STATE FUNDING GUIDE

New York

Governor Hochul’s Back to Basics plan, enacted in the FY 2025 state budget, required every district to certify to the State Education Department by September 2025 that its reading curriculum and instructional strategies align with evidence-based, science-of-reading best practices. The budget funded $10 million in professional learning to train up to 20,000 educators, and NYSED has published a P-3 Literacy Instructional Best Practices Guide and a K-3 curriculum review guide to support district decisions. No dedicated state literacy fund for purchasing intervention curriculum was identified; districts typically fund intervention purchases through Foundation Aid and federal Title I/IDEA, with the certification requirement providing the rationale for replacing non-aligned materials.

Back to Basics Reading Plan (FY 2025 enacted budget) and the NYSED Literacy Initiative

How schools fund reading intervention in New York

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

Back to Basics professional learning investment

The FY 2025 enacted budget’s $10 million supports training educators in science-of-reading instructional practices; districts can pair this state-supported PD with locally funded (Foundation Aid, Title I, IDEA) purchases of aligned Tier 2/3 intervention curriculum.

Foundation Aid plus federal Title I/IDEA (default funding path)

No dedicated state literacy grant for curriculum purchases was identified for 2024-2026, so New York districts generally budget intervention materials through general Foundation Aid and federal Title I/IDEA set-asides, citing the September 2025 science-of-reading certification requirement as justification.

Approved-list note: New York has no state-approved curriculum or intervention list — NYSED states all curriculum decisions are local — but districts had to certify science-of-reading alignment to SED by September 2025, and NYSED offers an optional K-3 Literacy Curriculum Review Guide for vetting materials.

Official state resource →