STATE FUNDING GUIDE

Arizona

Arizona attaches real money to its K-3 reading requirements: the legislature appropriates roughly $45 million annually in Move On When Reading funds — averaging about $145 per K-3 student — that schools may spend on staffing, instructional materials, assessments, and professional development, contingent on an approved K-3 literacy plan. A separate Early Literacy Grant flows automatically (no application) to eligible schools serving at-risk K-3 populations. For intervention purchases, K-3 intervention programs must meet ESSA evidence tiers 1-3 and appear on ADE’s vetted list, or the school’s literacy plan risks conditional approval and eventual loss of MOWR funds.

Move On When Reading (A.R.S. 15-701 / 15-704)

How schools fund reading intervention in Arizona

The state-level programs below are the streams Arizona districts most often use for evidence-based reading intervention purchases, alongside the federal streams available everywhere.

Move On When Reading (MOWR) K-3 reading program funding

Annual legislative appropriation of approximately $45M statewide (about $145 per K-3 student on average) for early reading instruction — staffing, instructional materials, assessments, and PD — released to schools with an approved K-3 literacy plan.

Early Literacy Grant (ELG)

Entitlement funding (no application required) for eligible schools serving at-risk K-3 populations, spendable on the school’s literacy goals and initiatives; recipients file an annual report by June 1.

Approved-list note: ADE maintains a vetted intervention program list under A.R.S. 15-704 — K-3 intervention programs must demonstrate ESSA Tier 1-3 evidence, and schools using non-vetted curricula receive conditional literacy-plan approval and can lose MOWR funding after two consecutive years.

Official state resource →