturgeon led the way in assisting our public school to raise lagging literacy rates among Delaware students by shifting the state’s reading instruction to evidence-based curricula that focuses on a child’s cognitive development.

Passed unanimously by both the Senate and the House, Senate Bill 4 (S) instructed the Delaware Department of Education to publish a list of evidence-based reading instruction curricula prior to the 2022-2023 school year.

The bill also instructed district and charter schools to adopt one or more of the evidence-based curricula published by DOE by the 2027-2028 school year.

This bill works in conjunction with Senate Concurrent Resolution 82 sponsored by Sen. Sturgeon to help the Department of Education assess how best to adapt teacher certification requirements to align with evidence-based approaches to reading.

Legislative Highlights


Senate Bill 56


Recognizing that students with more intensive needs require greater support in the classroom, Governor John Carney in 2019 announced he was allocating $60 million over three years in one-time funding to help Delaware’s public schools better support English language learners […]

Senate Bill 56

Senate Bill 133


Continuing her focus on helping Delaware public schools provide evidence-based reading instruction proven to raise lagging literacy rates, Sen. Sturgeon ushered Senate Bill 133 through the Delaware General Assembly with unanimous support in both the Senate and the House. To […]

Senate Bill 133

Senate Bill 78 (S)


To better protect students from harm, Sen. Sturgeon passed legislation in 2021 to close loopholes in Delaware law that once allowed people convicted of crimes against children to run for a seat on their local school board and permitted sitting […]

Senate Bill 78 (S)