Students at a young age who are having difficulty in reading skills will be vastly helped to improve their reading ability thanks to a state grant recently awarded to the Clinton County Schools, specifically to be used at Albany Elementary School starting next year.

A grant, the “Read to Achieve” initiative that the district has been awarded in the past was once again funded by the Kentucky Department of Education, according to Instructional Supervisor Paula Little.

The grant will award $50,000 per year over a five-year period to help elementary school students who are struggling with reading.

Little announced the awarding of the grant on Monday, noting that Sabra Albertson, who is trained in Reading Recovery, will work with students on a one on one and small group basis, helping young children develop essential literary reading skills.

“I’m thrilled that the Kentucky Department of Education recognized the hard work our district has put into our reading intervention plan and high quality of work that (Sabra) Albertson does,” said Little.

The grants, which are awarded on a school by school basis rather than district-wide, had over 300 applications turned in for funding, with AES being one of the few elementary schools in the state being awarded the grant.

“We were fortunate to be able to obtain this grant for our elementary school students,” Little commented.

She added the idea behind the state grant initiative funded through KDE was to help our younger students improve their reading skills now so it will carry on as they progress through middle and high school.

The newly implemented program will take effect with the next 2017-18 school year and students who are deemed in need of assistance from the reading recovery program will be determined in a variety of ways, including reading assessments to determine which students need help.

The reading recovery program will be done during school hours and not involve any after school tutoring unless in the event of a special type activity is planned for students in the program.