PALs

Phonological Awareness Literacy Screening (PALS)

State-wide screening for early signs of reading difficulties has occurred in the Commonwealth of Virginia since 1997 and is guided under the legislative mandate called the Early Intervention Reading Initiative (EIRI; 1997 Virginia Acts of Assembly, Chapter 924, Item 140; http://leg1.state.va.us/cgi-bin/legp504.exe?971+bud+21-140). EIRI requires that students attending public school in Virginia are screened for signs of reading difficulty at four mandatory timepoints across K-2 (fall and spring of kindergarten, spring of first grade, and spring of second grade for students who are not exempt because of high performance). Additionally, testing in the fall of third grade is mandatory for students failing to meet the screening threshold (i.e., "PALS benchmark") in the spring of second grade.